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Although an authoritarian regime is often assumed to manipulate its various statistics for political needs and to maintain its legitimacy, we know little about how such manipulation is accomplished and under what circumstances. Using data collected from yearly published official crime reports, a unique source for crime victim surveys, interviews with the police and detailed ethnographic work in Guangzhou city, this paper demonstrates how the manufacturing of official crime statics serves to legitimize the authoritarian regime in China. In particular, I examine the myth of the 'great crime decline' in the first decade of 21st century when official crime statistics declined by more than two-thirds in the city and argue that the decrease is a result of statistical manipulation instead of a reflection of the actual crime situation. I argue that, compared with Western democracies, crime statistics should be more fully understood as part of a legitimization apparatus in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how community policing takes on its actual meanings in the specific circumstances of contemporary Hong Kong. Hong Kong people place tremendous stake on the rule of law, which has always become one of the acclaimed 'core values' distinguishing the post-handover Hong Kong from the rest of China. Against this social background, this paper argues that largely due to the non-democratic structuring of local governance, law is inadequate to maintain a locally given order, and then community policing vested with the necessary police discretion is very often adopted to accommodate the real needs in the local community. This argument is based on the inductive analysis by using a case study of the policing of a marketplace in Hong Kong. It has been found that the local governmental institution consistently calls for the police's strict enforcement of law in order to resolve the community problems generated by the routine operation of the marketplace. On the other hand, the police are actually working against such a call by discretionarily handling the extra-legal arrangements in the marketplace. Taken together, the current study reveals that one of the actual meanings of Hong Kong's community policing is defined by the contradictory juxtaposition situated between the official ideal and local reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese communist party (CCP) has felt the need for the rule of law in governing an increasingly pluralist society and a market economy. Xi Jinping made this clear from the outset of his administration. However, the backlash to the push for constitutionalism by reformers in 2013 has exposed the political limits to the judicial reform in China. This paper delineates these limits by highlighting the ideological and organizational foundation of the state, the fundamental distribution of power in it, and the CCP’s traditional mode of existence and exercising power. It concludes that the Chinese political system provides a weak and unreliable basis for the rule of law. Nevertheless, there is substantial room for the law in issue areas that are non-threatening to the CCP rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1978, when economic reform began in China, it was the party-state-controlled people's organizations that were most deeply involved in people's work and social life. For example, the official trade union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), was the one and only legal organization representing workers. Although people who worked for state-owned enterprises were mostly unionized under the umbrella of the ACFTU, the new migrant workers in private enterprises were basically unorganized. Since the mid-1990s, labour activists, some of whom are supported by the international civil society, have tried to establish an alternative form of organization, specifically labour non-governmental organizations (NGOs), for migrant workers. The labour NGOs are concentrated in the Pearl River Delta of South China and provide services in migrant workers' settlement communities. This paper evaluates the degree to which the labour NGOs have maintained a relatively autonomous civil society space for the vulnerable migrant workers and nurtured a democratic form of labour organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The transitional justice literature has, for decades, sought to understand and advocate for mechanisms through which a society may transition from a period of autocracy and mass atrocity into one of democracy, peace and stability. However, this field has left certain geographic regions under-examined — including, for example, events taking place in 20th-century China. Seeking to augment the literature's consideration of transitional justice, this article employs the case study method to examine two pivotal events in China's recent history: the 1949 Communist Revolution and the Gang of Four Trials in 1979. It is argued that incorporating these examples into the literature could supplement our understanding of transitional justice and that, by broadening the lens on this concept, events that have long existed on the margins could be internalized to enrich the field's discussion. In order to accomplish this, the article puts forward a new framework through which transitional justice examples may be analysed — employing a graphical aid to visually designate both the type of justice sought and the degree of transition achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rule of law is commonly understood to incorporate several components that have been proposed as integral to the development and sustainability of a mature democracy: separation of powers; equality before, and supremacy of, the law; equitable participation in decision making through personal freedoms; public promulgation of laws; transparency and legal certainty; and others. Yet it can often be construed as a Western hegemonic, even neo-colonial, globalized concept that has been exported to replace more traditional thoughts of good governance. This article examines the rule of law in Hong Kong that emerged from under British rule in 1997 with a deeply ingrained common law system founded upon Western concepts of the rule of law. Yet Hong Kong continues to exhibit in its governance elements of Confucian thought--jūunzĭ (gentleman), yi (justice), xin (integrity), and li (reason). For this reason, it serves as fertile ground for examining the extent of the impact of a globalized hegemony on local populations. I argue that Hong Kong continues to incorporate both systems of governance, exemplifying the persistence of a colonial form of power in the former colony and dependant territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tries to bridge the bureaucratic politics model of foreign policy analysis (FPA), which is based on American foreign policy practice, and Chinese foreign policy studies. It traces the development and discusses the Chinese features of the bureaucratic politics model, and analyses the evolving bureaucratic political process of Chinese foreign policy-making. Its conclusion is that the foreign policy-making process of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has progressed from ideology-based 'line battles' to personal relationship (guanxi)-based in-party competition, and from factional competition under one paramount leader to government politics wherein many participants vie for different policies. As China integrates more deeply into the international community, and communist ideology loses its political validity in Chinese politics, bureaucratic politics in China exhibits more prominent Chinese cultural features, and at the same time shares greater similarities with the bureaucratic politics in western democratic countries. Therefore, to avoid rigidity, attention must be paid to variances in bureaucratic politics as applied in the Chinese context. Bridging FPA theory and Chinese foreign studies is hence both viable and beneficial for the construction of FPA theories beyond the United States and for China's foreign policy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an apprehension in the democratic world about the possible impact of the economic rise of China on the UN human rights agenda. Although Communist China has embraced capitalism by liberalising its economy, by joining theWTOand by recognising private entrepreneurship and the right to private property, it has not been an enthusiastic partner when it comes to promoting and protecting human rights. China has supported the idea of so-called "Asian values", or cultural and political relativism, as well as promoting the idea of a "China Model of Democracy", which seeks to support economic growth at the expense of civil and political rights. This article examines China's approach tohuman rights both within and outside of theUNand whether China's rise as a major economic power poses a threat or offers an opportunity to the international human rights system led by the UN. In doing so, it considers how China is changing in terms of its approach to the rule of law, democracy and human rights and why it needs to become a willing and enthusiastic player within the UN systemto promote and protect human rights. The author concludes that China will not pose a threat to the UN human rights agenda. One way or the other, the only way forward for China is to embrace the rule of law, and this will in turn entail respect for human rights. Thus, there is an opportunity for theUNto introduce human rights lawand jurisprudence developed by the UN treaty bodies to the Chinese legal and constitutional system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constitutional judicial review has often been described as “countermajoritarian” and antidemocratic. Recent empirical findings, however, suggest that reviewing courts in some authoritarian states have in fact adopted policies more to the liking of the disenfranchised majority than the unelected ruling elite. This article addresses this gap by proposing a positive theory which explains how judicial review and public opinion could ever mutually reinforce in the absence of viable representative institutions. Evidence from Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty is used to illustrate this theory. In the teeth of persistent authoritarianism, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal’s repeated, though not uninterrupted, alignment with public opinion, combined with its strong focal power, has enabled conflicting constitutional players to converge on policy outcomes usually pre- ferable to the people or a majority of them. The Court’s ability to “represent” majoritarian public opinion, and public support for its judicial review, have been reinforced by idiosyncratic conditions specified in the theory, which do not generally stabilize or endure in authoritarian polities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criticism has long been laid about China’s unwillingness to subscribe to international human rights norms, the rule of law and liberal democratic practices. The United Nations and Western States and scholars have argued that human rights and liberal democracy underlain by a Western rule-of-law model are prerequisites to human development and governmental legitimacy. Is authoritarianism in China incompatible with human rights and democracy? Is the rule of law rejected entirely by the state apparatuses in China? Is there really no human rights protection under China’s Constitution and laws? Has China’s approach to international human rights law evolved since its realisation of the roles it may play in shaping international law? What do the Chinese people think or want about China’s political reform vis-à-vis human rights and democratic practices? With China’s rise in the current international order, these questions raise important issues this article addresses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The severe internet censorship implemented in China naturally raises substantial doubt about the potential democratic functions of the internet. This study presents some initial empirical evidence for internet use's impact on online opinion expression in Mainland China by analyzing three survey datasets collected by the World Internet Project in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Results reveal a positive relationship between internet use and online expression. The positive association is partially mediated by online network size, but not necessarily by internet efficacy. Although government censorship has in a measure successfully stifled people's; willingness to speak out, it is argued that the networking function of the internet could still bring incremental changes to the Chinese society through constructing loosely structured networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This government whitepaper describes the Chinese people's struggles for democracy, freedom, equality and the building of a country under the rule of law. It first provides an introduction to the historical course of these efforts and a general description of the Chinese legal system. The whitepaper then describes separately human rights protection, the market economy, public administration and governmental regulation, judicial enforcement of law and administration of justice, legal education, and international exchange and cooperation relating to these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the extent of normative commitment to democracy among the public in East Asia. The authors discuss to what extent do citizens in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong support democracy as a system of government as measured by overtly favorable orientations toward democracy. It indicates that except for South Korea and Japan most East Asian democratic countries do not enjoy a deep legitimization. The authors observed that authoritarianism remains a rough competitor to democracy in the region.

The article examines the consequences of the launch of a normalization initiative with China by U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. President Nixon and Kissinger succeeded in redirecting U.S. foreign policy. They had also been right to continue normalization relations with China. The consequence for this is their betrayal of an ally in the form of Taiwan. The U.S. not only forfeited the right to Taiwan's people to self-determination but their ability to avoid Communist rule. They failed to see that other U.S. citizens would be determined to help Taiwan defend itself and the country's capability of having its own political reform. Such shortsightedness misled everyone. It has a big impact on U.S. integrity, diplomacy and democracy.