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China’s Communist Party
OpinionLetters

Letters | China under Xi Jinping is ignoring the people’s constitutional rights

  • The government seems to continually contradict the article on the freedom of speech, as if it did not exist or was only a clever turn of phrase
  • Practising religion, sanctioned by the constitution, also appears to have become a serious problem

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Activists march in support of jailed Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang (pictured right on placard) and China’s first “cyber-dissident” and underground human rights website founder, Huang Qi (pictured left), in Hong Kong on January 29. The freedom of speech and religious practice have been curtailed in recent years in mainland China. Photo: AFP
Letters
I refer to Chi Wang’s very illuminating article (“China doesn’t need democracy, it needs a strong leader like Xi Jinping”, February 11). He showed that China needs a strong man to lead because China has a strong man leading, and China has a strong man leading because China needs a strong man to lead.
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Unlike Mr Wang, I am not very well-versed in Chinese history. However, if I could, I would ask what Mr Wang meant by democracy. For example, when Mao spoke and wrote about democracy, was this an anomaly (“What Chairman Mao wrote about a ‘free and democratic China’”, February 12)?
The constitution of China grants freedom of speech (Article 35: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration”). However, the government seems to continually contradict this article, almost as if it did not exist or it was just a clever phrase or decoration in a larger written work.
The constitution says citizens are free to practice religion (Article 36: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No State organ, public organisation or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion”). However, recently it seems practising religion has become a serious problem.
Lack of tolerance means China is not pluralistic, whatever its heritage

When a government contradicts its own constitution, is this the fault of the government or the people? Recent events in China show that, when the government ignores its own constitution, the people are to blame, since they are on the receiving end of the government’s actions.

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I realise I have much to learn about Chinese culture. However, I would like to suggest that, although we may not know how a leader attains power in China, we can still see very clearly how he uses the power he has attained.

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