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Political repression in China is often an issue addressed by human rights concerned groups. Throughout the history of establishment of the People’s Republic of China, countless of people suffered from political repression. Due to the unique form of nationalism in China, which binds the people with the state, therefore, the government has been using various forms of political repression in ensuring its legitimacy.

Origins and early Mao times
The political repression of contemporary China is largely related to the former chairman of People’s Republic of China, Mao. After the civil war and the establishment of People’s Republic of China, China was under totalitarian rule. Mao, as the totalitarian, has been launching different campaigns in order to repress the intellectuals or citizens who had the motives in against his totalitarian rule.

Goldman suggested that the political repression was started in mild repression, which was a campaign against writers who did not support Marxist-Leninist ideas. The writers were ordered to expel their non-Marxist-Leninist ideas. The rule of Mao was consolidated by further campaigns, such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The casualties caused by these campaigns were not reported and most of the intellectuals were silenced with the strict political control under the communist party. The cult of personality and the little red book, which was the quotations of Chairman Mao, was appreciated most in that era. The spread of Maoism has widened the gap of political belief between China and the developed western world. The difference in political practice leads to the contemporary controversy, which the political repression in China is often reported by the Human Right Watch.

Media repression
Media repression is one of the important means of the Chinese government in repressing the ideas and thoughts against the core ideology of the Communist Party of China. The government has been promoting the advanced ideology from communism, which is called the socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. This ideology was further affirmed by President Xi. Therefore, the media repression is one of the major means in controlling the thoughts of citizens.

With the development of social media sites, there were significant number of online bloggers in China. It was reported that there were at least 17 million active bloggers in China in 2007. The Chinese bloggers were often under surveillance, therefore, most of the bloggers avoid expressing their views on the politics, especially the Communist Party of China due to the fear. The fear has been created by Ministry of Public Security, which takes part in the management of the Internet. The party was reported to have employed ten of thousands of watchful ‘Internet police’ to track inappropriate contents, which are always labelled or persecuted as ‘harmful to social stability’. The opinions which were defined as a challenge towards the Communist Party of China were often denounced or hidden from the search engine.

The media repression has become a major problem for Communist Party of Chinese due to the rise of Chinese News Media. It is suggested that the emergence of new media posed a challenge on the propaganda schemed by the Central Propaganda Department. The department has been warning the journalists of new media in not covering the “events of social chaos, citizens appealing to the government, illegal organisations or demonstrations, strikes, walkouts, ethnic or religious clashes, criminal violence, or clashes between locals and the police or the People’s Liberation Army”. They were threatened with the actual consequence, which is “covered them in accordance with the rulings of the Communist Party of China.”

The conflicts between the propaganda policy and the media activism were shown with the emergence of protest events. The massive events reported are seen as a challenge towards the legitimacy of the Chinese government publicly. Therefore, the Chinese government have been striving for implementing the propaganda policy, as well as persecuting political activists. Human Rights Watch reported that the expansion of internet censorship regime can be observed in China. a popular social media platform, Weibo suspended some of its contents which the authorities were defined as ‘wrong-oriented’ and ‘vulgar’. Neihan Duanzi, a user account which has over 38 million monthly views, were shut down by the regulator. It is suggested that account has created a strong culture and loyalty from followers, therefore, the department has to suppress its further development.

Political repression towards Human rights defenders
The political repression towards human rights lawyers has been a significant issue under human rights protection in China. There were countless of human rights defenders pressured under the regime of the Chinese government. And Human Rights Watch have been recording the situations of human rights lawyers and other political activist are being arrested or disappeared.

Xinjiang and Tibet
The political repression of China has been extended to the contemporary government. In order to maintain the legitimacy of the Chinese government, the idea of political repression is still being upheld. However, the forms of political repression has been changing under the ruling of difference chairman of the Chinese government. Human Rights Watch reported that the repression is digitalised. The Chinese government launched an app in recording the details of residents in the remote areas in China, such as Tibet and Xinjiang. These regions are often called for independence from the rule of  Chinese government. Therefore, the app is used by the police force in recording the personal details of residents there, in order to classify and notice the political suspects. The app has triggered the horror within the region and the global attention. It is addressed by the Human Rights Watch, the act of political repression has violated the privacy and freedom of speech.

Hong Kong
The human rights practices in Hong Kong was rated as worsen by Human Rights Watch. After 20 years of handing over the sovereignty from the British government to the Chinese government, the freedom of speech has been heavily restricted indirectly with the signal posed by Chinese government.

‘One country, two systems’ policy is a backbone of basic law in Hong Kong, which the Chinese government redefined the policy in 2014 on the publication of While Paper. The policy has announced a decision, which is commonly known as ‘8.31 decision’ due to its date of announcement. The decision was often criticised for not offering expected universal suffrage to the Hong Kong government. In fact, after the Umbrella Movement in 2014, a 79 days of protest against the ‘8.31 decision’, the Chinese government was not responding the public outcry but to leave no room for discussion instead. The leaders of the Umbrella Movement were then prosecuted for ‘unlawful assembly’. The prosecution was a signal for Hong Kong residents in restricting the freedom of expression while an indefinite delay of universal suffrage was given by the Chinese government.