John Stuart Mill's Censorship In China

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Censorship in China

Introduction:

Censorship is a technic often used by a state to control the information available to its citizens. Although the very first act of censorship is unknown, many acts of censorship throughout history has been documented. Acts such as burning books, imprisoning, and killing those with ideas that go against the belief of the government/ the main power holding group. Although it is thought that these acts are no longer used/ heavily frowned upon in most areas of the world, there are plenty of areas where these acts are performed systematically by the government. China has almost always been a society that heavily relies on acts of censorship of its own people to keep things in line. After the Communist Party …show more content…

Mill is clearly, and most definitely, against all types of censorship, as censorship infringes on one’s freedom. Mill was also censored by his government, however, he did not let himself be censored completely. The whole book, On Liberty, is written about giving freedom to men, to allow them to live the lives that they desire to live. Mill states in his fourth chapter
"As soon as any part of a person's conduct affects prejudicially the interests of others, society has jurisdiction over it, and the question whether the general welfare will or will not be promoted by interfering with it, becomes open to discussion.”.
Mill believes that the only time one’s liberty should be limited is when it affects the interests/ the liberties of others around him. Having said that, it is clear what Mill’s stance on the Chinese censorship would be. The Chinese government does not censor to protect its citizens, but to protect their political powers. To Mill, this would be the government infringing on the liberties of its citizens without any justification. Mill, without a doubt would question the legitimacy of the actions of the government, and urge the people of China to act against their government, as it is now violating trust that was given to them. To Mill, there is nothing more important than the liberties of individuals, and the acts committed by China would be enough for him to disavow the Communist Party of China …show more content…

Living in a world where all writings were censored, quite similar to modern day China, Mill had to hide his true intensions within his words. Mill, to voice his ideas whilst saving them from censorship, hid his ideas by acting as a member of society who is concerned about those with such ideas. For instance, Hamburger has described in his book, John Stuart Mill on Liberty and Control,
“In one of his ruminations about rhetoric, entered in his diary at about the time he was planning On Liberty, he worried about the difficulties faced by those who were “in advance of their time” as they tried “to gain the ear of the public.””. As Mill made such actions, he may urge the people of China to do the same, and to go against the restrictive censorship set on them, by hiding one’s true intensions by misguiding the reader from

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