Chinese rights lawyer Ren Quanniu has had his law license revoked by authorities after representing citizen journalist Zhang Zhan and the Hong Kong “12 Hong Kong People” case. On March 28, Ren Quanniu tweeted that his law firm in Henan province had been notified by the Zhengzhou City Bar Association that it had been asked to dissolve itself.
According to Radio Television Hong Kong, Ren said he received a verbal notice in the morning from the vice president of the Zhengzhou Lawyers’ Association, surnamed Liu, through his office, asking the Henan Orbit Law Firm to dissolve itself and voluntarily, and asking the firm, along with its four partners, to transfer to other law firms by the 20th of next month, or else they could not continue working.
The newspaper quoted Ren Quanniu as saying that he was one of the three partners of the law firm, and after his license was revoked, he asked for another person to replace him as a partner, but the Zhengzhou judicial administration department did not grant the change for the record. Ren Quanniu pointed out that this practice is not handled in accordance with the law, forcing the law firm to operate normally in the absence of a partner.
Previously, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Feb. 2 that the U.S. was deeply concerned about the revocation of the licenses of lawyers Ren Quanniu and Lu Siwei, the lawyers hired by the families of the “12 Hong Kong people” case, by the Chinese Communist authorities. Price said, “We are deeply concerned about the People’s Republic of China’s attempts to disbar and harass human rights lawyers Lu Siwei and Ren Quanniu, who represent 12 Hong Kong people. We urge the Chinese government to respect human rights and the rule of law by immediately reinstating their legal credentials.”
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