schoolsouts

The Constitution of the People's Republic of China guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, and property rights. However, censorship of political speech and information is explicitly and routinely used to protect what the government considers national security interests. The government has a policy of suppressing most protests and organizations that it considers a threat to social steadiness and national unity, as was the case with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. However, there are limits to the methods that the Party is willing to use as the media have become progressively more active in publicizing social problems, and exposing corruption and inefficiency at lower levels of government. The Party has also been rather ineffective at controlling information, and in some cases has had to change policies in response to public outrage. Although organized opposition against the Party is not accepted, demonstrations over local issues are recurrently and increasingly tolerated.