“Drugs are a deep scar on the Chinese nation”: Discursive strategies of (de)legitimation regarding the sealing of drug use records in the digital sphere

The recent revision of China’s Public Security Administration Punishments Law, which permits the sealing of public-security administrative violation records, including drug-use records, has generated considerable fierce online debate. Designed as a step to reduce structural stigma and support the reintegration of people who use drugs (PWUD), the provision unexpectedly collided with deep-rooted national narratives. Using Critical Discourse Analysis on official texts and high-engagement user comments across six major Chinese social media platforms, this study examines the tension between modernizing drug policy and public resistance. We reveal that while official discourse relies on authorization, moral evaluation, and instrumental rationalization, the public discourse examined here reverses these strategies primarily through mythopoesis, in addition to the above strategies. Specifically, the traumatic collective memory about the Opium Wars and Yunnan acts as a meta-strategic resource, organizing resistance by elevating historical martyrs above legal experts and framing legal leniency as national betrayal. The findings highlight a critical dilemma for drug policy reform: progressive efforts toward de-stigmatization and social reintegration can face immense public backlash if they conflict with a nation's traumatic collective memory. Successful drug policy evolution in such contexts requires proactively navigating the intersection of historical trauma and public morality.