Political scandal at the end of ideology? The mediatized politics of the Bo Xilai case

In this article, I use the high-profile Bo Xilai case to illustrate the dialectics of media and politics in contemporary China. I start by explaining some of the similarities and key differences between mediatized politics in the West and in China. This leads to an emphasis on the ideological dimension of media logic that is largely missing from discussions derived from a liberal democratic context. I then analyze the dialectics of the mediatized ideological struggle and politicized media logic running through the Bo Xilai scandal. In the last section, I summarize the theoretical contributions that the Chinese case makes to the study of mediatized politics

Political scandal at the end of ideology? The mediatized politics of the Bo Xilai case

In this article, I use the high-profile Bo Xilai case to illustrate the dialectics of media and politics in contemporary China. I start by explaining some of the similarities and key differences between mediatized politics in the West and in China. This leads to an emphasis on the ideological dimension of media logic that is largely missing from discussions derived from a liberal democratic context. I then analyze the dialectics of the mediatized ideological struggle and politicized media logic running through the Bo Xilai scandal. In the last section, I summarize the theoretical contributions that the Chinese case makes to the study of mediatized politics

Legal Reform and the Chongquing Effect: Two Steps Forward One Step Back?

For those steeped in the Western legal tradition, the Chinese political and legal system is, in the famous words of Winston Churchill, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.1 Of course, Churchill was describing the potential actions of Russia, not China.2 But, to continue borrowing from Churchill, perhaps there is a key – Chinese national interest and the interest of the Chinese Communist Party.3 This research explores the interaction between political, economic, and legal reform, and posits that the Chongqing incident4 was ultimately a positive turning point in the country’s institutional development. The theory presented herein is that although some argue the manner in which the Bo Xilai trial5 was conducted, and its aftermath, represents a step back in political aperture, it is actually an example of the “two steps forward, one step back”6 so closely associated with Communist political regimes in transition, and holds promise for consolidation of institutional reform in China. In exploring the riddle, this article attempts to place the Chinese legal system in its historic context before moving to the inextricable relationship between law and politics in China. Finally, it is argued that the Bo Xilai prosecution, while undeniably politically motivated and rife with retrograde elements, was also a cautious but definitive move towards the triumph of a new model of consolidated institutionalization

The Bo Xilai Trial and China’s Struggle With the Rule of Law

This Note will examine the trial of former Chinese politician Bo Xilai and assess whether his trial (the Bo trial) is indicative of a strengthening commitment of China towards some form of the rule of law. Although Bo received more legal protections in his trial than many defendants ordinarily receive in criminal trials, this Note will argue that his case is not indicative of a larger victory for the rule of law in China for two reasons. First, the trial itself was full of a number of procedural irregularities that suggest Bo was deprived of the full protections he was entitled to under Chinese law. Second, even viewing the Bo case optimistically, the case was likely an outlier in terms of Chinese criminal trials generally, as indicated by recent government crackdowns on perceived political dissenters. In analyzing the Bo trial, this Note will attempt to divorce its rule of law analysis from political conceptions that underlie a “thick” version of the rule of law and instead focus only on whether it may be said the Bo trial signals progress towards a “thin” version of the rule of law, a distinction that will be discussed in greater detail in Part III

Legal Reform and the Chongquing Effect: Two Steps Forward One Step Back?

For those steeped in the Western legal tradition, the Chinese political and legal system is, in the famous words of Winston Churchill, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.1 Of course, Churchill was describing the potential actions of Russia, not China.2 But, to continue borrowing from Churchill, perhaps there is a key – Chinese national interest and the interest of the Chinese Communist Party.3 This research explores the interaction between political, economic, and legal reform, and posits that the Chongqing incident4 was ultimately a positive turning point in the country’s institutional development. The theory presented herein is that although some argue the manner in which the Bo Xilai trial5 was conducted, and its aftermath, represents a step back in political aperture, it is actually an example of the “two steps forward, one step back”6 so closely associated with Communist political regimes in transition, and holds promise for consolidation of institutional reform in China. In exploring the riddle, this article attempts to place the Chinese legal system in its historic context before moving to the inextricable relationship between law and politics in China. Finally, it is argued that the Bo Xilai prosecution, while undeniably politically motivated and rife with retrograde elements, was also a cautious but definitive move towards the triumph of a new model of consolidated institutionalization

Linguistic Characteristics of Censorable Language on SinaWeibo

This paper investigates censorship from a linguistic perspective. We collect a corpus of censored and uncensored posts on a number of topics, build a classifier that predicts censorship decisions independent of discussion topics. Our investigation reveals that the strongest linguistic indicator of censored content of our corpus is its readability

L'éveil vert de la société chinoise ?

Dans le contexte actuel de transition politique, la Chine cherche la voie à suivre pour la recomposition des relations entre l’État et la société civile. Cette évolution est rendue nécessaire par les mouvements de frontières des rôles joués par les différents acteurs, en particulier dans le secteur de l’environnement : des enceintes confinées d’activisme environnemental encouragées et contrôlées par le gouvernement depuis les années 1990, la société civile est aujourd’hui passée à un modèle d’expression plus indépendante, comme en a été témoin l’actualité médiatique de ces deux dernières années. Cependant, et ce même après la chute de Bo Xilai – qui pouvait laisser supposer une « victoire » des politiques libérales de la province du Guangdong –, les débats qui opposent la montée des revendications réformatrices aux relents de conservatisme sont toujours vifs.you're reading The “Green” Awakening of Chinese Society by Marie-Hélène Schwoob Shortcuts Outline Cite this article Full text in French Page 27-37 Abstract English China’s current political transition raises questions about which path should the new leadership take in the process of reshaping relationships between the State and society. This evolution is made necessary by the moving frontiers of roles played by stakeholders, particularly in the field of environmental protection : from limited circles of environmental activism, encouraged as well as controlled by the government since the 1990s, the civil society is today moving towards more independent ways of demonstrating its environmental awareness, as recent events have shown. However, even after the fall of Bo Xilai—which led people to believe in a “victory” of the Guangdong’s liberalist model—vigorous debates opposing claims for reform and resilient conservatism are still taking place in China

Detecting Censorable Content on Sina Weibo: A Pilot Study

This study provides preliminary insights into the linguistic features that contribute to Internet censorship in mainland China. We collected a corpus of 344 censored and uncensored microblog posts that were published on Sina Weibo and built a Naive Bayes classifier based on the linguistic, topic-independent, features. The classifier achieves a 79.34% accuracy in predicting whether a blog post would be censored on Sina Weibo

L'éveil vert de la société chinoise ?

Dans le contexte actuel de transition politique, la Chine cherche la voie à suivre pour la recomposition des relations entre l’État et la société civile. Cette évolution est rendue nécessaire par les mouvements de frontières des rôles joués par les différents acteurs, en particulier dans le secteur de l’environnement : des enceintes confinées d’activisme environnemental encouragées et contrôlées par le gouvernement depuis les années 1990, la société civile est aujourd’hui passée à un modèle d’expression plus indépendante, comme en a été témoin l’actualité médiatique de ces deux dernières années. Cependant, et ce même après la chute de Bo Xilai – qui pouvait laisser supposer une « victoire » des politiques libérales de la province du Guangdong –, les débats qui opposent la montée des revendications réformatrices aux relents de conservatisme sont toujours vifs.you're reading The “Green” Awakening of Chinese Society by Marie-Hélène Schwoob Shortcuts Outline Cite this article Full text in French Page 27-37 Abstract English China’s current political transition raises questions about which path should the new leadership take in the process of reshaping relationships between the State and society. This evolution is made necessary by the moving frontiers of roles played by stakeholders, particularly in the field of environmental protection : from limited circles of environmental activism, encouraged as well as controlled by the government since the 1990s, the civil society is today moving towards more independent ways of demonstrating its environmental awareness, as recent events have shown. However, even after the fall of Bo Xilai—which led people to believe in a “victory” of the Guangdong’s liberalist model—vigorous debates opposing claims for reform and resilient conservatism are still taking place in China