Ren Quanniu: Even if all Chinese rights lawyers’ licenses are revoked, they should still support Hong Kong people.
Chinese rights lawyer Ren Quanniu, who has represented 12 Hong Kong people and Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, received a notice from the Henan Provincial Department of Justice on Tuesday (2) that his lawyer’s license has been revoked. Although he still has a chance to appeal, he does not expect an optimistic outcome. In an exclusive interview with RTHK, he stressed that he has no regrets about the possible end of his career as a lawyer, and said that even if all Chinese human rights lawyers are crucified, he should still support Hong Kong people without any hesitation. (Lv Xi reports)
The hearing on the revocation of Chinese rights lawyer Ren Quanniu’s license ended last Friday (Jan. 29) with no results. Four days after the incident, the Henan Provincial Department of Justice finally issued a notice on Tuesday (Feb. 2) deciding to revoke his lawyer’s practicing license, citing allegations that he violated the provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Lawyer Practice by “repeatedly denying the nature of the state-identified cult” in his defense while representing a case of “using a cult organization to undermine the implementation of the law” on Nov. 7, 2018.
The decision of the Henan Provincial Department of Justice describes Ren Quanniu’s behavior as “bad in nature and serious in nature, seriously damaging the image of the lawyer profession and causing a bad social impact”. The decision letter also said that Ren Quanniu and his agent’s arguments at the hearing lacked factual and legal basis and were not accepted.
Ren Quanniu: The real reason for the nailing of the license is to represent the 12 Hong Kong people and Zhang Zhan case
In an exclusive interview with us, Ren Quanniu said that the above case was a case involving Falun Gong, saying that there has been no clear legal provision in China to designate Falun Gong as a cult. In his defense speech, he argued that the case was not publicly available and questioned how it “caused a bad social impact. He argued that it was a “trumped up” excuse for the authorities to use a case from two years ago as justification for revoking his license, and that the real reason for the authorities to target him was the two sensitive cases he represented in 2020, including the 12 Hong Kong people case and the Zhang Zhan case.
One is the 12 Hong Kong people’s case, which I was involved in more deeply. Then when they forced me to quit, I didn’t agree. The other is the Zhang Zhan case, there may also be some factors, is also very sensitive, there are many media interviews, these two cases should be the most direct reason.
At the end of August last year, 12 youths who had participated in the Hong Kong protests were intercepted by the Chinese Marine Police during their escape to Taiwan and detained in Shenzhen Yantian Detention Center. Ren Quanniu, entrusted by his Family, kept fighting to meet the people involved, and was once warned by the “stability maintenance department” to withdraw from the case, but he refused. Last year, Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist who went to Wuhan to cover the truth about the Epidemic, was accused of “speculating on the epidemic” and charged with provoking and provoking trouble. Both sensitive cases have attracted international attention.
Lawyer’s career ends but no regrets in supporting Hong Kong people
The penalty decision from the Henan Provincial Department of Justice says that Ren Quanniu can apply for an administrative review with the Henan provincial government or the Ministry of Justice within 60 days, or file an administrative lawsuit with the Jinshui District Court in Zhengzhou City within six months. Ren Quanniu told the station that he will continue to go through the relevant procedures, but believes the decision to revoke his license comes from Beijing, so he has no expectations for the outcome.
The loss of his license means that Ren’s career as a lawyer will be declared dead, and he will have to engage in non-litigation work such as legal consulting in the future, but he said he does not feel the slightest regret, but rather feels honored.
I think that even if all the lawyers in mainland China have their licenses suspended, they should still support the people of Hong Kong,” said Ren. Because of the hope of Chinese society, in fact, Hong Kong people have been standing in the forefront. That year’s demonstration, so many people even paid with their lives, arrested, that kind of persecution is also quite serious. I think we, as a group, are righteous and should do what we can to help. I think it is a debt that all mainlanders owe to the people of Hong Kong.
However, Ren Quanniu lamented that the incident showed that there is no law and order and rule of law in China, and the regime is acting arbitrarily, which is the sadness of the country and the people.
After the hearing today, a large number of Ren Quanniu’s supporters came to show their solidarity and gave him a banner of “where righteousness lies”. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
2021 begins with human rights lawyers being nailed and shut down one after another
In addition to Ren Quanniu, several Chinese human rights lawyers have been punished to varying degrees in the past month. Lawyer Lu Siwei, who was also appointed by the families of 12 Hong Kong people, was accused of making comments on the Internet that “endangered national security” and making “inappropriate comments” about the case, and had his license suspended; lawyer Zhou Ze, who had exposed videos of public security officers extorting confessions from his clients, was ordered to suspend his practice for one year; lawyer Deng Xiangdong, who represented 709 lawyer Wang Quanzhang, was accused of disobeying the presiding judge during interrogations and faced suspension of his license. He was accused of disobeying the trial judge and faced revocation of his license.
Concerned about the organization: regression to the era of the Cultural Revolution
A series of incidents have raised concerns about how much room there is for Chinese human rights lawyers to defend human rights and justice through the law. Albert Ho, chairman of the China Rights Defense Lawyers Concern Group, told the station that since the “709 incident” in 2015, the authorities have been using different methods to suppress human rights lawyers across the board.
If lawyers cannot protect their own rights, how can they protect their clients? How can they protect the vulnerable groups who have no legal knowledge at all? The current direction is lawlessness, slowly moving towards the state of the Cultural Revolution, which we can foresee.
Albert Ho criticized that the practices of the Beijing authorities in recent years have completely undermined the state policy of “rule by law” set by the CCP itself in 1997, and set China back in the direction of “anti-civilization”.
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