Best & Worst of CPAC's Free Speech Ratings: China

CPAC's inaugural Freedom of Speech Ratings assessed the health of freedom of speech in 31 countries across the globe. In its latest assessment, China came in at the bottom of the ratings with a dismal 10% score, ranking it as one of the most repressive nations in the world. 

The People’s Republic of China is a one-party authoritarian state led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that maintains absolute control by criminalizing independent expression and crushing any form of dissent. The regime enforces a strict policy against questioning CCP-controlled Chinese history or the regime, effectively erasing any narrative that contradicts state propaganda. Under this system, for example, the mere mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre or the acknowledgment of Taiwan as a sovereign entity can lead to severe repercussions. By utilizing pervasive surveillance and censoring tools like the "Great Firewall," the Chinese government ensures that those who speak the truth about historical events or political realities are met with swift state retribution.

The case of Ruan Xiaohuan serves as a chilling testament to this repression. An information security specialist, Xiaohuan operated the influential blog ProgramThink, where he provided technical explanations on how to bypass the state’s internet blockade and published critiques of the CCP regime. His efforts to empower citizens with information led to his capture by the Shanghai police, who charged him with "inciting subversion of state power." Prosecutors alleged that Xiaohuan "composed over 100 seditious essays" that "smeared the current political system" and "attempted to overthrow the socialist system." Xiaohuan was sentenced to seven years in prison. The details of his trial were hidden from the public, and in 2024, the Shanghai High People's Court dismissed his appeal, ensuring he remains behind bars for his digital activism.

Xiaohuan’s seven-year sentence serves as a stark reminder of the extreme measures the CCP will take to silence those who bypass the "Great Firewall."

Because of China's treatment of Xiaohuan and other political prisoners, it received a one of the lowest scores in CPAC's Freedom of Speech Ratings.

Read the full brief here.

Not every case of imprisonment for speech gets widespread media attention. If you are aware of a case in which a person was imprisoned for speech and received a harsher sentence than the political prisoner whom we feature in the scorecard, please send the details of the case to slaird2@conservative.org. To meet our methodological criteria, the person must be 1) imprisoned or sentenced to prison for speech that would have been protected under the US first amendment, 2) a citizen of the country in which they are imprisoned, 3) received a sentence of imprisonment for at least one month OR were imprisoned without being sentenced for at least 3 months 4) not imprisoned for any actual crime during the same period for which they were sentenced for a speech crime.

CPAC vehemently opposes the views of many of the political prisoners featured in the Freedom of Speech Ratings. Political prisoners are featured in the Freedom of Speech Ratings for the purpose of revealing the state of legal Freedom of Speech protection in their countries. Political prisoners are selected based on the objective facts of their cases; each selected prisoner is the person who received the harshest sentence in that country for speech that would have been protected by the US First Amendment. CPAC stands for the right to Freedom of Speech for everyone, even people whose views we vehemently oppose.