Introduction: Discussing “civil society” and “liberal communities” in China

Abstract

(14) If there were an authoritarian normative conception of "civil society," it would thus have to be corporatist, and it would challenge the democratic conception. Much of rights-defence is of course inseparable from criminal justice issues - even in cases where there was an original focus on other causes, rights defenders themselves can, after all, easily be targeted by criminal "justice." [...]freedom of thought, speech, and conscience is of central importance if civil society is to perform the function of supporting and promoting China toward greater state respect for basic liberties and universal values. [...]Chinese civil society is controlled and in part persecuted - we can now affirm this not merely on the basis of the anti-civil-society rhetoric cited earlier, but also on the basis of observations made "on the ground."