My first thought about this article is that I am glad Deng Yujiao was saved by the internet, because had they convicted her of murder it would have provided more evidence to my scrapbook of how China is corrupt. The crazy thing about this article is that wrongful convictions and situations such as these occur in the U.S. all the time. The only difference is I think the court and legal/justice system is more stable. I do not think media too often plays a “fairness” role in a trial. I do not think our legal system is perfect, but when I think of this alternate and the fact that the media is a check and balance to the Chinese legal system seems quite odd. However, this article argues that  this is not odd, but the evolution of “competitive supervision”. It says that the court and media interaction is actually strengthening the the party-state by increasing responsiveness and accountability without deeper political reforms – called horizontal accountability. I think that I agree with this statement, China is better off for this relationship. The government, still fighting corruption, is trying to do better, but corruption still finds its way in. The media publicly displaying this corruption and putting the government on display  is probably the perfect way for the government to change. Especially with the internet now, it is a game changer. Like stated in the case about Sun Zhigang in 2003 the government was going to try and ban the media display of the case, but because it was put on multiple websites on the internet it was too late by the time they got to it, so it could  not be erased. It was the people’s discontent with the appellate’s court decision that got the Supreme People’s Court to intervene in the case and the proper punishment to be rendered.

This concept is very interesting considering we are on the opposite spectrum in the U.S. During a trial the media should not have too many details about a case, jury members should not be watching news about a case, and the media plays very little role in the actual legal part of a case. This is in order to protect rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Although the system might not always be just and fair the U.S. judicial system seems like it is a good one to me. However, in China I am 100% on board with the Competitive Supervision because I think it keeps the Courts more honest and fair.