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10 years ago I spent some time in Beijing working on a project which helped enhance the advocacy capabilities of Chinese environmental NGOs (ENGOs) /1
Together with American and Chinese colleagues we organised a national summit for ENGOs, supported local pilot initiatives and published a Chinese-language book on the subject of collective policy entrepreneurship /2
Fast forward to 2020 and such capacity building work seems like a fading dream. Under Xi Jinping we have seen the rise of an increasingly totalitarian Chinese security state /3
To defend its authority at home and abroad, the Chinese Communist Party has declared an ideological war on open societies /4
The CCP's ideological war is directed against anyone within or outside China who believes in ideological pluralism, constitutionalism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law /5
In the following I would like to highlight a number of key party documents and/or laws which make up the CCP's metabolising censorship regime /6
Over the past few years I have noticed that many people outside China—including NGO practitioners, journalists and academics—are not aware of these party edicts or laws. This leads to an information asymmetry which undermines a critical engagement with China /7
7 Don't Speaks (2013). Taboo topics: universal values, freedom of speech, civil society, civil rights, the historical errors of the CCP, official bourgeoisie, judicial independence /8 http://chinamediaproject.org/2013/05/22/positive-energy-for-press-control/
Document No 9 (2013). Taboo topics: constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, neoliberalism, West’s idea of journalism, questioning CCP's historiography and 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' /9 http://www.chinafile.com/document-9-chinafile-translation
National Security Law (2015). National security defined as the protection of the political regime; law aimed at prevention of the infiltration of “harmful moral standards.” /10 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1830383/chinas-contentious-national-security-law-due-be-passed
Cyber Security Law (2017). "Grasps cybersecurity through the lens of regime stability and the core need for information controls at home and abroad" /11 https://medium.com/china-media-project/chinas-web-of-laws-39cfa747019c
National Intelligence Law (2017). "All organizations and citizens shall, according to the law, provide support and assistance to and co operate with the State intelligence work, and keep secret the State intelligence work that they know" /12
https://www.mannheimerswartling.se/globalassets/nyhetsbrev/msa_nyhetsbrev_national-intelligence-law_jan-19.pdf
https://www.mannheimerswartling.se/globalassets/nyhetsbrev/msa_nyhetsbrev_national-intelligence-law_jan-19.pdf
Overseas NGO Law (2017). "Law brings foreign NPOs and their operations under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security" /13 https://theconversation.com/a-new-law-in-china-is-threatening-the-work-of-international-ngos-70884
Epilogue: if you are a policy maker / NGO practitioner engaging with China or a journalist / academic researching Chinese politics, please be mindful of the existence of these illiberal and anti-democratic edicts & laws issued by the Chinese Communist Party /End
Unroll @threadreaderapp
There is actually one more law which I forgot to mention:
Counter-Espionage Law (2014). "Foreign individuals or groups who fabricate or distort facts and issue information that harms China’s national security can be punished" /14 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-lawmaking-espionage/china-adds-broad-new-definitions-to-counter-espionage-law-idUKKBN1E01DF
Counter-Espionage Law (2014). "Foreign individuals or groups who fabricate or distort facts and issue information that harms China’s national security can be punished" /14 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-lawmaking-espionage/china-adds-broad-new-definitions-to-counter-espionage-law-idUKKBN1E01DF
We can now add the “Five Never Allows” (五个绝不答应) (2020) to this growing list of illiberal party directives. https://twitter.com/jeromeacohen/status/1301971334948364289
