Controlling Public Dissent Through Media: State Coverage on Administrative Lawsuits in China

Abstract

Why would an authoritarian leadership publicize information about citizen resistance against the state? This paper explains the media coverage on administrative lawsuits in China as an authoritarian leadership’s co-optation and repression strategy towards its potential regime challengers within the society. By comparing the media-covered administrative trials with the entirety of over 1.1 million administrative court decisions published between 2014 and 2018, this paper finds that cases with less politically sensitive topics and government-losing results are made highly visible to the public. Through this, the central leadership demonstrates that within the permissible level of challenge against the state, the regime left room for discussion. On the other hand, cases with highly sensitive topics are underrepresented in the media. When such cases are covered, it is to show that any further challenges will not be tolerated. As such, the central leadership is preserving the authoritarian nature of the nominally democratic institution, namely the administrative litigation system.