DavidsSling
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- Sep 30, 2019
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Overview:
China’s authoritarian regime has become increasingly repressive in recent years. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is tightening its control over the state bureaucracy, the media, online speech, religious groups, universities, businesses, and civil society associations, and it has undermined its own already modest rule-of-law reforms.
The CCP leader and state president, Xi Jinping, has consolidated personal power to a degree not seen in China for decades, but his actions have also triggered rising discontent among elites within and outside the party. The country’s budding human rights movements continue to seek avenues for protecting basic rights despite a multiyear crackdown.
Key Developments:
Key Developments in 2018:
Internet censorship and surveillance reached new heights as implementation of the 2017 Cybersecurity Law continued to be rolled out, various new measures restricting online and mobile communications came into effect, and advancements in artificial intelligence and facial recognition technologies were incorporated into the regime’s information control and public surveillance apparatus.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties:
POLITICAL RIGHTS: −1 / 40 (−1)
A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 0 / 12
A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 0 / 4
There are no direct or competitive elections for national executive leaders. The National People’s Congress (NPC) formally elects the state president for five-year terms and confirms the premier after he is nominated by the president, but both positions are decided in advance at the relevant CCP congress. The CCP’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), headed by Xi Jinping in his role as the party’s general secretary, sets government and party policy in practice. Xi also holds the position of state president and serves as chairman of the state and party military commissions.
Xi was awarded a second five-year term as general secretary at the 19th Party Congress in October 2017, and at the NPC session in March 2018 he was confirmed for a second five-year term as state president. Also at that session, the NPC approved amendments to China’s constitution that abolished the two-term limit for the state presidency and vice presidency. Combined with the absence of another PSC member young enough to serve as Xi’s successor in 2022, the move reinforced predictions that he planned to break with precedent and remain China’s paramount leader for the foreseeable future.
C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 1 / 4
The Chinese government and CCP are notoriously opaque. Since open-government regulations took effect in 2008, more official documents and information have been made available to the public. However, resistance on the part of government organs to providing specific information requested by citizens has dampened initial optimism, and budgetary information available to the public is minimal.
The scope for public input and consultation on laws and policies narrowed further over the past two years as policy advocacy NGOs and intellectuals came under intensified pressure, including those working in areas that were previously not considered sensitive, such as the environment, public health, and women’s rights.
CIVIL LIBERTIES: 12 / 60 (−2)
D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 2 / 16 (−1)
D1. Are there free and independent media? 0 / 4 (−1)
China is home to one of the world’s most restrictive media environments and its most sophisticated system of censorship, particularly online. The CCP maintains control over news reporting via direct ownership, accreditation of journalists, harsh penalties for public criticism, and daily directives to media outlets and websites that guide coverage of breaking news stories. State management of the telecommunications infrastructure enables the blocking of websites, removal of mobile-phone applications from the domestic market, and mass deletion of microblog posts, instant messages, and user accounts that touch on banned political, social, economic, and religious topics. Thousands of websites have been blocked, many for years, including major news and social media hubs like the New York Times, Le Monde, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
The already limited space for media freedom shrank further during 2018, as internet restrictions increased and investigative journalism struggled. Online controls were particularly evident surrounding the announcement in late February of the planned constitutional amendment to abolish presidential term limits. The news triggered massive censorship of critical and humorous commentary, including large-scale deletions of both posts and accounts on the microblogging platform Sina Weibo, the blocking of dozens of keywords, the suspension of at least one mobile phone application, and the interrogation of users of the popular instant-messaging tool WeChat.
Continued implementation of the 2017 Cybersecurity Law, along with other regulations and increased pressure on private technology companies, resulted in greater and more sophisticated internet censorship, including on video-streaming platforms and WeChat, which began employing artificial intelligence to scan and delete images deemed to include banned content. In April, several extremely popular applications that provided news or enabled the sharing of humorous content to tens of millions of users were abruptly suspended or shut down for failing to “rectify” their content sufficiently.
The increased media controls also affected the entertainment industry, which received orders in July to ensure that multimedia productions brim with “positive energy” and “illustrate core socialist values.” Meanwhile, authorities sought to improve their monitoring and management of influential online commentators, mysteriously detained movie star Fan Bingbing for alleged tax evasion, and blocked the website of US television network HBO after British comedian John Oliver critiqued Xi Jinping on his satirical news program.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 47 journalists were jailed in China as of December 2018, although the actual number of people held for uncovering or sharing newsworthy information is much greater. Foreign journalists continued to face various forms of harassment during the year, including physical abuse, short-term detention to prevent meetings with certain individuals, intimidation of Chinese sources and staff, the withholding of or threats to withhold visas, and surveillance.
Despite heavy restrictions on media freedom, Chinese journalists, grassroots activists, and internet users continue to seek out and exploit new ways to expose official misconduct, access uncensored information, and share incisive political commentary, although they risked reprisals when doing so. Tens of millions of people used circumvention tools like virtual private networks (VPNs) to reach the uncensored global internet or accessed blocked overseas broadcasts via satellite, but a number of activists were sentenced to prison for selling VPN services or helping people to install satellite dishes for viewing overseas Chinese stations.
Score Change: The score declined from 1 to 0 because the already limited space for media freedom shrank further during 2018, as the government worked more vigorously to eliminate the remaining avenues for circumventing censorship.
D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 0 / 4
The CCP regime has established a multifaceted apparatus to control all aspects of religious activity, including by vetting religious leaders for political reliability, placing limits on the number of new monastics or priests, and manipulating religious doctrine according to party priorities. The ability of China’s religious believers to practice their faith varies dramatically based on religious affiliation, location, and registration status. Many do not necessarily feel constrained, particularly if they are Chinese Buddhists or Taoists. However, a 2017 Freedom House report found that at least 100 million believers belong to groups facing high or very high levels of religious persecution, namely Protestant Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners.
During 2018, the government increased restrictions on a range of religious communities, including state-sanctioned Christian congregations and Hui Muslims. New regulations on religious affairs that took effect in February strengthened controls on places of worship, travel for religious purposes, and children’s religious education. In May, online retailers were barred from selling copies of the Bible. The Vatican and the Chinese government reached a provisional agreement in September on the appointment of Catholic bishops. While the deal was not made public, it would reportedly allow the government to nominate bishops and the Vatican to exercise a veto. The Vatican also recognized seven government-approved bishops who had previously been excommunicated; the status of dozens of existing bishops recognized by the Vatican but not by the government remained unclear. Persecution of unofficial Protestant groups continued during the year. In January, authorities in Shanxi Province demolished the Golden Lampstand Church, where an unregistered congregation of more than 50,000 people had worshipped, and placed some church members under house arrest.
The especially intense and intrusive curbs on the practice of Islam in Xinjiang, which are apparently aimed at breaking down the religious identify of Muslims in the region, have affected the wearing of religious attire, attendance at mosques, fasting during Ramadan, choice of baby names, and other basic forms of religious expression. In 2018, the Chinese authorities increased the punishment of peaceful religious practices under charges of “religious extremism,” resulting in detention and indoctrination for many Uighur, Kazakh, and Hui Muslims. Among other cases during the year, a prominent scholar of Islam, 82-year-old Muhammad Salih Hajim, died in custody at a reeducation camp in January, about 40 days after he was detained. In September, Radio Free Asia reported that most of his family members were in detention or missing, including his young grandchildren.
The regime’s campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual group continued in 2018. Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have received long prison terms in recent years, and many others are arbitrarily detained in various “legal education” facilities. Detainees typically face torture aimed at forcing them to abandon their beliefs, sometimes resulting in deaths in custody. Although repression of the group appears to have declined in some locales, a leaked document from Liaoning Province called for an intensified effort to crack down on Falun Gong and the Church of Almighty God—a banned quasi-Christian group—in the province from October to December, with a particular emphasis on suppressing means of communication that are used to disseminate reports of abuse outside China.
D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 1 / 4
Academic freedom is restricted with respect to politically sensitive issues, and the room for academic discussion dwindled further in 2018, even on what were previously less sensitive topics like labor rights, the rule of law, or economics. Efforts to police day-to-day classroom discussions have increased at all levels of education, including via installation of surveillance cameras in some classrooms and the creation of special departments to supervise the political thinking of teaching staff. The CCP controls the appointment of top university officials. Many scholars practice self-censorship to protect their careers, and several professors faced reprisals during the year for expressing views that were deemed critical of the CCP’s governance, whether in class, online, or in interviews with overseas media. Political indoctrination—including the study of “Xi Jinping Thought”—is a required component of the curriculum at all levels of education. In October, Cornell University in the United States ended its joint program with Renmin University in Beijing due to concerns about restrictions on academic freedom and reprisals against left-wing Chinese student activists who campaigned for the rights of low-income workers.
D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 1 / 4
The government’s ability to monitor citizens’ lives and communications has increased dramatically in recent years, inhibiting online and offline conversations. Social media applications like WeChat, used by hundreds of millions of people, are known to closely monitor user discussions so as to conform with government content restrictions. Surveillance cameras, increasingly augmented with facial recognition software, cover many urban areas and public transportation, and are expanding into rural regions. Pilot programs for a Social Credit System—expected to become mandatory and nationally operational in 2020—rate citizens’ trustworthiness based not only on financial responsibility or debt records, but also on purchasing behavior, video gaming habits, social acquaintances, and adherence to rules in public spaces. Devices used by police to quickly extract and scan data from smartphones, initially deployed in Xinjiang, have spread nationwide. The 2017 Cybersecurity Law requires companies to store Chinese users’ data in China and submit to potentially intrusive security reviews. Apple was one of several international companies to comply with the provisions in 2018, transferring its iCloud data to servers run by a company owned by the Guizhou provincial government.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/china
China’s authoritarian regime has become increasingly repressive in recent years. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is tightening its control over the state bureaucracy, the media, online speech, religious groups, universities, businesses, and civil society associations, and it has undermined its own already modest rule-of-law reforms.
The CCP leader and state president, Xi Jinping, has consolidated personal power to a degree not seen in China for decades, but his actions have also triggered rising discontent among elites within and outside the party. The country’s budding human rights movements continue to seek avenues for protecting basic rights despite a multiyear crackdown.
Key Developments:
Key Developments in 2018:
- President Xi strengthened his hold on power in March, when the National People’s Congress amended the country’s constitution to enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought” and remove the two-term limit on the presidency. Observers warned that Xi’s personalization of power and departure from previous norms—including his failure to appoint a potential successor to the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee—could have negative consequences for China’s future political stability.
Internet censorship and surveillance reached new heights as implementation of the 2017 Cybersecurity Law continued to be rolled out, various new measures restricting online and mobile communications came into effect, and advancements in artificial intelligence and facial recognition technologies were incorporated into the regime’s information control and public surveillance apparatus.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties:
POLITICAL RIGHTS: −1 / 40 (−1)
A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 0 / 12
A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 0 / 4
There are no direct or competitive elections for national executive leaders. The National People’s Congress (NPC) formally elects the state president for five-year terms and confirms the premier after he is nominated by the president, but both positions are decided in advance at the relevant CCP congress. The CCP’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), headed by Xi Jinping in his role as the party’s general secretary, sets government and party policy in practice. Xi also holds the position of state president and serves as chairman of the state and party military commissions.
Xi was awarded a second five-year term as general secretary at the 19th Party Congress in October 2017, and at the NPC session in March 2018 he was confirmed for a second five-year term as state president. Also at that session, the NPC approved amendments to China’s constitution that abolished the two-term limit for the state presidency and vice presidency. Combined with the absence of another PSC member young enough to serve as Xi’s successor in 2022, the move reinforced predictions that he planned to break with precedent and remain China’s paramount leader for the foreseeable future.
C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 1 / 4
The Chinese government and CCP are notoriously opaque. Since open-government regulations took effect in 2008, more official documents and information have been made available to the public. However, resistance on the part of government organs to providing specific information requested by citizens has dampened initial optimism, and budgetary information available to the public is minimal.
The scope for public input and consultation on laws and policies narrowed further over the past two years as policy advocacy NGOs and intellectuals came under intensified pressure, including those working in areas that were previously not considered sensitive, such as the environment, public health, and women’s rights.
CIVIL LIBERTIES: 12 / 60 (−2)
D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 2 / 16 (−1)
D1. Are there free and independent media? 0 / 4 (−1)
China is home to one of the world’s most restrictive media environments and its most sophisticated system of censorship, particularly online. The CCP maintains control over news reporting via direct ownership, accreditation of journalists, harsh penalties for public criticism, and daily directives to media outlets and websites that guide coverage of breaking news stories. State management of the telecommunications infrastructure enables the blocking of websites, removal of mobile-phone applications from the domestic market, and mass deletion of microblog posts, instant messages, and user accounts that touch on banned political, social, economic, and religious topics. Thousands of websites have been blocked, many for years, including major news and social media hubs like the New York Times, Le Monde, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
The already limited space for media freedom shrank further during 2018, as internet restrictions increased and investigative journalism struggled. Online controls were particularly evident surrounding the announcement in late February of the planned constitutional amendment to abolish presidential term limits. The news triggered massive censorship of critical and humorous commentary, including large-scale deletions of both posts and accounts on the microblogging platform Sina Weibo, the blocking of dozens of keywords, the suspension of at least one mobile phone application, and the interrogation of users of the popular instant-messaging tool WeChat.
Continued implementation of the 2017 Cybersecurity Law, along with other regulations and increased pressure on private technology companies, resulted in greater and more sophisticated internet censorship, including on video-streaming platforms and WeChat, which began employing artificial intelligence to scan and delete images deemed to include banned content. In April, several extremely popular applications that provided news or enabled the sharing of humorous content to tens of millions of users were abruptly suspended or shut down for failing to “rectify” their content sufficiently.
The increased media controls also affected the entertainment industry, which received orders in July to ensure that multimedia productions brim with “positive energy” and “illustrate core socialist values.” Meanwhile, authorities sought to improve their monitoring and management of influential online commentators, mysteriously detained movie star Fan Bingbing for alleged tax evasion, and blocked the website of US television network HBO after British comedian John Oliver critiqued Xi Jinping on his satirical news program.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 47 journalists were jailed in China as of December 2018, although the actual number of people held for uncovering or sharing newsworthy information is much greater. Foreign journalists continued to face various forms of harassment during the year, including physical abuse, short-term detention to prevent meetings with certain individuals, intimidation of Chinese sources and staff, the withholding of or threats to withhold visas, and surveillance.
Despite heavy restrictions on media freedom, Chinese journalists, grassroots activists, and internet users continue to seek out and exploit new ways to expose official misconduct, access uncensored information, and share incisive political commentary, although they risked reprisals when doing so. Tens of millions of people used circumvention tools like virtual private networks (VPNs) to reach the uncensored global internet or accessed blocked overseas broadcasts via satellite, but a number of activists were sentenced to prison for selling VPN services or helping people to install satellite dishes for viewing overseas Chinese stations.
Score Change: The score declined from 1 to 0 because the already limited space for media freedom shrank further during 2018, as the government worked more vigorously to eliminate the remaining avenues for circumventing censorship.
D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 0 / 4
The CCP regime has established a multifaceted apparatus to control all aspects of religious activity, including by vetting religious leaders for political reliability, placing limits on the number of new monastics or priests, and manipulating religious doctrine according to party priorities. The ability of China’s religious believers to practice their faith varies dramatically based on religious affiliation, location, and registration status. Many do not necessarily feel constrained, particularly if they are Chinese Buddhists or Taoists. However, a 2017 Freedom House report found that at least 100 million believers belong to groups facing high or very high levels of religious persecution, namely Protestant Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners.
During 2018, the government increased restrictions on a range of religious communities, including state-sanctioned Christian congregations and Hui Muslims. New regulations on religious affairs that took effect in February strengthened controls on places of worship, travel for religious purposes, and children’s religious education. In May, online retailers were barred from selling copies of the Bible. The Vatican and the Chinese government reached a provisional agreement in September on the appointment of Catholic bishops. While the deal was not made public, it would reportedly allow the government to nominate bishops and the Vatican to exercise a veto. The Vatican also recognized seven government-approved bishops who had previously been excommunicated; the status of dozens of existing bishops recognized by the Vatican but not by the government remained unclear. Persecution of unofficial Protestant groups continued during the year. In January, authorities in Shanxi Province demolished the Golden Lampstand Church, where an unregistered congregation of more than 50,000 people had worshipped, and placed some church members under house arrest.
The especially intense and intrusive curbs on the practice of Islam in Xinjiang, which are apparently aimed at breaking down the religious identify of Muslims in the region, have affected the wearing of religious attire, attendance at mosques, fasting during Ramadan, choice of baby names, and other basic forms of religious expression. In 2018, the Chinese authorities increased the punishment of peaceful religious practices under charges of “religious extremism,” resulting in detention and indoctrination for many Uighur, Kazakh, and Hui Muslims. Among other cases during the year, a prominent scholar of Islam, 82-year-old Muhammad Salih Hajim, died in custody at a reeducation camp in January, about 40 days after he was detained. In September, Radio Free Asia reported that most of his family members were in detention or missing, including his young grandchildren.
The regime’s campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual group continued in 2018. Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have received long prison terms in recent years, and many others are arbitrarily detained in various “legal education” facilities. Detainees typically face torture aimed at forcing them to abandon their beliefs, sometimes resulting in deaths in custody. Although repression of the group appears to have declined in some locales, a leaked document from Liaoning Province called for an intensified effort to crack down on Falun Gong and the Church of Almighty God—a banned quasi-Christian group—in the province from October to December, with a particular emphasis on suppressing means of communication that are used to disseminate reports of abuse outside China.
D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 1 / 4
Academic freedom is restricted with respect to politically sensitive issues, and the room for academic discussion dwindled further in 2018, even on what were previously less sensitive topics like labor rights, the rule of law, or economics. Efforts to police day-to-day classroom discussions have increased at all levels of education, including via installation of surveillance cameras in some classrooms and the creation of special departments to supervise the political thinking of teaching staff. The CCP controls the appointment of top university officials. Many scholars practice self-censorship to protect their careers, and several professors faced reprisals during the year for expressing views that were deemed critical of the CCP’s governance, whether in class, online, or in interviews with overseas media. Political indoctrination—including the study of “Xi Jinping Thought”—is a required component of the curriculum at all levels of education. In October, Cornell University in the United States ended its joint program with Renmin University in Beijing due to concerns about restrictions on academic freedom and reprisals against left-wing Chinese student activists who campaigned for the rights of low-income workers.
D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 1 / 4
The government’s ability to monitor citizens’ lives and communications has increased dramatically in recent years, inhibiting online and offline conversations. Social media applications like WeChat, used by hundreds of millions of people, are known to closely monitor user discussions so as to conform with government content restrictions. Surveillance cameras, increasingly augmented with facial recognition software, cover many urban areas and public transportation, and are expanding into rural regions. Pilot programs for a Social Credit System—expected to become mandatory and nationally operational in 2020—rate citizens’ trustworthiness based not only on financial responsibility or debt records, but also on purchasing behavior, video gaming habits, social acquaintances, and adherence to rules in public spaces. Devices used by police to quickly extract and scan data from smartphones, initially deployed in Xinjiang, have spread nationwide. The 2017 Cybersecurity Law requires companies to store Chinese users’ data in China and submit to potentially intrusive security reviews. Apple was one of several international companies to comply with the provisions in 2018, transferring its iCloud data to servers run by a company owned by the Guizhou provincial government.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/china
