The Impact of Transnational Corporations on the Right to Freedom of Expression in the People's Republic of China

In advance of the Special Representative's interim report to the UN Commission on Human Rights, HRIC would like to make the following submission, highlighting the role of transnational corporations with respect to an overarching human rights issue facing China today: the lack of freedom of expression.

The rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and freedom of association are increasingly impacted by the presence of international corporations in China. These are also areas in which corporate leadership and vision could make a contribution and a difference, and in which the development of the international legal framework with regard to business is critical.

Overview

Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution protects "freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration," and other constitutional provisions protect freedom of privacy of correspondence (article 40), and the right to criticize the government (article 41).

However, the right to freedom of expression is constrained in China through the criminal and state secrets legal framework, and supported by broader police and social controls as well as sophisticated technology censorship and surveillance tools. HRIC and other groups have documented an increasing and disproportionate invocation of state secrets crimes against lawyers, journalists, Internet activists and other human rights defenders as a means of controlling dissent.

The state secrets framework criminalizes the distribution of information determined by government departments to be classified on criteria including whether it is harmful to national security. Publicly available information can also be retroactively classified if it is deemed to have caused harmful consequences. The definition of what constitutes a state secret, however, "matters that affect the security and interests of the state" (PRC Law on the Protection of State Secrets, Art. 2), is extremely broad and the restriction on freedom of expression goes far beyond the "least restrictive" standard as required under international law.

Read the full submission on the Incorporating Responsibility 2008 Web site.