-
Producer(s):
ARTE GEIE
-
Territories:
Worldwide.
-
Production year:
2020
-
Language(s):
German, French
-
Rights:
TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD
Since Xi Jinping's rise to power in 2013, dozens of Chinese lawyers, journalists and human rights activists have been paraded before television cameras to confess their crimes before they have even been tried.
Over the past five years, CCTV, China's leading state-owned TV station, has broadcast around 100 forced confessions during prime time. This process has been formalized by the government, to attack anyone challenging its authority.
In a prison cell or before a fake background, the accused tell of how they have wronged the communist regime or its leaders. All of them end up asking for forgiveness, and they are often given lengthy sentences.
At the present time, testimonies from victims of this experience are extremely rare. But among those who dare to speak out, all tell the same story. The Chinese Communist Party threatens and tortures them to force them to confess to crimes that they often did not commit.
A former British journalist, who was forced to confess twice while working in China, has filed a lawsuit in London. The investigation is ongoing, but it has already proven to be a serious thorn in the Chinese Communist Party's side. Now, its international propaganda apparatus is no longer hiding its desire to establish “a new media world order”.