The Curtailment of Constitutional Rights and Mechanisms of Social Control in The People's Republic of China: Hubei Province Case at The Onset of The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract: This paper analyzes the curtailment of constitutional rights arising from the implementation of emergency measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in China's Hubei Province, which was not at all counterbalanced by introducing new forms of due constitutional protection. Likewise, high expectations cannot be set on pre-existing means of constitutional safeguards since the Chinese government clearly refused to establish new or different safeguarding procedures nor did it deem it necessary to establish ad hoc courts in order to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper is laid out as follows: (1) fundamental rights in a contemporary socialist state: an overview; (2) containment measures against COVID-19 and flexibility of constitutional right;. (3) the centrality of governing bodies and restrictions of constitutional rights; (4) territorial governance and centralization of containment measures against COVID-19; (5) between soft law and totalitarian propaganda; and (6) the ubiquity of the Communist Party of China and the "alignment" of judicial functions.