ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 concludes with a general discussion of research findings and implications. Filling the gaps within existing scholarship, this book implies that (1) state power is not the only threat to freedom of the press, but corporate organizations and market forces may also play a role in curtailing or circumscribing it; (2) cross-national economic connections do not always benefit domestic practice regarding human and civil rights, but may cause damage to it on occasions when relations of economic interdependence involve more powerful authoritarian countries; and (3) norms may not only diffuse from liberal contexts to repressive states, but repressive norms are also likely to diffuse from more powerful authoritarian countries to more liberal but politically and economically weaker countries. In addition, this chapter provides a preliminary investigation of how the Taiwanese government and civil society responded to Beijing-induced media control through social movements and anti-media monopoly legislation from 2008 up to the present time. Given the growing concerns about the impacts of China’s economic rise on human rights and democracy around the world, the book deserves attention from democratic countries which have increasing economic linkages with China.
