Ya-Wen Lei. The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China. Princeton, U.S.: Princeton University Press, 2018.
This book explores how China’s authoritarian state, through law, media, and the Internet, has unintentionally fostered a growing and contentious public sphere. Despite censorship and civil society restrictions, this public sphere has enabled citizens to engage in political debate, demand government accountability, and mobilize around legal rights. The study reveals how legal professionals, media actors, and citizens interact in this space, with many Chinese citizens increasingly seeing themselves as legal subjects. Political and economic fragmentation alongside digital communication have created new opportunities for critique within authoritarian controls. The book highlights the evolving role of legal discourse and attorneys in shaping state-society relations, illustrating the complex dynamics of legal mobilization and political expression in backsliding democracies.