Shanghai lawyer Peng Yonghe was recently disbarred for calling for open speech during the Epidemic and speaking out for citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Zhang Zhan, among others, incurring suppression and persecution from the CCP’s Justice Bureau. He said it is a human instinct to speak out and called on the authorities not to act against human nature.
On January 30, Peng Yonghe received a decision letter from the CCP’s Shanghai Judicial Bureau to cancel his lawyer’s license, and his unreturned license was also invalidated at the same Time. According to the authorities, the cancellation is based on Article 23 of the Measures for the Administration of Lawyer Practice, which states that a person who has not been employed by another law firm within six months because he or she has terminated the employment contract with the law firm in which he or she works.
Peng Yonghe told reporters, “January 29th (Shanghai Judicial Bureau) out of the document, is the day Ren Quanniu open a hearing on the suspension of the license. My wife saw an envelope stuck in the doorway of my house on the 30th. The reason for their cancellation is to say that you have not found a law firm, or that no law firm dares to hire you only.”
Shanghai lawyer Peng Yonghe had his license to practice cancelled on Jan. 29. (Courtesy of interviewee)
Peng Yonghe introduced a clear lineage to his license cancellation. A lot has happened since his withdrawal from the Shanghai Bar Association in 2017 drew the attention of the authorities.
Peng Yonghe had sued the Shanghai Bar Association for unclear accounts. on May 2, 2017, Peng Yonghe publicly withdrew from the Shanghai Bar Association. Peng Yonghe argued that the organizational structure of the bar association was ambiguous and that the officially manipulated bar association had departed from the principle of autonomy of a lawyers’ trade association. At the end of that month, his former law firm also unilaterally terminated his employment contract.
Having handled Falun Gong cases earlier, he said that his duty as a lawyer is to consider the issue from a legal perspective. He believes that Falun Gong cases are not about the law itself, but more about politics, and that they are not tried according to the law, but according to politics.
Peng Yonghe asked the authorities to solve the three problems he raised: first, to realize the consultation and financial disclosure of the Law Society; second, to release and stop the persecution of those Falun Gong practitioners from the legal perspective; and third, the state should give an account to the innocent visitors.
Law firms interfered with job search accused of having political tendencies
Peng Yonghe introduced that in March 2019, the local judicial bureau arranged a Hengjian law firm for him and signed a one-year employment contract, promising to give more than 200,000 a year.
Peng Yonghe was later warned not to speak out because he represented Wang Mo in the Southern Street Movement case. He said, “Lawyers have two duties: one is the legal duty of lawyers, which we call the professional requirements of lawyers; the second is the contractual obligation of entrustment with the client, two obligations one legally required and one contractually agreed upon, it is impossible for me not to do it.”
He was pushed and beaten by a group of unidentified people at the entrance of Huai’an City Detention Center in Jiangsu Province, and was pushed to the green belt, and still has a bruise mark on the side of his right hand.
After that, he was not allowed to take many cases of Hengjian Law Firm, even civil cases. The contract expired last March and was not renewed with him.
After leaving Hengjian law firm, Peng Yonghe from the end of March, early April, July last year, a total of three law firms, some contracts were signed, but they can not be properly received.
“The first one, I went to the original one to do this transfer procedure, from that firm just to the subway station, probably less than 10 minutes, that firm called, his side can not be used.” He said, “The second one was similar, a law firm run by my Jiangxi hometown in Shanghai, and then said ‘I heard from the lawyer that you have political leanings.'”
After the failed transfer, Peng wrote to the Shanghai Judicial Bureau, asking “what kind of political leanings are not allowed to be a lawyer in Shanghai?” He declared that he was firmly opposed to dictatorship and authoritarianism and accepted universal values.
When he found the third firm, he told them about his situation, and at first the person in charge thought he had no big problem, and we had a lunch together.
“The third law firm I was not disclosed to any one person. I came back on the road just over an hour, no more than two hours before and after, there was an immediate change of heart, and called, saying that the Justice Bureau said you can not be transferred to Pudong.”
Peng Yonghe suspected that he was being followed and bugged, “I asked him in the end which judicial bureau said, is the Pudong or the city, he did not say anything. I said my material procedures have not been submitted yet, how do they know? I said the judicial bureau to do this kind of monitoring work, tracking work?”
The voice invites the suppression of the situation is difficult
Peng Yonghe said he has done very few cases in recent years, mainly to make some statements, but the ideas can stay in the brain, not expressed.
The outbreak of the Chinese Communist Party virus (Wuhan pneumonia) last year broke through Peng’s bottom line of not being allowed to speak out.
He said, “Last year, early in the New Year, on the first few days of January, the Jing’an District Judicial Bureau approached me to talk. They are two things: one is to send ‘looking for Chen Qiushi lawyer’ letter email to fellow lawyers in Shanghai; and another is to co-sign the appeal of ‘the only change, let go of speech, so that Li Wenliang does not die in vain. “
“At that time, I may not be too good attitude, but also a little upset ah, he said I broke the contract well, said not to send any sensitive information. I said I was a villain, the man of my word, shameless people.”
After the incident, Peng Yonghe lawyer sent an open letter to the mayor of Shanghai, once again expressing his attitude: “1, the matter of co-signing – such a big thing happened, so many people died, should not we say a word? If it was your own Parents and children who died, can you still be so calm? As a Chinese, shouldn’t I speak up for the tens of millions of souls who have died?” 2, the letter sent to Shanghai lawyers – a lawyer went to Wuhan to report on the epidemic and disappeared without a trace.
As he insisted on speaking out, Peng Yonghe was unable to find a law firm to receive him, and was also put in a difficult position with key prevention and control.
In June last year, Peng Yonghe hung a sign around his neck saying “Lawyer begging for Food” and went begging in the street to make a complaint against those in power in the form of performance art, and was unable to practice for three years. Subsequently, Peng was summoned by the local police station.
On December 9 last year, Peng Yonghe went to Beijing and was stopped by the railroad police in Shanghai for checking his ID card, with his 8-year-old daughter in tow.
“The child is unattended, basically I am taking.” He said, “They were like arresting a secret agent, asking me who told you to go? Where did you meet? What are you doing there? They also asked me if you had any dissatisfaction with the state. Do you think this is an act of confrontation with the public security authorities?”
Late last year, during the Zhang Zhan case trial in Shanghai, Peng Yonghe was twice dragged to the police station.
“That time they did not watch, I went to the hotel where Ren lawyers live, less than half an hour they all came to the joint defense team, got me to the police station, one night. On the second day after the trial, I went back in the afternoon. After dinner I went to look for Ren Quanniu, Zhang Keke, the results have not reached the subway station, they are pulling all the way to the subway station police came again, and pulled to the police station.”
Peng Yonghe said, “to today, our Home downstairs, two joint defense team, security company, came more than a month, squatting in front of my home, where to go with where you want to go to see people they think are sensitive, immediately to restrict your travel, pull you to the police station.”
“Some time ago Shanghai visitors gathering, drove a car to the door, pick me up to turn around, the result is less than five minutes to drive the person who received a phone call, the state security called and said to send him back.” Peng Yonghe said, “In fact, it is to isolate me from those people, lawyers or visitors, anyway, there are sensitive people are separated.”
Voicing out of instinct and human nature
Peng Yonghe is a native of Yingtan, Jiangxi. Before he became a lawyer in 2010, he had done a lot of work, selling soy milk, vegetables, watermelon, delivering newspapers, working in factories, working in construction sites, and working in companies. At the beginning, he wore a liberation shoes, a big pants, dirt to go to Shanghai.
He laughed at himself, saying that he used to be a very stupid person, and when he first studied law, he wrote a letter to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, asking that all corrupt officials in the world be arrested; later he realized that this was a problem of the soil, and that it was not people who were corrupt, but power corruption, and the system of such power.
Peng Yonghe talked about an incident in which he helped a migrant worker in a lawsuit. In his hometown of Jiangxi, an investment project was launched with a sign that was a key protection unit of the government, and all workers had to pay a deposit of 1,500 yuan or 700 or 800 yuan to enter the company. Peng Yonghe found many workers’ deposit slips, found the director of the Labor Bureau and the mayor, and rushed to the mayor’s office, only to be quickly escorted out by security guards. He later wrote a letter to Wen Jiabao in Shanghai, saying that “the wages of migrant workers should not be in arrears” and that collecting deposits was an infringement of workers’ rights and should apologize to the people.
Since the 709 arrests, the Chinese Communist Party authorities have retaliated wildly against human rights lawyers, and a large number of lawyers have had their licenses suspended or cancelled. Peng Yonghe said in response that the people’s mouths cannot be gagged. “I think it’s something instinctive, everyone actually has this instinct, only everyone puts this instinct into play to a different extent. Some people put it in their stomachs; some may say it; some not only say he will also do; some will say it out loud, but also playfully do it; everyone is not the same scale. But this instinct can not be removed, denied, it must exist.”
“With this instinct, it’s what drives this society, and it’s what drives change. So any one state policy, you have to look at what time it is and what the population is like. The second one is all your policies of this, don’t go against human nature, human nature, don’t touch it, or go against it. Otherwise, this (regime) of yours is not viable.”
After a lot of things, Peng Yonghe said he still believes in the law, “because the functioning of society must be the need for the rule of law, whether in ancient times or modern times, in fact, it is a system, rules, only now more emphasis is placed on democratic sovereignty, the separation of powers, a framework of modern democracy and the rule of law. Regardless of the era, the rule of law is definitely needed to govern. The law is the public instrument of governance, the purpose of governance is for the people.”
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