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Chapter 4.Presumption of Untrustworthiness (Guilt)

Section 1. Customs and Traditions

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Outline

• Introduction• Origins: historical and cultural • Influences: legal system, interpersonal

attitudes, and attitudes towards firms and governments

• Road Ahead

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Introduction

• One of the most problems in China today is a lack of trust among different entities

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Historical and Cultural Origins

• Legal system along the history Unlike the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”, the basic underlying philosophy of POU is that it is better for the legal system to wrongly convict a person than to let a real criminal go free.

E.g., Tang/Song Dynasty: practice of Probable Crime

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Historical and Cultural Origins

• Painful lessons learned during the Cultural Revolution

People didn’t dare to reveal truth to others in afraid of being in trouble.( even between e.g., brothers, wives and husbands, children and parents, friends etc. )

Not taking what other people say at face value, not disclosing honest opinions

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Historical and Cultural Origins

• Diverse and isolated subcultures

Isolated subcultures due to difficulties of travelling and understanding each other’s dialects make people suspicious of outsiders.

e.g., outsiders mean out of the group, family, subculture, state etc.

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Influences

• Legal system

A step forward in 1996 Criminal Procedural Law: “No person shall be found guilty without being judged as such by a People’s Court according to law.”

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Influences

• Legal system E.g. Case of She Xianglin

More specifically, in 2013, the Supreme Court released a document stating that justices officially abandoned the POU in favor of the presumption of innocence.

It will take time for the transformation.The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014

Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Influences

• Interpersonal Attitudes:e.g., Guiding principle taught to children: “You should not have a heart intended to hurt other people, but is always be alert to potential harm others will do to you.” (deeply ingrained)

e.g., informant: “The Americans and the Chinese are the opposites when it comes to trusting others….” It is really hard for the Chinese to build up the trust.

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Influences

• Interpersonal Attitudes:e.g., Qin Xiaoliang, a migrant worker who lost money e.g., the family did not trust to answer the 56 emergent calls by the friend of their drowned child e.g., a woman begged the driver not to kill her after a traffic accident

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Influences

• Attitudes towards firms and companies

e.g., evil merchants and corrupted official

Any evidence that validated POU can serve to perpetuate and strengthen the behaviors.

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)

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Road Ahead

POU is the social code ingrained into people’s mind. It will persist as a dominant guiding principle in China.

“Once bitten by a snake, one will be scared by the sight of a rope for ten years.”

The Chinese Way, Ding and Xu, 2014Chapter 4. Presumption of Untrustworthiness(Guilt)