Duality and China's Struggle for Legal Autonomy

Abstract

In a powerful speech to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy, Xi Jinping declared: "We must resolutely reform what should and can be changed, and we must resolutely not reform what shouldn't and can't be changed". Xi's speech captures and explains the dilemma in which, on one hand, China has initiated the most repressive campaign against political dissidents, real or perceived, as show-cased in the continuous crackdown on lawyers, journalists, religious believers, and civil society activists, among others