Piercing the veil of state sovereignty: How China’s censorship regime into fragmented international law can lead to a butterfly effect

Abstract

AbstractThis article seeks to address China’s entrenched censorship regime in the constitutionalist dimension of international law. First, the article probes into China’s censorship regime and the way it is linked to the country’s foreign policies. Second, the article explores the tension between China’s national censorship regime and international law. Such tension is rendered sharper than ever in the context of fragmented international law, as exemplified by two UPRs of China and two WTO rulings. Finally, the article advances a constitutionalist premise that eventually China’s self-motivated step into the fragmented domain of international law could boomerang against China’s censorship regime. As the international standards of freedom of expression are evolving into a fundamental right with constitutional status, the functional interrelatedness between different subsystems of international law gives rise to the accountability of state actors, which in turn compels them to comply with universal rules.