The Chinese Communist Party authorities’ years of crackdown and purge on human rights lawyers continues to intensify as we enter 2021. Recently, two human rights lawyers who continue to represent politically sensitive cases received letters from the judicial authorities informing them that they intend to revoke their lawyer’s license. Some analysts say that the authorities have ignored judicial procedures and regulations in order to purge “disobedient” human rights lawyers, not bothering to put up a front.
Two human rights lawyers will have their licenses suspended for taking on sensitive cases
At the beginning of the calamitous 2020 New Year, Zhengzhou human rights lawyer Ren Quanniu received a notice of administrative penalty hearing issued by the Henan Provincial Department of Justice on December 31, 2020, citing a case he handled in November 2018 to defend Falun Gong practitioners as an excuse for his conduct during the trial, which “seriously damaged the image of the legal profession.
At the same time, Chengdu rights lawyer Lu Siwei also received a notice of administrative penalty hearing issued by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice on January 4, stating that he had “repeatedly made inappropriate comments on the Internet for a long period of time and a large number of articles, which seriously damaged the image of the lawyer profession and caused a bad social impact”.
Although the reasons for the two lawyers’ proposed suspensions are different, it was soon discovered that both were lawyers appointed by the families of the “12 Hong Kong people” case, which was the most sensitive case for the Chinese Communist Party last year and received attention from Hong Kong and the international community.
Hong Kong people are seriously concerned
The “12 Hong Kong People Concern Group” immediately issued a statement condemning the authorities’ crackdown on Lu Siwei and Ren Quanniu, saying that the decision to suspend their licenses was issued immediately after the conclusion of the “12 Hong Kong People Case” on December 30, clearly in response to the two lawyers’ courage in defending the basic rights of 12 Hong Kong people at the risk of the authorities, and to punish them and cut off their livelihood.
The statement thanked Lu Siwei, Ren Quanniu and the Chinese human rights lawyers for accepting the commission from the families and taking on this highly sensitive political case in the face of political pressure from the local and national levels, and for their perseverance in defending the rights and interests of the 12 Hong Kong people despite the authorities’ difficulties, as well as their professionalism and integrity in exposing the dark secrets of the case.
At the end of August 2020, 12 young people from Hong Kong were intercepted by the Chinese Marine Police on their way to Taiwan on a suspected speedboat. After being held in Shenzhen Yantian Detention Center for more than four months, 10 of them, aged 18 or older, were charged with “organizing others to cross the border” and “crossing the border” respectively, and were sentenced to 7 months to 3 years in prison on December 30, while two minors were exempted from prosecution. They were handed over to the Hong Kong police on the same day.
Ren Quanniu: The Crime of Wanting to Add to the Crime
Mr. Ren Quanniu has represented many human rights and sensitive cases. In the 2015 “709” lawyer arrests that shocked the international community, he was the defense lawyer for Zhao Wei, the assistant of Beijing human rights lawyer Li Heping. On July 8, 2016, the Zhengzhou Public Security Bureau claimed that Ren Quanniu had spread “false” information online about his client’s personal humiliation, causing “serious damage to his reputation,” and had him detained.
After regaining his freedom, Ren continued to represent various rights cases, including the case of Zhang Zhan, a Shanghai citizen journalist who was sentenced to four years in prison on Dec. 28 for seeking the truth about the New Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the source of the outbreak.
Ren Quanniu told VOA on Jan. 4 that the authorities’ reason for suspending his license related to the 2018 case of an 80-year-old Falun Gong practitioner who did not speak out in court about what the authorities accused him of “denying the nature of the state-identified cult. The authorities questioned him about the case in the first half of 2019 and made a statement, but nothing has happened since.
He said, “I didn’t explicitly say in court that Falun Gong is not a cult under the law. I just said that he himself does not constitute a crime. In my defense statement, which I mailed after the trial, I discussed in detail all the legal provisions in China, including some legal documents, and did not identify Falun Gong as a cult. It directly said that I published something in the court, based on the nature of denial, and then caused bad influence. This is obviously something that simply does not exist.”
According to Ren, he was targeted by the authorities for “license revocation” because of his representation of the recently sentenced citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, especially in the “Twelve Hong Kong People Case.
He said, “These two cases must be the cause, mainly because of the Hong Kong people’s case. At that time, the state security to maintain my stability in September probably, he has reminded me, if you do not listen to the words, when the time may be suspended your license. I just did what I normally do. Later they also repeatedly asked me to withdraw, forced me to withdraw without reason, I did not agree with them, but also some compromise, that is, no more interviews. For the time being, they said there were two lawyers there, and I didn’t go there for a while. I thought it would be no problem. The result of this case as soon as the verdict is finished, we this immediately make a penalty decision.”
Lu Si bit: violation of the penalty is because he defended the Hong Kong people
The case of the “Four Gentlemen” in the “June 4, 1989” liquor case was defended by Zhang Junyong, who also represented Guangxi rights lawyer Chen Jiahong in the “incitement case. He has also represented Guangxi human rights lawyer Chen Jiahong in his “incitement case”, and has been suppressed and disciplined by the judicial authorities and the Law Society for this reason. He is also a defender of Guangxi human rights lawyer Qin Yongpei and dissident artist Wang Zang.
In June 2020, Lu Siwei defended Beijing human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng in his second trial after he was sentenced to four years in prison by the Xuzhou Central Court for “inciting subversion.
In August 2020, Lu Siwei was hired by his family to provide legal assistance and attempted to visit the detained Hong Kong residents after 12 young people who participated in the protest march were intercepted and detained in Shenzhen by the Chinese Marine Police.
When called by reporters on Jan. 4, Lo said he believed the suspension of his license was the result of his years of handling human rights cases, but that the “12 Hong Kong people case” was the decisive factor, and that the procedure for punishing him was also illegal.
He said, “This is the result of my long-term representation in sensitive cases, but the ’12 Hong Kong people’ case is definitely the decisive factor. The lawyer generally speaking, to be punished it should have a complaint, it this case is not a complaint at all. So how did it make the case? The second if it opened a case, it should notify me, to verify with me is not done these things. No one has notified me so far. Then all of a sudden I get a penalty against you. And what is the basis of your punishment? That means it thinks I said something. That’s what you want to add to the crime. Chengdu Judicial Bureau people they said, this is not a legal issue, this is a political issue.”
Lu Siwei’s lawyers have requested a hearing, which is scheduled for Jan. 13.
In a note published on January 4, Lu Siwei stressed that he has been dedicated to his profession since he started practicing law and has never violated the ethics and practice discipline of lawyers, and that the proposed punishment by the Sichuan Judicial Department is an inexplicable crackdown and persecution.
Prominent Lawyer Suspended from Practice for One Year
Another recent case of a lawyer being punished by the authorities that has received wide attention from the outside world, especially the legal profession, is the one-year suspension of Zhou Ze, a well-known Beijing human rights lawyer.
On December 21, 2020, the Beijing Chaoyang District Judicial Bureau proposed to suspend Zhou Ze from practice for one year on the grounds that he had influenced the handling of cases in an “improper manner. The so-called “improper manner” mainly refers to Zhou Ze’s public exposure on Sina Weibo of the Hefei police’s handling of the case involving torture to extract confessions and illegal handling of the case during the second trial defense of the so-called “fraud case” in which he represented lawyer Lv Xian San in a private lending dispute in 2020. The case was publicly exposed on Sina Weibo.
The Anhui High Court, in its second trial verdict on November 17, made two different determinations regarding the two lawsuits in which Lv Xian San was found guilty of fraud in the first trial, and changed Lv Xian San’s sentence of 12 years in the first trial to three years. Subsequently, the Hefei Public Security Bureau filed a complaint against Zhou Ze with the Beijing Chaoyang District Judicial Bureau.
On January 5, 2021, the hearing for the administrative punishment of Zhou Ze was held in Beijing’s Chaoyang District. Many clients, clients and supporters who had been represented by Zhou Ze came to the hearing in solidarity, sending flowers and presenting him with several banners.
According to the latest news, the Chaoyang District Judicial Bureau issued a one-year administrative penalty against Zhou Ze on January 7.
Some analysts say that Zhou Ze represented the second trial, if the case is affected by the Anhui High Court, if the complaint, it should be the High Court and not the Hefei Public Security. Moreover, the results of the second trial, the court also recognized that torture to extract confessions is true.
The analysis criticized that the Hefei Public Security Bureau is not correcting the wrongful handling of the relevant illegal cases, torture to extract confessions, but retaliating against Zhou Ze, is a big mistake. In addition, regarding the problems of Hefei Public Security, Zhou Ze has filed a complaint with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Supreme Prosecutor, etc., and hopefully the results will come out soon.
According to Caijing, Wang Fei, the lawyer representing Zhou Ze at the hearing, said that Zhou Ze was disclosing some evidential materials of the first trial that had been publicly tried during the second trial, which did not violate any regulations. And the act of disclosure is also to reflect the violation of the law by the organ and personnel handling the case, is to maintain the correct implementation of the law and defend the rule of law, there is sufficient justification.
Zhou Ze is a criminal defense lawyer of Beijing Zebo Law Firm, a former reporter of Legal Daily, and an associate professor of China Youth Politics College. 2006, Zhou Ze was selected as one of the “Top Ten Legal Figures” by People’s Daily, Xinhua, China Court, and CCTV International, and was selected by China Youth Daily as “In 2006, Zhou was selected as one of the “Top Ten Legal Figures” by People’s Daily, Xinhua, China Courts and CCTV International, and one of the “2006 People of the Year” by China Youth Daily.
“The Truth About “Rule of Law China
In an article commemorating the 40th anniversary of the restoration of China’s lawyer system, the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, said on Dec. 12, 2019, that the lawyer system is an important yardstick of the rule of law and civilization. 40 years ago, the lawyer business has developed with the development of China’s economy and society, following the progress of “democracy and rule of law”, and the lawyer team has grown from scratch and from small to large. Law firms from more than 70 to more than 30,000, practicing lawyers from more than 200 to more than 460,000 people, to become a “comprehensive rule of law,” an important force to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties, to maintain the correct implementation of the law, to maintain social “fairness and justice “It has made an important contribution to the protection of the legal rights and interests of clients, the correct implementation of the law and the maintenance of social justice.
However, the China Lawyers for Human Rights (CLHR), established in September 2013, issued a statement on April 24, 2020, on the 10th anniversary of the “photo suspensiongate” incident, reviewing the difficult situation of human rights lawyers, saying that the persecution by the authorities has led to the unemployment of many human rights lawyers, creating a phenomenon that is extremely rare in the history of the development of lawyers in the world.
The “license suspension” refers to the revocation of the licenses of human rights lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei by the Beijing Judicial Bureau in April 2010 for their representation in cases related to demolition and relocation, religion and freedom of expression. This is the first time the authorities have used the new Lawyers Law, which went into effect in June 2008, to launch a new round of crackdowns on human rights lawyers.
According to a statement by the China Lawyers for Human Rights, before 2010, Chinese human rights lawyers Zhang Jiankang, Zheng Enchong, Gao Zhisheng, Tang Jingling, Guo Guoting, Li Subin, Teng Biao, and Li Wuyi were, to varying degrees, framed and persecuted by the authorities, and either lost their jobs or were forced into exile due to the revocation or cancellation of their licenses.
The revocation of Liu Wei’s and Tang Jitian’s licenses in April 2010 demonstrated the arrogance and brutality of power, and became a new historical starting point for the government’s persecution of human rights lawyers.
The following 10 years have been a decade of total collapse of the rule of law in China, especially the “709” lawyer arrests in 2015, when the massive persecution of human rights lawyers by the authorities reached a new high point.
Lawyers: Removal if you don’t listen
Lawyer Ren Quanniu said that lawyers have become a vase for the authorities, and they have to listen to the authorities, and the authorities want to remove those lawyers who are loyal to their practice and are considered disobedient.
He said: “It is to make the lawyers become a vase, you see we also have a constitution, we also have a lawyer system and lawyers. In fact, you have to listen to the government, you don’t want to play your role, that’s what they want. Once you want to strictly follow the law, it will not work, that is disobedient. Either arrest, or revoke the license, or sentence people. It’s just a kind of persecution, right?”
After sentencing, detaining, summoning, interviewing, and warning hundreds of lawyers in the 709 incident in 2015, the authorities have continued to persecute rights lawyers by revoking or canceling their licenses to practice law or forcibly dissolving law firms.
The statement lists Li Heping, Zhou Shifeng, Pu Zhiqiang, Jiang Tianyong, Wang Quanzhang, Xie Yang, Wang Yu, Bao Longjun, Xie Yanyi, Yu Wensheng, Chen Wuquan, Wang Quanping, Zhang Zhan, Li Yuxuan, Chen Jiahong, Wen Haibo, Qin Yongpei, Zhu Shengwu, Liu Zhengqing, Sui Muqing, Wang Liqian, Wang Longde, Chen Keyun, Wen Donghai, Li Jinxing, Tong Chaoping, Liu Shihui, Song Meiying, Zhu Ruling, Ma Lianshun, Liu Shuqing, Cheng Hai, Yu Pin Jian, Zhang Xuezhong, Liu Xiaoyuan, Chen Jiangang, Wang Qingpeng, Chang Weiping, Zhong Jinhua, Ren Zhaoge, Huang Zhiqiang, Lu Siwei, Lu Tingge, Wu Shaoping, etc., indicating that these lawyers were either illegally framed and put behind bars, or had their licenses revoked or cancelled, or were illegally summoned, or were forced into exile overseas.
The statement said that more rights lawyers have been warned or suspended without reason, and that harassment by various illegal means is a common occurrence for rights lawyers, and even the normal work and lives of their families have been affected.
Teng Biao: Human rights lawyers are a “thorn in the side” of the authorities
Teng Biao, a former human rights law scholar who fled China and an adjunct professor at Hunter College in New York City, told the Voice of America on Tuesday that the authorities’ crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists has continued since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, culminating in the 709 arrests, and has intensified in recent years.
There are fewer and fewer human rights lawyers who can represent sensitive cases and human rights cases,” he said. Lawyers who can insist on continuing to do this work become a thorn in the side of the authorities, and they are sure to find various reasons and excuses to revoke their lawyer’s license or other punishments, or in more serious cases, they may be arrested and sentenced.”
Teng Biao said that since the establishment of the lawyer system, there are more procedures to follow in ordinary cases, but in what the authorities consider to be sensitive cases, the so-called various procedures, legal regulations and human rights standards are completely trampled on, and they increasingly do not care about outside criticism.
He said, “Even the most basic formal and superficial work is not done anymore, and they are openly going to arrest lawyers and openly revoke their licenses under various excuses. And many public statements and public speeches of the authorities emphasize that legal work should serve the Party and the government. Just from the caliber of the propaganda, from these official words, it is also a clear step backwards.”
In a statement commemorating the 10th anniversary of “Hanging Photo Gate,” the China Lawyers for Human Rights also said that in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of their clients, to uphold the correct implementation of the law, and to uphold social justice and fairness, human rights lawyers have performed their duties in accordance with the law – taking the Constitution seriously, taking the law seriously, and taking their rights seriously, like woodpeckers, trying to pluck the black sheep of the “rule of law” out of the corroded and rotten muscle one by one, revealing a “bad law” to the public for the benefit of the country and the people, and are a group of practitioners who truly pursue the rule of law and protect human rights, but they have been brutally suppressed by the authorities.
The statement asks, “Does China still want to build a real country under the rule of law? Is Chinese society still going to return to the dark ages of dictatorship and power supremacy?
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