Articles for category: China

The “Never Again” Imperatives in Chinese Constitutions

This essay aims to provide a Chinese perspective on the question of traumas and the Never Again imperative. It will first place the question in the long history of constitution-making in China, taking the view that constitutional narratives are context-driven, shaped by particular historical processes, and addressing particular historical concerns of respective nation-states, each with its trauma and Never Again imperatives. This essay then brings the current 1982 constitution into focus, highlighting the trauma it is designed to address and assessing the sincerity and effectiveness of the commitment.

26. Juli 2024

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The “Hong Kong 47” Verdict

Recently, the first court verdicts in the trial surrounding the “Hong Kong 47” were handed down. The trial is one of several political trials that are underway in Hong Kong (HK), a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These trials are political partly because the accused are political figures involved in the 2019 civil unrest, partly because the accused are being tried under the National Security Law (NSL) introduced into HK by the PRC Central Authorities, and partly because they have been didactic spectacles revealing the actions and consequences sought by the accused. This blog post explains the background of the “Hong Kong 47” case and shows why it raises questions that are of interest outside of Hong Kong as well.

14. Juli 2024

Elektroautos, „Strafzölle“ und Klimaschutz

Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen stehen selten im Zentrum öffentlicher Berichterstattung. Zwei Entscheidungen in den USA und der EU innerhalb von wenigen Wochen haben indes weitreichende Aufmerksamkeit gefunden. Es geht um die Erhebung von Zusatzzöllen auf Elektroautos aus China. Die Maßnahmen der USA verstoßen gegen das Recht der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) und sind völkerrechtswidrig; bei den Maßnahmen der EU ist fraglich, ob Klimaschutz durch Verfügbarkeit günstiger Elektroautos hinreichend berücksichtigt wird.

2. Juli 2024

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Toward a More Rigorous Mechanism for Resolving Legislative Conflicts

In December 2023, China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), adopted the Decision on Improving and Strengthening the System of Recording and Review, a major bill aimed at reforming “recording and review” (R&R)—China’s system of parallel processes for resolving legislative conflicts. Under R&R, an enacting body—that is, a governmental body authorized to issue documents of a legislative nature—must file its legislation with the designated reviewing body for subsequent review. Some would give more teeth to the rectification process so that enacting bodies do not abuse the latitude they enjoy. How the new measures would work in practice and whether they would achieve the intended goals, however, remain to be seen.

24. Juni 2024

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„Mr. President, Does the TikTok ban conform with the Constitution?“

Der US-Kongress hat ein Verbot von TikTok beschlossen, dies im Rahmen von zwei Gesetzen, welche sich – aus Gründen der nationalen Sicherheit und des Datenschutzes – gegen von feindlichen ausländischen Staaten (Foreign Adversary Countries) beherrschten Unternehmungen richten. Damit soll es in den USA nunmehr zwei Standards bei Plattformregulierungen geben: Sehr liberale als Normalfall, und strenge in Zusammenhang mit sog. Foreign Adversary Countries.

21. Mai 2024

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China’s Memory Laws

The study of ‘memory laws’ has seen a spectacular rise in recent years as governments worldwide are reverting to formal legislation to shape and secure their preferred historical discourses and outlaw narratives subverting these. Despite the increasingly global nature of this phenomenon, this budding scholarly genre has remained largely preoccupied with developments in Europe. Until very recently, Chinese memory laws have been overlooked in these discussions. It is time to start paying attention to them.

2. Mai 2024

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A Nail in the Coffin of Hong Kong’s Rule of Law

Media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been the continued target of prosecution by the Hong Kong government. In a recent judgment, he has been convicted of fraud and handed a prison sentence of almost six years. As a result, another worrying development in a National Security Law (NSL) case against Lai, in which he is accused of inter alia conspiring to ‘collude with a foreign country or external elements’, has received significantly less attention. This concerns a 13 December ruling by the High Court of Hong Kong to adjourn the NSL trial until September 2023, in order for the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) to give an interpretation on whether foreign barristers are allowed to represent clients in NSL cases. In this blog post, I will use the NSL case against Jimmy Lai to examine some of the consequences of the NSL for the rule of law and the rights of defendants in Hong Kong.

20. Dezember 2022

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Foreign Agents, Diplomatic Skirmishes and the Law on Diplomatic and Consular Relations

In September 2022, the Madrid-based NGO ‘Safeguard Defenders’ published a report entitled ‘110 Overseas – Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild’, in which it documented the existence of at least 54 extraterritorial and undeclared Chinese police stations in more than 30 countries, many of them European Union Member States, such as Germany, Ireland, or the Netherlands. These police facilities, operated under the guise of ‘service centres’ supposedly providing diplomatic and consular services such as extending driving licences for Chinese nationals, have hence been located in cities such as Dublin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.

2. November 2022

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Hamburger Hafenrundfahrt im Regierungsviertel

Der jüngste Streit um die geplante Beteiligung der chinesischen Reederei COSCO an einem Terminal im Hamburger Hafen hat die Investitionskontrolle in den Mittelpunkt der öffentlichen Aufmerksamkeit gerückt. Während die Gegner der Beteiligung einen Ausverkauf kritischer Infrastruktur an China als systemischen Rivalen in der immer schärferen geoökonomischen Auseinandersetzung um die Vorherrschaft in der Welt sehen, betonen die Befürworter die Gefahr eines Bedeutungsverlusts des Hamburger Hafens. Wer immer sich durchsetzt – das geltende Investitionskontrollrecht gibt hierfür die notwendigen Spielräume. Käme es zu einer Untersagung, so wäre auch kaum damit zu rechnen, dass diese erfolgreich auf dem Verwaltungsrechtsweg angegriffen werden könnten.

25. Oktober 2022

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Is Taiwan a State?

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Taiwan just celebrated its national day on 10 October 2022. In her speech, President Tsai Ing-wen traced the Republic of China’s resettling in Taiwan in 1949, to its democratization in the 1980s and 1990s, the latter of which transformed it into the Republic of China (Taiwan). Tsai also cautioned the People’s Republic of Chinas (the PRC) “attempts to erase the sovereignty of the Republic of China (Taiwan) have threatened the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the region.” In contrast, in its “White Paper on Taiwan Question and the Unification of China in a New Era,” the PRC reiterated its longstanding position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and cited United Nations (UN) Resolution 2758 to advance its so-called “One China Principle” internationally.

18. Oktober 2022

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