Bai Tongdong

Bai Tongdong (Chinese: 白彤东) is a Confucian intellectual and professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Biography

Bai is a professor at Fudan University.: 122  Bai is also affiliated with New York University.

Bai was the first Chinese academic appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Views and works

Bai is viewed as a leading contemporary Chinese scholar on Confucian political meritocracy.: 122  Bai is associated with "political Confucianism" rather than New Confucianism.

Bai contends Confucian political meritocracy is superior to Western democracy.: 67  According to Bai, China should embrace its meritocratic tradition, rather than Westernization, in order to have a successful political future.: 7 

Bai is the author of Against Political Equality. The text contends that an overemphasis on the principle of "one person, one vote" can lead to illiberal democratisation and that the more important priority is liberalism "in the form of rule of law and the protections of liberties and rights". Bai writes that the ideal legislature would be composed of a lower house elected by popular voter and an upper house whose members are elected by non-democratic means like examination or recommendation based on experience.: 264 

Bai's text China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom contends that China in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States period had a social and political situation similar to that of modern Europe, and the Chinese philosophy of the period can be viewed as a kind of modern philosophy.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Li, He (2025). Democracy Through The Lens of Chinese Scholars: The Battle of Ideas. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 979-8-8558-0421-8.
  2. ↑ "'A dose of Confucianism can protect the rule of law from populism' – MO*". MO* Magazine. Archived from the original on 2026-10-20. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  3. ↑ "Chinese philosopher joins papal academy - UCA News". ucanews.com. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  4. ↑ Makeham, John (2013). "China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom, by Tongdong Bai. London: Zed Books, 2012. viii + 206 pp. £65.00/US$116.95 (hardcover), £16.99/US$29.95 (paperback)". The China Journal. 70. The University of Chicago Press: 253–255. doi:10.1086/671291.
  5. 1 2 "Do hierarchies lead to a stronger society?". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  6. ↑ Kim, Sungmoon (2021). "Introduction - Tongdong Bai, Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. Pp. 344.)". The Review of Politics. 83 (2): 264–266. doi:10.1017/S0034670520000972. ISSN 0034-6705.
  7. ↑ Elstein, David (2014). "China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom by Bai Tongdong (review)". Philosophy East and West. 64 (2): 513–515. doi:10.1353/pew.2014.0032. ISSN 1529-1898.