In recent years, many lawyers in China have been purged by the authorities for their involvement in inciting or subverting state power. Chinese President Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), recently made a rare criticism of individual lawyers for their “weak political awareness” and even “malicious attacks on China’s political and rule of law systems” and demanded that “support for the leadership of the CPC” be made a basic requirement for lawyers. The Chinese Communist Party‘s leadership” is a basic requirement for lawyers. Some members of the legal profession believe that the situation of human rights lawyers will be very difficult in the future.
The magazine “Seeking Truth” published on Monday revealed the content of Xi Jinping’s speech at the Central Working Conference on the Comprehensive Rule of Law last November, in which he said, “Since the 18th National Congress, the Party Central Committee has clearly proposed the comprehensive rule of law. The more complex the international and domestic environment is, the more important it is to use the rule of law thinking and means to consolidate the ruling position, improve the way of governance, and improve the ability to govern.
Xi Jinping stressed that to promote the comprehensive rule of law, never copy the models and practices of other countries, and never take the path of the so-called “constitutional government”, “the three powers”, “judicial independence” in the West.
He said that the comprehensive promotion of the rule of law, the first thing to do is to build a good specialized team. The legal service team is an important force in the comprehensive rule of law. On the whole, this team is good, but there are also many problems, some are keen to “promote fame and profit”, misconduct, lack of integrity, poor image; very individual legal practitioners weak political awareness, and even malicious attacks on China’s political system and the rule of law system.
Xi Jinping asked that “the support for the leadership of the CPC and the socialist rule of law in China as the basic requirements for legal service workers to practice”, to strengthen Education, management and guidance, and to guide legal service workers to adhere to the correct political direction.
China Lawyer :The Party’s leadership is in front, so where does the law lie?
A Chinese lawyer in the United States, who requested anonymity, described Xi Jinping’s remarks as full of fallacies.
Lawyer: “Lawyers are legal workers and the first thing they have to do is to abide by the law and perform their duties as lawyers in accordance with the law. According to him, lawyers must also comply with the Party’s requirements, which is a contradiction in itself. The requirement for all lawyers to follow the party’s requirements, the party’s leadership in the front, then the law in where? When lawyers are faced with the question of whether the party is big or the law is big, do lawyers have to put the party rules and regulations in front? The purpose of this move is to uphold aberrant politics and totalitarian politics. “
The possibility of Xi Jinping’s indefinite re-election, as well as its legality, is highly controversial. And much of the opposition comes from the legal community.
Lawyer: “He does not allow or want anyone to challenge him. I hope there will be no dissenting voices in the future for an indefinite term. In China, lawyers, especially human rights lawyers and human rights lawyers, have a certain amount of say in the society and can influence the Perception of the whole system, and he understands this fact.
According to Ren Quanniu, a human rights lawyer who assisted in the 12 Hong Kong people case, the very few legal practitioners referred to in Xi Jinping’s speech obviously refer to human rights or human rights lawyers. He believes that it will be difficult for lawyers to represent so-called sensitive cases in the future.
Ren Qunniu: “Even if you take them, there may be many restrictions. You have to file. The whole process has to be monitored. You have to write a report afterwards. Your defense opinion should also be actively studied by the (lawyer’s office), reported to the judicial bureau, and then returned to the court, there will certainly be many cases in the future, lawyers dare not do and are not allowed to do. Slightly sensitive cases will find official lawyers, or, in the future, lawyers may become political tools, that is, they cannot have independent or different ideological views from the current defense.”
Civil lawsuits will become difficult
Ren Quanniu predicts that in the future, it will be difficult for people to win lawsuits against government departments in court.
Ren Quanniu: “In the past, there were individual cases where the court had a certain degree of freedom to win, but in the future, as the rule of law environment regresses, there is little to look forward to in a lawsuit between the people and the government. A few years ago, I heard of a place in Inner Mongolia where all lawyers were nominally made legal advisors by the government. The local people who want to fight with the government in administrative lawsuits basically can not find lawyers. It is entirely possible that no case will be filed or you will not be allowed to file a lawsuit in the future.”
Ren Quanniu said that since the 709 arrests in 2015, the Chinese authorities have not stopped cracking down on human rights lawyers, and it will only get tougher in the future.
Chinese law firms have stepped up their party building efforts in recent years. As of last June, there were more than 130,000 Party members among full-Time professional lawyers nationwide, and 6,000 Party building instructors have been selected for law firms without Party members.
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