7 - The Rhetoric of Law

Summary

While notions of law signify little to ordinary Chinese taxpayers, they matter a great deal for political actors. Deconstructing the political rhetoric of law requires a reflective account of law. Chapter 7 begins with the idea that every legal system must have certain rules of recognition: commonly known criteria for determining which social norms are legal norms. Such a set of rules exists in China, but the government mostly bypasses the use of legal instruments. This disuse of law fundamentally marginalizes the roles of China’s legislative bodies and courts, without the need for direct subversion of their operations. Along with the marginalization of law comes selective, political invocations of law: I offer numerous examples from policies on the PIT, CIT and property taxation from recent years. This political rhetoric of law stands in contrast to the government’s invocations of law during the 1980s, when the concept of law in taxation conveyed the notions of consistency, the legitimate use of the state’s coercive power, and social norms of compliance. After China found substitutes for law in the tax administration practices that evolved since the 1990s, however, law became relegated largely to political discourse.