In December 2006, an essay in the Beijing Daily carried a striking title: “Democracy is a Good Thing” (民主是个好东西). Its author, Yu Keping (俞可平), was then deputy director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau — a scholar inside the Party-state’s own research apparatus arguing, in print, that China needed democracy. The essay made him a prominent spokesman for a program he later developed into a full framework: incremental, orderly, managed democratic change rather than abrupt redesign.
Current position
Recent secondary material describes him as Chair Professor (讲席教授) at Peking University, Director of the Peking University Center for Chinese Political Studies (中国政治学研究中心), and — per a 2025 repost of the center’s anniversary material — Dean of the Shenzhen University School of Government. The 2025-era titles rest on a single secondary source and have not been independently confirmed; readers should treat them as reported, not established. His documented career arc through 2019 rests on institutional sources.
Positions at the time of key cited work
- “民主是个好东西” (Beijing Daily, December 2006): Deputy Director, Central Compilation and Translation Bureau (中共中央编译局副局长).
- Democracy Is a Good Thing (Brookings Institution Press, 2009): Deputy Director, CCTB.
- “The Case for an Orderly Democracy in China” (China-US Focus, ~2013): Deputy Director of the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Central Committee, and Professor of Politics at Peking University — per the essay’s own byline.
- Dean, Peking University School of Government, 2012–2019 (approx.): per the school’s official September 2019 teaching plan and faculty listing.
Field and expertise
Political science and political philosophy: democratic theory, “good governance” (善治), incremental and orderly democracy (增量民主／有序民主), consultative democracy, intra-party democracy, civil society, and government innovation. Relevant period: the 2000s to the present.
Major works
- “The Case for an Orderly Democracy in China” (China-US Focus, ~2013) — his fullest English-language statement of the orderly-democracy program, the “Five Corrects”: (1) correct direction — the organic unity of Party leadership, the people as masters of the country, and rule by law; (2) correct timing — neither too early nor too late; (3) correct approach — three routes: from intra-party democracy to socialized democracy (“the most cost-effective approach,” in his words), from community-level to higher-level democracy, and from minimum to greater competition; (4) correct methodology — six balances: democracy and rule of law; consultation and elections (“in no circumstances should we opt exclusively for consultation and shun competitive elections”); freedom and equality; efficiency and justice; participation and order; individual rights and public interests; (5) correct strategy — a central coordination body, Party and government reform in tandem, pilot projects, and intra-party democracy as the breakthrough point.
- Democracy Is a Good Thing (Brookings, 2009) — essay collection.
- “民主是个好东西” (Beijing Daily, December 2006) — the founding essay.
- China Media Project interview (April 2012): “to rule the country by law we must first rule the Party by law” (依法治国必先依法治党); government–people mutual governance (官民共治); social self-governance.
- Chinese works listed in his HKU biography include 《转型中的中国政治》(2016), 《论国家治理现代化》(2014), 《敬畏民意》(2012), 《民主与陀螺》(2006), 《思想解放与政治进步》(2007), and 《社群主义》(2000).
Documented positions (attributed to Yu Keping)
- Democracy as a good thing, carefully ordered. Democracy benefits the people, but “must not lead to social disorder” nor “bring suffering to the people”; reform must be orderly, correctly timed, methodologically balanced, and strategically planned.
- Incrementalism over big-bang. The path from intra-party democracy to socialized democracy is “the most cost-effective approach”; consultation must not exclude competitive elections — elections and competition are inside the program, not outside it.
- Party-by-law first. Ruling the Party by law is the precondition for ruling the country by law; government–people mutual governance (官民共治) is the route to good governance.
The gradualism debate
Yu is the inside-system gradualist in the gradualism debate: incremental, orderly, managed democracy — abrupt redesign is dangerous — versus Wang Tiancheng’s anti-gradualism, which holds that gradualism rests on faulty transition theory and that change must move fast and nationally. Both positions are recorded as attributed; neither is favored here.
Documented criticism (attributed, not asserted as fact about his work)
- Pan Wei criticized Yu’s incremental democracy as “political shows” — intra-party and grassroots elections as theater (reported in the Brookings volume’s introduction).
- New Left critics challenged the desirability and feasibility of democracy; New Right critics found Yu too timid (reported in the Brookings introduction).
What this entry does not cover
- His positions after 2019, under tighter political conditions, are not documented in the sources consulted.
- The 2025-era titles (chair professor, center director, Shenzhen dean) rest on one secondary source.
- The Chinese original of the 2006 essay was not located; Chinese-language quotations should be checked against the original.
Selected sources
- Yu Keping, “The Case for an Orderly Democracy in China,” China-US Focus: https://www.chinausfocus.com/society-culture/the-case-for-an-orderly-democracy-in-china (primary text)
- HKU biography PDF: http://www.socsc.hku.hk/ccspl/ykep/pdf/Biography.pdf (identity, career arc, representative works)
- Peking University School of Government undergraduate teaching plan (September 2019)
- Democracy Is a Good Thing (Brookings Institution Press, 2009)