Science & Tech Quote by Jiang Zemin

Invoking Einstein is the kind of borrowed prestige authoritarian modernizers love: it wraps a political argument in the aura of hard science, then dares you to dispute it without sounding anti-intellectual. Jiang’s move is rhetorically slick. Relativity, in physics, is not “anything goes”; it’s a rigorously defined way to reconcile measurement with conditions. By sliding from scientific relativity to moral and legal “relativism,” he converts a technical concept into a permission slip: if standards vary by reference frame, then standards like democracy and human rights can be treated as local customs rather than binding constraints.

The intent is defensive and strategic. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, China was deepening global economic integration while facing steady Western pressure over rights and political liberalization. Jiang’s formulation answers that pressure with a frame that sounds cosmopolitan, not crude. He isn’t rejecting human rights outright; he’s disputing their universality, reclassifying them as culturally contingent and development-dependent. That distinction matters because it shifts the debate from violations to sovereignty: criticism becomes “imposing values,” and accountability becomes interference.

The subtext is also about sequencing. “Relative concepts” implies timing and readiness: political rights can be postponed until stability, growth, and national strength are secured. It’s a comforting doctrine for a party-state that wants the benefits of globalization without the vulnerability of open contestation. The brilliance, and the danger, is how calmly it normalizes exception-making: once rights are “relative,” the state gets to decide the reference frame.