Scholars often struggle to understand why the People's Republic of China (PRC) has not developed the kind of democratic rights and institutions prevalent in the West. One traditional explanation is that Western conceptions of democratic rights and Chinese socialist values are separated by an unbridgeable gap. It is thought that the Chinese people, steeped in Confucian values for centuries and now recently immersed in socialism, simply have no desire to pursue the ideals advanced in Western rights discourses. Hua Sheng's foregoing retrospective, Big Character Posters in the PRC: A Historical Survey (Historical Survey), poses a potent challenge to this view. Historical Survey does not portray a complacent people quietly accepting the dictates of what Confucius would call a "virtuous ruler," but a people struggling relentlessly for freedom of thought, belief, and speech against a repressive government.

Reflecting on this history, the present essay explores how a right to freedom of speech in general, and a right to write big character posters (dazibao) in particular, can be realized in the PRC. Drawing on the insights generated by contemporary legal theories, it advances a rights theory to provide a theoretical basis for the development of rights and democratic institutions in the PRC. This essay begins with a critical examination of the theoretical explanations for the source of democratic rights and institutions traditionally provided by the "natural rights theory." It argues that the natural rights theory constructs a sharp yet fictive distinction between "liberal individualism" and "socialist collectivism." Consequently, the natural rights theory is unable to explain why rights and freedoms exist in the West, but are generally absent in the PRC.

In place of the natural rights theory, this essay advances a "pragmatic" rights theory that re-defines "rights" as freedoms which the state provides to its citizens by way of political practices that are sensitive to the interests of all segments of the society, and justifiable in accordance with the standard of rationality generally accepted in the society. Contrary to common perceptions, it is not the PRC's collectivist culture which precludes the development of sensitive and rational government practices, but its lack of a comprehensive collectivism in which both the people and the governing elites forsake their personal interests to advance the goals they in fact share. A comprehensive collectivism can develop only when both the people and the governing elites participate in, and internalize, a "common democratic consciousness" generated by an unfettered marketplace of ideas. Only when government practices are informed and constrained by a common democratic consciousness, do citizens enjoy rights, not just in theory, but in practice. The second part of this essay examines the important role that dazibao play as a medium of expression in the PRC. It argues that the PRC's present political and economic conditions make dazibao an ideal means for creating an open marketplace of ideas and developing a common democratic consciousness.