Yeah, many thanks again for this opportunity to give giving this talk in particular to

such a diverse group.

My experience is if you have such a diverse audience, it's always interesting when later

that comes to discussions and questions because everyone sees the topic from a different angle,

slightly different perspective.

And this is one of the things I usually share as a small secret with my students that I

say, well, this presentation or presentations like this, this is not only an occasion where

the students are learning something from me, it's always also an occasion where I can learn

a lot from the students.

So I'm very much looking forward to our later discussion.

But before we come to this, I have prepared a short talk and the talk comes also this

small presentation, which I hope is starting now.

I hope everyone can see the slides now.

So as it was already said, the topic for tonight is China, the rule of law as a pillar of reform

and opening up.

And the reason for choosing this topic is that I have a lower background, but the group

as such, it's not a group of lawyers, but for you, I thought it's more interesting to

speak about law in context and the question, what is law actually doing?

What role is law playing in modernizing China?

So this is why I try to bring these two things together, the rule of law and legal reform

on the one hand and opening up and economic reform on the other.

What I will present tonight, it's not the eternal truth.

It's my personal space on my personal experience in China over the past years.

It is based on what I've seen.

It is based on the talks I've had with Chinese colleagues, Chinese friends, German friends

in China, both with a business background and with legal background.

So it is not meant to be a comprehensive set of information which is answering all the

questions, but it is more a collection of ideas and impressions.

This is how I want to have it understood.

I want to talk about this topic in basically four steps.

First, I want to give a short overview of China in the 20th century.

So about what are we actually speaking when we speak about China in the 20th century,

legal development in China over the past 40, 50, 60 years.

What's the background of the reform and opening up policy?

Why is it important to develop the rule of law in China?

So this is a little bit background information, a little bit more general context.

In the second step, I want to speak about the reform and opening up process, reform

and opening up policy.

This is more in an economic perspective or social economic perspective.

And then in the third step, I want to shed some light on the rule of law and the rule

of law as a precondition for further reform, for enhanced reform in the upcoming years

and development or what it means for the development of modern legal system in China.

And as a fourth point, then after me speaking for maybe 50 minutes, we will have, I hope,

plenty of time for discussing your questions.

Chinese social development in the 20th century can be characterized by basically two words,

changes and disruptions.

I think this is the best terms you can use for describing the development in China over

the past 100 years or so, 120 years.

Because China developed in different stages, faced different challenges, went through different

social economic models before we find the China we see now, China in its present shape