Scripted and Staged

Scripted and Staged: 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.