VATICAN-CHINA A Chinese political philosopher at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

Among the new members appointed by the Pope is Professor Bai Tongdong, who teaches at Shanghai’s Fudan University and contrasts the “egalitarian” model of Western democracies with Confucian political thought. And precisely the understanding of the “Chinese model from its own perspective” will be the central theme of the next workshop of the Vatican organization at the end of June.

Vatican City () – Pope Francis has appointed a Chinese academic for the first time among the ordinary members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the consultative body created by John Paul II in 1994 to help the Holy See reflect on topics related to economics, sociology, law and political science. Among the three new academics the Vatican announced today is Professor Bai Tongdong, 53, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at Shanghai Fudan University, as well as at New York University School of Law. The other two new members will be American sociologist Justin Farrell and Australian theologian Tracey Anne Patrice Rowland.

In addition to being another sign of Pope Francis’ attention to China, the inclusion of this young Chinese professor in the body now chaired by Sister Helen Alford – and which currently includes economists such as Mario Draghi, Jeffrey Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz or philosophers and jurists such as Rocco Buttiglione, Christoph Engel and Niraja Gopal Jayal, from India- is also significant for the specific profile of the studies carried out by Professor Bai Tongdong. “Master Bai” -as his students call him in China- was born in Beijing in 1970. He received a doctorate in philosophy from Boston, and is dedicated to the study of political theories based on Confucian thought. In recent years he has been a privileged interlocutor at Western universities for the study of the Chinese model. His best-known work is a 2019 book published by Princeton University under the title “Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case.” The thesis that he defends -and which is obviously controversial- is that the egalitarianism that liberal democracies have proclaimed as a value sometimes conflicts with the common good. While the Confucian philosophy -with its synthesis of unity and compassion- would offer a more universally applicable approach to societies and to international relations themselves.

Therefore, it seems clear how this appointment is intertwined with the great issue of the relationship between freedom, autocracies and the common good that the projection of Xi Jinping’s China on a global scale poses to the international community. It is no coincidence that within a few weeks China will be the central theme of a workshop on “Dialogue between civilizations and the common good” that the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences will hold in Rome on June 27 and 28. The stated goal of the meeting is to understand Beijing “not through the lens of external sources, but from its own perspective,” assessing “the social, cultural, political, and economic characteristics of contemporary China, the impact of its global politics, and its compliance with international obligations and standards.