Were Chinese Liberals Liberal? Reflections on the Understanding of Liberalism in Modern China

Chinese scholarship over the past ten years or so, it is often thought that the intellectuals of modern China misunderstood liberalism, and even distorted it, because they failed to recognize classical liberalism, especially the link between liberalism and a free market economy. Consequently, great harm was done to the cause of liberalism in the precommunist period. This is a neo-liberal view that raises the question: Were Chinese liberals liberal? To answer, it is necessary first to examine the factors that contributed to their understanding of liberalism and their specific concerns. If we find that they were not liberal enough in terms of classical liberalism, does it mean that they should be referred to by some other term?