China is preparing to impose yet another in a long series of increasingly draconian “national security” laws, this time criminalizing anything that “undermines” China’s “national spirit” or “harms the feelings” of the country as a whole. Legal scholars quickly pointed out that such a vague and open-ended law would give every official in China’s vast bureaucratic army the power to punish anything that offends their personal sensibilities.
The “national spirit” amendments to security law were revealed to the public as part of what the Chinese government presents as a public commentary or “soliciting opinion” process. China is ruled by a dictatorial Communist regime, so the public’s opinion is not actually of interest to the ruling class, but sometimes there is enough controversy to draw the Politburo’s attention.
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This could be one of those times, as an unusually large number of negative comments were swiftly registered with the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp legislature. Many of those criticisms came from legal scholars, as Reuters noted Thursday:
“Who confirms the ‘spirit of the Chinese nation’ and according to what procedure? Who recognises the ‘feelings of the Chinese nation’ and according to what procedures?” wrote Tong Zhiwei, a constitutional studies scholar at the East China University of Political Science and Law, on his Weibo social media account.
“If the NPC Standing Committee adopts this article as it is now drafted, law enforcement and judicial work will inevitably lead to the practical consequences of arresting and convicting people according to the will of the chief, and there will be endless harm,” Tong added.
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“Today they can prevent you from wearing certain clothes, tomorrow they can prevent you from speaking, then the day after they can prevent you from thinking,” wrote one user on Weibo.
Other critics noted the draft law covers clothing that might “hurt the feeling of the Chinese nation,” and made some sarcastic guesses about precisely what clothing might be deemed hurtful.
“Will wearing a suit and tie count? Marxism originated in the West. Would its presence in China also count as hurting national feelings,” asked a Weibo user quoted by the BBC.
The BBC report mentioned an incident from last year in which a Chinese woman wearing a Japanese kimono was accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” China’s all-purpose excuse for arresting its citizens.
“To wear a kimono is to hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation, to eat Japanese food is to jeopardize its spirit? When did the feelings and spirit of the time-tested Chinese nation become so fragile?” one Chinese commentator observed.
In this photo taken on May 10, 2019, a gay student poses with a rainbow flag in Beijing. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
The BBC wondered if the Chinese government might decide that rainbow clothing associated with LGBT politics could be banned. That seems likely, as the regime in Beijing has limited patience for gay rights and is currently frantic about young couples failing to produce enough children to shore up a declining population.
Another possible motive behind the law could be terrorizing the demoralized Chinese public into showing more nationalist fervor and greater enthusiasm for dictator Xi Jinping’s personality cult. If no one is quite certain what speech, attire, or behavior might be punished as insulting to the “national spirit,” then the safest play would be speaking and dressing in the most fervently nationalistic, pro-Xi manner possible.