We saw China quiver when faced with a half-million-man march in Hong Kong. Will they do the same in the face of a petition challenging the CCP to better define its anti-subversion laws? The petition, a direct result of the government’s arrest of “cyber-dissident” Du Daobin, now has more than 800 signatures, including some of the nation’s top scholars. That doesn’t sound like a lot of names, but in China, it’s extraordinary. Each of the signers is putting himself at risk.

[The petitioners] point out that Du’s case is not an isolated incident – a reference to the recent spate of arrests involving Internet users who criticised the government online.

‘This means that the judicial interpretation of the anti-subversion law has completely strayed from what’s in the Constitution and the Penal Code, as well as the public’s sense of justice,’ the petitioners say in the unusually bold open letter.

‘And it shows that crimes of subversion are now determined by some unpredictable and arbitrary political yardstick instead of legal standards.’

Unless the Supreme Court clarifies the boundaries of the law and freedom of speech, ‘everyone of China’s 80 million Internet users is a potential Du Daobin’, the letter adds.

The petition marks the latest example of how China’s online community is increasingly using the Internet as a powerful conduit for social change and justice.

Whether or not the petition creates any change in policy or leads to greater openness remains to be seen. The mere fact that it has gathered such momentum is a positive sign.