Scripted and Staged: Behind the scenes of China's forced televised confessions

by Safeguard Defenders, Peter Dahlin (Contributor), Rachael Tyrell (Editor)

Scripted and Behind the scenes of China’s forced televised confessions is a groundbreaking study that gives the reader a backstage pass to China’s production and broadcast of coerced confessions by human rights lawyers, journalists, activists and even foreigners.These forced confessions, more high-profile since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power, are reminiscent of Mao-era public struggle sessions and represent such a transgression of human rights that they are only practiced today by regimes such as North Korea and Iran. Using in-depth interviews, first person testimonies, and analysis of hours of broadcast confessions, Scripted and Staged exposes how the Chinese state uses threats and torture to force victims into confessing, how China’s media collaborates in their recording, production, and broadcast across the nation and around the globe. The testimonies in this report expose how the Chinese police carefully choreograph the whole process, from dressing the victim in “costume,” to writing the “script,” to directing how the confession is delivered, and demanding retake after retake until the propaganda message is ready for airing, all with the collaboration of the media—mostly China’s state broadcaster CCTV. And for the many foreign victims, their confessions are often exploited as a tool of Chinese foreign policy.

114 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2018

Reviews

[Federico Arcuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

"All of it was choreographed, and the whole thing went on perhaps 7 hours, with so many retakes I can't remember for sure"

Safeguard Defenders' "Scripted and Staged" is a well-structured report on a topic that is usually ignored by mainstream news about Human Rights issues: the illegal practice of Forced Televised Confession. This report collects data from 45 'high-profile' televised confessions which were broadcasted between 2013 and 2018. The strength of the text is both presenting the subjective and personal account of the people who have been forced to confess, along with a general analysis of the pattern found in thw whole set of confessions.

In the confessions, human rights activists, lawyers, or simply anti-regime intellectuals are forced to confess their "anti-China" crimes, such as plotting to overthrow the CCP. The forced confession is extorted through torture, sleep deprivation and by threatening one's relatives.

I found two parts of the analysis especially interesting:
1. The televised confessions are really "Scripted and staged", exactly like a Tv show: Detainees are dressed in costume, they have to learn their lines, the confession is heavily directed, and set in a location that resembles a mini tribunal. "They filmed it secretly, they edited it and they put in Tv without my knowledge"
2. Chinese media is effectively co-opted into broadcasting and promoting the televised confessions, thus collaborating in this Human Rights abuse. While the fact that Chinese media is nothing more than a tool of propaganda for the CCP is not surprising, I was shocked to know that the South China Morning Post, that I had always regarded as a respectful East Asian journal, has also been co-opted into collaborating with the Chinese police.

I hope this report can convince everyone that Chinese televised confessions are not only scripted and staged, but also an abuse of power and an infringment of basic human rights; drawing on this, Chinese media outlets - let alone the government - should be held accountable for their actions.