The two faces of law: a study of the Chinese legal popularization campaign

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the paradoxes and unintended consequences of China’s official Legal Popularization Campaign, the so-called pufa yundong (普法运动) , which was not only aimed to popularize the current laws, but tries to combine legal action with political ideology. In doing so, this thesis will analyze and reveal the socio-political background in which the campaign has been pursued and implemented over the last thirty years across China. What I want to explore is whether this campaign is a reaction to the crisis of legitimacy by the Communist government, or is seen as a remedial measure to counter lawlessness typically found in contemporary Chinese society. As a result, the campaign can be viewed in the light of the modern doctrine of the rule of law, upon which the New China as a nation-state could be built. Ironically, both political propaganda and sincere legal efforts are mixed together. In this way, it is not hard to understand that paradoxes have arisen as well as unintended consequences with variable outcomes.