An Ottawa writer is raising a thought-provoking question that challenges everything Westerners assume about freedom — and it starts with a Chinese proverb.
In a new opinion piece for Ottawa Life Magazine, contributor Chris Pereira reflects on a saying he encountered in a public essay by Shenzhen-based writer Li Jiasheng: "没有规矩，就没有秩序" — "Without rules, there is no order." Li's essay was originally about families and organizations, exploring how leaders who fail to model expected norms ultimately undermine the very order they claim to uphold. Pereira uses it as a springboard for a much bigger question: can a society built around strict collective rules actually be more free than the liberal democracies of the West?
The Uncomfortable Question
It's the kind of question that prompts reflexive dismissal in Western circles. We're conditioned to equate freedom with the absence of constraint — freedom from government, freedom from rules, the individual's right to chart their own course. The idea that a more rule-bound society could be freer seems like a flat-out contradiction.
But Pereira invites readers to sit with that discomfort. The Chinese proverb isn't about oppression — it's about the relationship between norms, leadership, and the social fabric that makes cooperative life possible. Without rules, there is no order. Without order, meaningful freedom becomes elusive for most people.
Order as the Foundation of Liberty
This philosophical tension runs deep in Chinese intellectual tradition. Where Western liberalism, shaped by thinkers like John Locke and John Stuart Mill, tends to define freedom as the absence of external restraint, East Asian philosophical frameworks often treat order and freedom as complementary rather than opposed. The well-led organization, the well-governed household, the well-ordered society: these are the conditions within which individuals can genuinely flourish.
Peteira isn't endorsing authoritarianism. He's raising a sharper question — whether Western societies, in prioritizing individual rights above collective norms, have quietly hollowed out the civic structures that make genuine freedom sustainable over the long run.
Why Ottawa Readers Should Pay Attention
These aren't just abstract philosophical questions. In Ottawa, on Parliament Hill and in city halls across Canada, debates about governance, institutional trust, and social cohesion are intensifying. Canada's increasingly complicated relationship with China — economic, diplomatic, and at times adversarial — makes understanding how Chinese society frames its own values more relevant than ever.
Pereira's essay is a reminder that the West doesn't hold a monopoly on thinking about freedom. Engaging seriously with other frameworks — even ones that challenge our assumptions — is part of what good civic thinking looks like.
The full piece is available on Ottawa Life Magazine's website. It's the kind of long-form, ideas-driven commentary that makes for great reading over a coffee.
Source: Ottawa Life Magazine
