Ge Chen
ABSTRACT: This study develops an absorptive censorship model of Chinese law, showing how the party-state regulates sexual expression through three interrelated tiers: political pornography, commercial pornography, and peripheral sex-related content. Although distinct in emphasis, these categories function together to reassign sexual expression from a sphere of individual freedom to one of political stability, market discipline, and cultural orthodoxy. The recent Haitang case illustrates how all three tiers can converge in practice, collapsing moral and political regulation into a single elastic system that preserves legality while hollowing out constitutional protection for free expression.