Chinese scholar Jiang Ping, who helped lay legal foundation for market economy, dies at 93

Jiang Ping, a prominent law scholar who helped build the legislative foundation for China’s market economy, died in Beijing on Tuesday. He was 93.

Jiang was also known to many as the “conscience” of the legal profession in China and for his advocacy for the rule of law.

Born in Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 1930, Jiang went to Beijing in 1948 to study journalism at Yenching University, whose motto was “Freedom through truth for service”.

Two years later, Jiang was among the first group of Chinese students sent to Moscow. He excelled at his studies, graduating from the University of Moscow’s law school a year early in 1956.

Jiang went on to teach and research civil and commercial law at the Beijing College of Political Science and Law.

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But in 1957, events in China again took over and Jiang was caught up in Mao Zedong’s Anti-Rightist Campaign.

He was labelled as a “rightist” for his political commentary and sent to a labour camp on the outskirts of Beijing. His wife left him, and he was also badly injured in a train accident that left him with a prosthetic leg.

In 1959, he was sent back to Beijing to teach Russian at the political science and law college and later in a high school.

For nearly 20 years, Jiang could only teach Russian because of the political turmoil in China. It was only when the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 that he was allowed to teach law again.

The college became the China University of Political Science and Law, and in 1984 Jiang was named its vice-president and four years later its president.

Jiang was, however, allowed to stay on as a professor at the university. He went on to help draft key legislation – including corporate, trust, contract and property laws – as the country pushed forward with market reforms.

He had also played a pivotal role in drafting China’s Civil Code in 1986, and the Administrative Procedure Law in 1989.

Jiang was an advocate for the rule of law, and raised issues including the unequal protection given to state property versus private property.

He supported the Communist Party’s rule, yet he also expressed concerns over its interference in judicial affairs.

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In an oral autobiography published when he was 80, Jiang said he cherished independent and critical thinking.

He had told students in a speech at the Beijing university in 1994 that they should only “bow to the truth”.

And when he retired, he reportedly said: “What I can do for society is to keep making open calls for the legal concepts and laws that a modern China must develop.”

Jiang’s funeral will be held at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing on Saturday, according to state media reports.