The Incrimination of Incitement to Subvert State Power and Political Development in China.

With the integration into the International System, the relationship between domestic and international laws in China is becoming a big issue. In 1997, China amended the criminal law broadly and one of the revisions was to rescind the offence of Counterrevolution and replaced it by the Suspicion of Incitement to Subvert State Power. The reform, however, was still heavily questioned. Although China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to try to comply with the norms of international human rights, it still can't ratify the ICCPR internally. After the implementation of the new criminal law, the Chinese government imposed very strict control over press and citizen's rights, evoking the laws against the endangering state security and subverting state government. This paper argues that in the foreseeable future there will be little possibility to ratify the ICCPR. Furthermore, the government sees no reason to abolish the Suspicion of Incitement to Subvert State Power at time soon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]