BEIJING – China’s public is expressing concern about a potential legal change that would allow for fines and even jail time for people who offend the government’s sensibilities by wearing the wrong clothing.
The Standing Committee of the nation’s legislature recently released a draft of revisions to the law it is mulling over that would forbid a range of behaviour, including dress or speech, that is “detrimental to the spirit of the Chinese people and hurts the feelings of the Chinese people”.
The lawmakers did not spell out exactly what kind of images or speech could get people sent to a detention centre for up to 15 days or fined up to 5,000 yuan (S$950). The legislature has listed the law among its priorities for passage in 2023.
The draft law highlights how Chinese President Xi Jinping has clamped down on civil liberties in the nation of some 1.4 billion people over his decade in power, including by stepping up Internet censorship.
The police in Suzhou, a city near Shanghai, detained a woman in 2022 for wearing a kimono in public.
China has a longstanding feud with Japan over its actions during World War II, a dispute that has recently been exacerbated by Tokyo’s decision to release treated wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.
Over the last year, the authorities have clamped down on people wearing shirts with rainbows at concerts or distributing flags on a university campus that had the pro-LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) symbol on them.
Many people on Chinese social media expressed concern that the proposed changes to the law may be going too far.
One user of the Weibo social media site who goes by the handle Nalan lang yueyueyue asked how the authorities would know when the nation’s feelings were hurt.
“Shouldn’t the spirit of the Chinese nation be strong and resilient?” the person asked. “Why can it be easily damaged by a costume?”
Mr Du Zhaoyong, who identified himself as a lawyer on Weibo, said in a post that received 8,800 likes that the law would “definitely bring huge uncertainty and open wide the door of convenience to arbitrary and unauthorised punishment”.
Bloomberg was unable to reach Mr Du. BLOOMBERG
