Pei (2010), “Rights and Resistance: The Changing Contexts of the Dissident Movement”

Minxin Pei. “Rights and Resistance: The Changing Contexts of the Dissident Movement.” In Chinese Society, pp. 49-74. Oxfordshire, U.K.: Routledge, 2010.

This chapter explores how rapid economic growth and legal reforms in China have reshaped the dissident movement by creating new political and legal spaces for rights assertion. Lawyers and legal activists operate within this evolving context, leveraging increased rights consciousness and international legal commitments to challenge authoritarian control. However, these efforts take place under a regime that still tightly controls political dissent, making the role of attorneys complex—as both agents navigating limited legal openings and as potential catalysts for broader social and political change amid backsliding democracy

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