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Using Mao to Package Criminal Justice Discourse in 21st-century China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2016

Susan Trevaskes
Susan Trevaskes*
Affiliation:
Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University, Australia. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

“Strike hard” anti-crime campaigns, “harmonious justice” and “stability maintenance” are the three key politically inspired agendas of crime control and punishment in 21st-century China. This paper is a study of how discourse has helped to package these agendas and to mobilize politico-legal functionaries into action. It examines discourse in the first weeks of the 2014 “people's war on terror” and the agendas of “harmonious justice” and “stability maintenance” in the Hu Jintao era. It finds that each has been rationalized and shaped by an understanding of the utility of punishment based on Mao's utilitarian dialectics. The political virtuosity of Mao's dialectics is that it can be adapted to suit any political situation. In understanding how Mao connects with criminal justice in China today, this paper identifies what is the “political” in “politico-legal” discourse in the fight against crime in the 21st century.

摘要

严打扫黑、和谐司法和维稳是直至目前的 21 世纪中国犯罪控制与惩罚的三个主要政治灵感和议程。本文论述了中国当局如何通过包装这些议程达致动员政治法律的功能性并付诸行动的实效。本文所研究的中国政治法律话语, 源自习近平 2014 年发动反恐人民战争的第一个星期的文件和报道, 以及胡锦涛时代的和谐司法与维稳议程的相关文件。本文认为他们均在遵循毛泽东式的唯物辩证法, 并将其进一步功利化, 从而塑造为己所用的犯罪控制与惩罚方式; 而毛泽东式唯物辩证法的政治技艺, 亦因此获得了因应多变的政治局势的可能。通过分析并解释毛泽东思想如何连接今日中国刑事司法, 本文确定了当代中国与打击刑事犯罪相关的“政治法律”话语中的“政治”含义与意义。

Keywords

criminal justice; the people's war on terror; harmonious justice; China; stability maintenance刑事司法反恐人民战争和谐司法维稳
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 226 , June 2016 , pp. 299 - 318
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Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2016 

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