Troubling TV Confessions in China

Chinese television audiences have had new programming in recent weeks. The broadcasts look like part of the “true crime” genre. They are just as scripted, but there is nothing entertaining about them. In fact, the theater is anything but — the broadcasts are nationally televised confessions of individuals whose real “crime” seems to be offending the government. This is not a new phenomenon — show trials are a staple of the communist system — and China has in recent years increasingly used public confessions to shame individuals or silence challenges to its rule. Nevertheless, it is a troubling indication of how far the government will go to silence any opposition and the degree to which the law is elastic in China.

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