| Abstract | This article reviews the application of laws against sedition in China and, in particular, recently publicised applications of these laws against two leading political dissidents in China. The analysis is placed within the context of a preliminary review of the development of laws against sedition principally in the United States. It concludes that it is not the abuse of China's anti-sedition laws, as laws, which needed to be most concerned about. The more crucial problem relates to the political context, influenced often by international factors, which shapes decisions to use these laws. It includes a fundamental (commonly unreasonable) 'fear factor' that systematically drives politically oppressive legal measures. |
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