Confucianism Versus Liberalism Over Minority Rights: A Critical Responses to Will Kymlicka

Abstract

Minority issues pose problems for all political rulers and major ideologies, including liberalism and Confucianism. Confucianism as a political philosophy had a rich experience in dealing with minority issues and accumulated substantial knowledge about them, for it had, particularly during the Yuan and Qing dynasties, confronted the invasion of minorities from the North and West, the question of controlling minority areas effectively, and the question of how to deal with the minority rule over China. Today, Beijing endorses minority rights and faces the question of how to honor its commitment to minority rights.