Politics and Ideology beyond the Law of Free Speech
Xinglong Cao · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2013
Although, like in the USA, Chinese legislation proclaims strong protection for the freedom of expression, in reality the restraint of political speech is so harsh that commentators like Liu Xiaobo simply calling for peaceable democratisation can be criminated with heavy punishment. Free speech emerging through the democratic mechanism of the idea market can call on democratic political actions to overthrow a dictatorship like the Chinese Government. Dysfunctions of the idea market provoke some distrust in its merit even in the USA, and the Chinese Government is increasing people's worries about them through education, nationalism and experience. China's repression of the right to free speech is covered by its rhetoric of the legitimacy of the dictatorship and artificial anti-democracy ideologies.