Last Tuesday, the Asia Pacific Law Association of McGill (APLAM) hosted Pitman Potter for a lecture on the criminal case of Bo Xilai and the political and legal issues that surround it. Bo Xilai, a former Chinese politician who is now at the centre of the country’s biggest political scandal in decades.

Potter is a legal professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and HSBC Chair in Asian Research at UBC’s Institute of Asian Research. Holding advanced degrees in political science, law, and theology, Potter’s research focuses on Chinese trade and investment, dispute resolution, intellectual property, and human rights.

Known for both his charisma and ruthless ambition, Bo Xilai served as the Communist Party secretary of the Chongqing municipality until March, when he was removed from his post. Allegations against Bo include corruption and abuse of power. In August, his wife Gu Kailai was found guilty in the murder of Neil Heywood, a British citizen and family friend of the Bo’s. On Friday, the Chinese news agency Xinhua announced that a formal criminal investigation into Bo Xilai’s actions is underway.

In his lecture, Potter used the Bo Xilai scandal to exemplify the many ways in which political, social, and legal processes interact in China, which often differ from these interactions in the West. Much of the talk focused on dichotomies in the Chinese system, such as balancing guanxi (personal connections) with the desire for a legitimate and objective legal system.

“Guanxi tends to be a gap-filler for the imperfections in the regulatory system,” Potter said. “There has always been this tension between how much you can bind officials by formal regulations, and how much you allow officials to have discretion in their decision-making, based on their training [and on] on their virtue.”

Another debate involves the health of markets versus public well-being.

“China places great attention on the right to development and the right to subsistence … which invites us to think about what sort of development [we are] talking about,” Potter said. “Are we talking about accumulation, or are we talking about distribution?”

Potter also highlighted the ways in which Western norms deviate from traditional Chinese social practices.

“If we look at the governance structures of [international institutions], they tend to be driven by European and North American norms of liberalism,” he said. “But that norm … is not universal. And it certainly [is] not traditional in China.”

“In the liberal paradigm, governments are responsible to the people,” he added. “In China, governments are responsible for the people.”

According to Potter, corruption is one aspect that is different in Chinese culture from Western cultural norms.

“We need to understand the embeddedness of [corruption],” he said. “And we need to understand without making value judgements … I think we have to look at local conditions, and we have to be very careful not to be judgemental about it because there’s a discourse in the West that says ‘all corruption is bad’ … I’m not saying it’s good, but I think we have to be really careful in understanding the embeddedness of this in a historical context.”

Many audience members reacted positively to the lecture. Colin Monk, third-year law, was particularly interested in Potter’s argument of the need to contextualize corruption.

“I liked when he was talking about how we should not understand corruption and transparency through our Western eyes,” Monk said. “We shouldn’t judge corruption as an [automatically] bad thing.”

Kai Shan, a second year law student and Vice-President Events for APLAM, said she approved of Potter’s method of inquiry, noting that his approach was “explanatory … instead of a judgmental one.”

“I really liked how Professor Potter used the Bo Xilai case to … contextualize the legal system of China,” Shan said.

Potter also offered some recommendations for those seeking to work and live in China.

“Always be [alert] to the fact that local conditions are not going to fit neatly into our little conceptual frameworks—and that’s a powerful and liberating experience.”