3 - Rule-of-Law Reform and the Rise of Rule by Fear in China

Summary

The chapter argues that the use of fear techniques as a tool of authoritarian governance is central to the reconception of law on anti-liberal and anti-rationalist terms in China’s Xi Jinping era. The changes discussed here impede attempts to continue the legal reform process that began under Deng Xiaoping. To the extent that rule by fear is inherent to authoritarian governance, developments in China expose tensions within the wider project of authoritarian legality and call its chances of success into question. These developments pose challenges to a global community more widely struggling with democratic–liberal decline and authoritarian resurgence. Yet, the Chinese example also indicates that rule by fear is itself prone to challenges from a thus far resilient civil society.