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Ideological and Cultural Policy as Speech Policy: An Overlooked Aspect of Free Speech in China (1940s–2000s)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Yilu Zuo Open the ORCID record for Yilu Zuo [Opens in a new window]
Yilu Zuo*
Affiliation:
School of Law, Peking University, Beijing, China
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Free speech scholars have been preoccupied with laws, regulations, judicial opinions, and other traditional “legal” materials. However, this article examines an often-overlooked object in at least studying China’s speech rights—the ideological and cultural policy of the party-state. The party-state’s ideological and cultural policy has not only, for better or worse, profoundly shaped speech rights in China; and more significantly and paradoxically, it also contains the seed that might promote China’s speech rights in the future. The party-state has had a long and deep-rooted tradition of promoting a democratic culture; by tracing the development of this tradition from the 1940s to the 2000s, this article argues that it may provide a new context and angle for thinking about people’s right to cultural construction and perhaps free speech in general in China.

Keywords

free speechideological and cultural policyspeech policyChinese Constitutioncultural construction
Type
Research Article
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 11 , Special Issue 3: Comparative Legal History in an Asian Context , September 2024 , pp. 382 - 404
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society

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