Chinese television audiences have had new programming in recent weeks. The broadcasts look like part of the "true crime" genre. They are just as scripted, but there is nothing entertaining about them. In fact, the theater is anything but — the broadcasts are nationally televised confessions of individuals whose real "crime" seems to be offending the government. This is not a new phenomenon — show trials are a staple of the communist system — and China has in recent years increasingly used public confessions to shame individuals or silence challenges to its rule. Nevertheless, it is a troubling indication of how far the government will go to silence any opposition and the degree to which the law is elastic in China.

In the last two weeks, two men, both Swedish nationals, have been shown on TV confessing to crimes. In the first, Gui Minhai announced that he had turned himself into Chinese authorities to accept punishment for his alleged involvement in a fatal hit-and-run accident more than a decade ago that had prompted him to flee the country. A week later, Peter Dahlin, the founder of Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, a nongovernmental organization that trains human rights lawyers, told a national audience that he had "violated Chinese law" and "caused harm to the Chinese government. I've hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."

The circumstances surrounding both confessions raise disturbing questions. Gui writes and publishes sensational books about Chinese politics — the next one was reportedly about President Xi Jinping's love life — that are banned in China. He disappeared from his Thailand vacation home months ago, only to surface this month on TV, claiming that the guilt from the accident was overwhelming, that he missed his family in China, and urged all who watched the video — including the Swedish authorities — to accept his statement at face value.