Political Legitimacy and Media Regulation in China

This paper explores how a change in political legitimacy affects functions of media law and regulation in China, and argues that the attempts to recast the foundations of the legitimacy of the Chinese state have shaped the discourse of the rule of law in general and the country’s broadcasting regulatory strategies and structure in particular. As communist ideology, economic performance and official virtue decline, the Chinese state has moved to expand its legitimacy in a number of ways, including through acquiring performance-based credibility, and by strengthening the legal-rational underpinnings of the exercise of power. The idea of improving the rule of law has become one of the most frequently mentioned strategies in maintaining legitimacy. The Party-state has appealed to the rule of law in order to rationalize and legitimize its regulation of the broadcasting media . However, the strategy of “administration according to law” in the Chinese broadcasting sector was primarily driven by a concern for legal legitimacy, and the legitimization efforts have primarily centered on the procedural aspects of the rule of law. The advantages of this is a promise of some degree of predictability, some limitation of arbitrariness and some protection of media rights and freedom, but in the absence of democracy and with the marginalization of public participation in the law-making process, the state and broadcasting authority can also enact illiberal laws that restrict media freedom. This paper will first outline the structures of media regulation in the People’s Republic of China, and the ways they are changing under the broader influence of the Chinese state’s attempts to strengthen its political legitimacy. The paper will therefore explore the question of political legitimacy, which links the state and society. It will go on to shows how changes in political legitimacy affect the function of law in Chinese media regulation, the paper will end by discussing the implications and limits of rule of law in Chinese media regulation.