During the F. Y. Chang Foundation’s twenty-year celebration, Cam Cowan, the managing partner of Orrick’s Washington DC office which co-hosted the event, opened a panel discussion with a set of slogans: in 1978, Deng Xiaoping’s slogan was “only capitalism can save China;” 30 years later, it has been replaced by “only China can save capitalism.”

A big laugh and applause from the audience—true, humor has the function of diminishing anxiety. Recently the Americans had been worrying about the financial crisis, and the US government was trying to grasp any straw, including flattering China for its economic achievement in exchange of Chinese government’s cooperation in handling the financial crisis. Indeed, not far away from Orrick’s conference room, the US government was hosting the G20 leader’s meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on board.

Yet these slogans, in a self-mockery tune, did catch some contrast of the American’s perception of China decades ago and that of today. In 1978, American viewed China’s opening-up as a gesture to seek wisdom from the West to reform its economy; in 2008, American expected China to help bail out its troubled financial sector. In the mood of self-examination, Americans seemed to become much more open—even went so far to search for wisdom from China, which had been once heavily criticized by Americans for its poor regulation of market yet perhaps the only one not hit hardly by the global crisis.

For the F.Y. Chang fellows—Chinese legal scholars and practitioners sitting on the panel and some among the audience—the message meant more of a polite gesture from a humble host than anything serious. As accomplished legal scholars or active participants of China’s legal reform, they did not consider China had anything to boast at this point. They saw China still had a long way to go. Former Tsinghua Law School Dean Wan Chenguang, for instance, pointed out the serious challenges of judicial independence facing China during the “Rule of Law” panel discussion. From the market regulation panel, Shen Yuanyuan’s analysis of the food safety issue made the case even clearer: despite strict laws issued and inspections required, Sanlu and other toxic food products had slipped through and harmed consumers worldwide—and law suits against the producer was barred by the government.

The fellows meanwhile did recognize the progress made on the Rule of Law in China. Professor Liang Zhiping, for instance, presented to the panel a report on China law development—a database with measurable indicators, such as the number of litigations against government, legal professionals in urban and rural China, and courses provided by Chinese legal education institutes. In tangible ways it showed how much China has moving towards the Rule of Law. Sun Qiuning, one of the newest F.Y. Chang fellows and a practicing lawyer, reviewed China’s recent regulatory changes of foreign invested firms—China obviously is now taking a more flexible way compared with its tight control thirty years ago.

The progress on the Rule of Law in China was made through efforts from many legal scholars, as Julia and Stuart Bloch—the founders of F.Y. Chang Foundation—witnessed in the past two decades. Once upon a time just to speak up for the Rule of Law was highly challenging—even dangerous. It was not entirely true that “only capitalism can save China” was Deng’s slogan in 1978, despite his embracing of capitalism, since scholars would run into serious trouble of being labeled as “capitalist liberalists” when they spoke for the Rule of Law. They also faced many other challenges such as the lack of laws, the lack of institutions to implement laws, and cultural biases against the Rule of Law.

It was in this sense that the F.Y. Chang Foundation (through the US-China Education Trust program) shaped China’s progress towards the Rule of Law. The Blochs, with a strong commitment to promote the Rule of Law in China, established the foundation to sponsor Chinese scholars for their legal education.

The Blochs’ vision for the Rule of Law in China came from Mr. Fuyun Chang, after whose name the Foundation was named. Mr. Fuyun Chang was the first Chinese Harvard Law School graduate, a legendary figure of the Republic of China and Julia Bloch’s father. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1917 and served China with his legal expertise ever since. F.Y. Chang played a central role in the recovery of Chinese control over the Customs Service. Given that the British had controlled Chinese Customs Service since shortly after the Opium War, using it to pay for the war compensation that the British believed Chinese government owed to them, “the recovery of Customs represented a major milestone in China’s re-assertion of its sovereignty in both actual and symbolic terms.”(Professor William Alford’s opening remark.) After recovering the Customs, Mr. Chang served as Customs Commissioner for twice. He also was “a key advisor to the Chinese delegation to the San Francisco conference that led to the establishment of the United Nation, Served as deputy Chair of the Chinese delegation to the Havana conference that produced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and was a member of the Chinese delegation to the Yalta conference with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.” (Professor William Alford’s opening remark.)

Had F.Y. Chang seen these fellows coming to join the symposium in Washington DC, he would have been pleased. The F.Y. Chang fellows, selected through the East Asian Legal Studies of Harvard Law School, became truly China’s legal elites. The Foundation sponsored some 50 fellows in the past two decades. Some fellows now become law school deans—Fang Liufang and Li Shuguang at China University of Political Science and Law, Wang Chenguang and Wang Zhenmin at Tsinghua, Zhu Suli at Beijing University, Wang Liming at Renmin University; there are also distinguished scholars—Liang Zhiping from CASS, He Weifang and Zhang Qi from Beijing University, Yu Xingzhong from Hong Kong Chinese University, Shen Yuanyuan from Harvard University, and Zang Dongsheng from Washington University in Seattle—and governmental officials such as Xin Cunyig of the Standing Committee of the NPC, Xia Yong of the President’s Office, Li Bo of the People’s Bank, and Peng Gaojian of the State Council.

Mr. Chang Fuyun would be more pleased to see both the fellows’ strong commitment to the Rule of Law and their patriotism as shown in their academic research, public service or legal practice. Most of the fellows has stayed on the forefront of promoting the Rule of Law in China, as they believe whole-heartedly that it will help China’s development. At one point during the symposium, fellows on the panel were asked by one from the audience about the Chinese characteristics (Zhong Te). They responded almost unanimously that it was China’s commitment to the Rule of Law—not Zhong Te which was often used as an excuse to defy the Rule of Law—that held the future of China. Of course the Rule of Law itself, as Professor Zang Dongsheng commented, might be abused, but it would only urge them on with even more efforts towards a genuine Rule of Law in China.

Professor William Alford, the Vice Dean of Harvard Law School and a prominent scholar of Chinese law, asked the F.Y. Chang fellows a question during a panel discussion: are there suggestions you have for the president elective Obama as to how to foster a strong relationship between the U.S. and China? The question was of great interest for the audience from the U.S., yet unfortunately not directly answered by the F.Y. Chang fellows. Maybe due to their inborn politeness, the fellows considered it pretentious to tell their American friends how to run the country even in such a friendly setting.

The fellows did answer Professor Alford’s question, however, in an indirect way. Since many of them expressed their commitment to the Rule of Law in various discussions, the message conveyed to their U.S. friends was clear: that the U.S. continues to help China establish the Rule of Law would be China’s best interest, and it would foster a strong relationship between the U.S. and China.  I think this answer would satisfy Professor Alford, Julia Bloch and other U.S. friends who care for China. It is the commitment to the Rule of Law that has formed a strong tie between China and the U.S., and it will continue to unite the two great nations to answer to the challenges of our time.