China’s Constitution and the Right to Protest

I took a long look at the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, (the link is in the script). I’m not going to bore you with in depth analysis but I am going to surprise you with some facts so, when someone tells you that people in China have no rights, or that they are oppressed, you can show them this to prove them wrong.

I argue with people on a daily basis about China and how “oppressive or authoritarian” it is and the discussions usually go the same direction so I’m going to explain how I answer when people tell me I’m mad.

First of all, several independent and western backed sources have already confirmed, Chinese people support the government. Harvard spent 13 years investigating this, the Edelman Trust Barometer confirmed it earlier this year and a Statista research from 2016 to 2021 also reports that Chinese government satisfaction sits at over 90%.

Why? Because every single year, life, for most Chinese people, continues to improve and, when it doesn’t, as we’ve clearly seen, people get out and tell the government what they want to improve. And, as we’ve also clearly seen, the government listens; they have to, it’s in the Constitution.

People will tell you that it doesn’t matter what China’s Constitution says, it’s a police state

When they do: ask them to give you a specific example of Chinese police brutality — I’m willing to bet they can’t give you one. As far as I can ascertain, not one person has been shot by police or died in police custody for over 15 years.

I’ve had many interactions and I’ve never seen an act of aggression from a Chinese police officer; I’m not saying it’s never happened but I am saying, I saw it often in Australia, multiple times in the UK but, in almost 2 decades, I haven’t seen it in China.

Go one step further and ask whoever you’re debating with to name their sources: they’ll tell you: “Everyone knows”. But, if everyone knows, there must be hundreds of examples. Except there aren’t.

So then ask them what experience they have of China and what did they see when they were there?

For the most part, they’ll tell you they’ve never been to China. Those few people who have been to China and still persist with this argument need to be able to give you specific examples and, I’m 100% certain they won’t be able to give you anything except a feeling they had when they were in China.

Feelings aren’t proof, even CNN and the BBC can’t give you proof, all they can do is sit in the back of a car and pretend to secretly point a camera at a vehicle “following them” and whisper in a furtive voice that it’s “full of plain clothes police officers” as evidence of the oppression.

After the protests of a couple of weeks ago, I’ve seen all kinds of rhetoric in Western media about how China is cracking down on the protestors but the truth of the matter is, they aren’t.

They are certainly going to crack down on the instigators of violence or damage, they will attempt to arrest and charge people who were paid to protest as well as the people who paid them but isn’t that what happens in your country too?

What they won’t do is track down and punish the thousands of people who were out voicing legitimate concerns and, surprisingly for many people the reason they won’t is because in China, people have a constitutional right to protest. Yes, you heard me correctly, Article 35 of the Constitution provides a right to protest and, as far as I can ascertain, not a single person has ever been arrested for protesting in China when that protest has been peaceful. Here it is:

So, when your debater tells you it’s illegal to protest in China please ask them what’s the act and section that prohibits it and can they show you a reference or link to it. What they will show you, is headlines, those headlines lead to articles which assert, suggest and surmise that China is doing something without any evidence that it is.

What China does do is crack down on illegal protests, once again, isn’t that what your country does too?

If you’re in any doubt, there’s a link to a BBC report where PM Sunak is going to do exactly that:

In Australia, it’s more complicated because different states have different laws but a search of any state using the words: “How XXState cracks down on illegal protests” will show that Australia’s overbearing civil disobedience laws already have the Human Rights organisations worried.

And, in the USA, according to Pew Trust the BLM protests had so many legislators worried that 8 States immediately passed and 21 further states debated and most subsequently passed laws that made it illegal for more than three people to gather where public security is threatened

In fact, in China, the opposite of crackdown is the truth. A 2015 Swedish University researcher, found that China has about 180,000 protests every year, that’s almost 500 every day. And yet, we never hear of them in our news. It’s because Chinese people, when they protest are not usually aggressive and, when Chinese people protest, the local government have a constitutional requirement to listen to what they say and respond to what they need.

If anything, the recent responses in changes to Covid restrictions must be seen as a great example of that and the fact that not even CNN, roaming the streets of Beijing and Shanghai looking for a story can find mass arrests for protests that took place a couple of weeks ago.

OK, then, your detractor will say, assuming you haven’t scared them off with your logic, your grasp of the facts and your ability to quote sections of the Chinese Constitution to them: “Chinese people aren’t allowed religious freedom and no one can deny that fact…”.

Except I can. And, tomorrow, I will

For the time being though, thank you for watching and please do the right thing. Like, share subscribe and help me to get my messages out. Also, please feel free to read and share the attached article and confirm any or all of the supporting documents I’ve linked in there and ask any questions you might have in the comment section. I’ll do my best to answer them.