Plight & Prospects: The Landscape for Cause Lawyers in China

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PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS:
The Landscape for Cause Lawyers in China

© 2015 Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers
Printed in the United States
Any part of this report may be copied, translated...

PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS:
The Landscape for Cause Lawyers in China

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
I. INTRODUCTION 4
A. Overview 4
B. Lawyers in China: A Note on Te...

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D. Impact on Cause Lawyers 75
V. WAYS FORWARD FOR CAUSE LAWYERS 76
A. A Growing Movement 76
B. Trainin...

1 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
“Don’t you see? Our power is limitless… You’re on our blacklist, we can detain
yo...

2COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
duties. Laws and regulations limit access to clients and case devel...

3 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
reprisal in order to ensure a well-functioning legal system and non-discrimina-
tion in the adminis...

4COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
I. INTRODUCTION
“At every step along the way, you’re unsure of what...

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5 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
the space for lawyers who take on clients and causes that are unpopular with
the government has bee...

6COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
but highly visible community.7
Since that time, the Committee has d...

7 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
disappearance, and 24-hour surveillance, are still in use, they are increasingly
being replaced by ...

8COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
At the end of 2014, there were approximately 270,000 lawyers in Chi...

9 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
SPOTLIGHT:
WANG YU (王宇)—A POTENT SYMBOL OF CHINA’S CAUSE LAWYERING
COMMUNITY
Accomplished, persever...

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10COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
For instance, she has represented imprisoned Uyghur writer and int...

11 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
Chinese legal system.14
Government targeting of these lawyers is an effective
way to leave other C...

12COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
II. INTERNATIONAL NORMS ON THE
INDEPENDENCE OF LAWYERS
Fundamenta...

13 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
(Art. 16) State authorities should also protect lawyers when they are
“threatened as a result of d...

14COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
SPOTLIGHT:
LAWYERS SUPPORTING LAWYERS—GLOBAL SOLIDARITY WITH CHINE...

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15 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
III. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE
REPRESSION OF CAUSE LAWYERS
“Lawyers in China don’t have any i...

16COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
thorities in targeting the activists.20
(See Xu Zhiyong (许志永)—Payi...

17 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
society, which has been punctuated by the arrest or detentions of hundreds of in-
dividuals, many ...

18COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
victims in the 2008 tainted milk scandal. Nonetheless, he has been...

19 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
(唐荆陵), Liu Shihui (刘士辉), Xia Lin (夏霖), and Yu Wensheng (余文生) were
also detained.30
(See Spotlight:...

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20COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
SPOTLIGHT:
TANG JINGLING (唐荆陵)—“LIGHT AGAINST DARKNESS”
A bona fid...

21 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
B. The Leadership Transition
The leadership transition at the top levels of the CPC, which took pl...

22COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
In particular, his stance on anti-corruption has been unforgiving,...

23 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
power.43
The agenda for consolidating control within the Party is complement-
ed by a social polic...

24COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
Karma Samdrup and controversial artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未), and was in...

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25 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
become more sustainable and inclusive.”47
Section XIII of the Decision from the
Third Plenum discu...

26COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
on NGOs operating in China.53
The punishments for individuals in C...

27 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
“mass line” rhetoric is just one significant indication of his intention to harden
the state line....

28COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
SPOTLIGHT:
YIRENPING—STRATEGIC ADVOCACY AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF SU...

29 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
Communist Party of China’s General Office in March of 2013,59
which outlined
seven “false ideologi...

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30COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
C. Evolution of Legal Activism
While March 2013 is an acknowledged...

31 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
more sensitive. Many lawyers themselves have also become increasingly po-
liticized. Numerous lawy...

32COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
widespread attention and was replicated in other cities. Encourage...

33 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
These technological tools have helped to propel the movement and thus trig-
gered various reaction...

34COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
IV. GOVERNMENT PRACTICES THAT
CONSTRAIN CAUSE LAWYERS
“Before, yo...

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35 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
search76
; protections of personal dignity77
; protections against unlawful search
of the home78
;...

36COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
Chinese Lawyers issued a report in 2011 describing the “shrinking ...

37 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
traditionally falling outside the legal framework—such as the detention of indi-
viduals in unknow...

38COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
SPOTLIGHT:
FENGRUI LAW FIRM—AFFECTED INDIVIDUALS
During the summer...

39 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
1. LAWS PREVENTING LAWYERS FROM CARRYING OUT THEIR
PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATIONS
“The judge just slamme...

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40COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
charged with “disrupting courtroom order” and sentenced for up to ...

41 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
with establishing a professional code, and the ACLA promulgated the Practice
Code of Conduct in 20...

42COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
(2) Conduct detrimental to national judicial and administrative or...

43 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
functioning of prosecutorial activities” during his defense of Ding.123
• September 2013: When on...

44COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
crackdown on lawyers in China in the summer of 2015. From July 9 t...

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45 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
the same hotel in the city, also reported that numerous police had been
monitoring their hotel and...

46COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
Article 33 of the CPL affords every criminal suspect the right to ...

47 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
with and accessing detained clients have been documented.130
Recent exam-
ples include:
• Februar...

48COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
meeting and instead held Chang for seven to eight hours, during wh...

49 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
1. MANIPULATION OF FRAMEWORKS FOR PROFESSIONAL REGULATION
OF LAWYERS
“The lesson is, the governmen...

50COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
the Management of the Professional Credentials of Lawyers and Law ...

51 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
their law firm and to the city level lawyers’ association, and asked these su-
pervisory bodies fo...

52COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
why my license wasn’t renewed.”156
The link between non-renewal or...

53 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
(1) INABILITY TO OBTAIN LICENSES
A number of individuals with connections to the cause lawyering...

54COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
In June of 2013, China Human Rights Defenders reported the non-ren...

55 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
He is the co-founder of the Zhengzhou branch of Yirenping, an anti-discrimina-
tion and health rig...

56COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
宾),181
Xie Yang (谢阳),182
and Chen Wuquan (陈武权).183
In 2011, Li Tia...

57 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
This statement distanced the organization from the actions of these individuals,
and has been crit...

58COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
state power” under Article 105 of the Criminal Law, many more lawy...

59 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
as lawyers Zhong Jinhua and Zhang Qingfang and their respective families.202
At
the same time, a n...

60COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
whether an individual was in detention, why, and where.206
Sadly, ...

61 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
SPOTLIGHT:
“WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN”—
INDIVIDUALS CURRENTLY DISAPPEARED OR DETAINED AT UNDISCLOSED LOC...

62COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
Name
Date of Initial
Incident
Current Status
Wang Quanzhang (王全
璋)...

63 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
that amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law have legitimized the practice
of disappearance as a ...

64COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
other words, detentions that are not carried out strictly in accor...

65 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
Critically, when an individual’s whereabouts are unknown, including cases in-
volving residential ...

66COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
such blatant physical attacks are not unique, and many lawyers int...

67 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
of “confession.” As the wife of one lawyer recounted from her husband’s previ-
ous detention, “the...

68COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
Not surprisingly, several lawyers described how the unbearable tot...

69 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
at an undisclosed location or enforced disappearance.244
Under these circumstanc-
es, where detain...

70COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
detention and the ongoing use of “reeducation through labor,” and ...

71 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
or workplaces. For instance, the wife of one lawyer described how, during a peri-
od when authorit...

72COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
has continued to expand within the Chinese criminal justice system...

73 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
her rights defense work, the lawyer described, “there’s no way for my daughter
to hold down a job....

74COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
police officers who threatened to “dig a hole in the ground and bu...

75 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
them about the difficulties they might face in deciding to rent property to “trou-
blemakers.” “Ju...

76COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
V. WAYS FORWARD FOR CAUSE LAWYERS
There are reasons to remain opt...

77 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
(Guo Feixiong), Gao Zhisheng, and Zheng Enchong, others are still willing to
join the ranks of rig...

78COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
Under these circumstances, the degree of networking among lawyers ...

79 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
these lawyers interviewed for this report invited greater media attention from
overseas outlets as...

80COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The space for China’s rights ...

81 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
which includes a monitoring and complaints mechanism for law-
yers to make use of where abuses tak...

82COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
4. Invite independent scrutiny of the system regulating lawyers i...

83 PLIGHT AND PROSPECTS
3. Provide opportunities for rights lawyers who are excluded from their
professional associations...

84COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS & LEITNER CENTER
ABOUT US
The Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers is a group of in...

Plight & Prospects: The Landscape for Cause Lawyers in China

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