Harassment of Critical Chinese Lawyers

Press reports in the US depict a pattern of harassment of dissident lawyers in China.

The Chinese Communist Party, like many in power, is hypersensitive to criticism. "Talking against China" is too often seen as identical to criticism of the government, and, especially, of the party permanently in power. Despite the plain language of the First Amendment to our Constitution "Congress shall make no law..." we have our own history of such attitudes - the Red Scares of the fifties, the House Un-American Activities Committee, etc.

One of the buttresses against such repressive stances is the tradition of independence of the bar: that lawyers are duty bound to zealously represent their clients, and that lawyers are essential to assuring the Constitution's promises of due process of law, and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances.

Unfortunately China lacks that tradition of independence of the bar. Now, as the 60th Anniversary of the revolutionary victory of the CP and the founding of the PRC approaches, the party's hypersensitivity seems to be reaching a high point. The feeling I get is that the attitude is DO NOT SPOIL THE PARTY. "Celebration now, analysis and criticism may come next year".

There has been much press coverage in the west of attacks on the independence of lawyers in China. I have not followed the issue closely, but a good and, to me, persuasive essay has just been published in the New York Times by Richard Thornburgh. (A moderate Republican twice elected Governor of Democratic-inclined Pennsylvania, and a former Attorney General of the United States from 1988-1991, he is a centrist figure in American politics.)

The essay begins:

At some point in the next 12 months, China will reach a key milestone: For the first time in its long history, the number of lawyers will surpass the number of judges. In a country where Confucian culture has always frowned upon litigation, and where lawyers were long considered as “legal tricksters” undermining social harmony, the importance of this event cannot be underestimated.

For sure, 190,000 lawyers in a country of 1.3 billion people might still seem modest. But given that the legal profession was only reinstated after the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, and that prior to 1996 there were almost no private law firms, this can only be seen as a major achievement, matching China’s economic renaissance.

Yet if lawyers now enjoy increasing independence, those who defend human rights are increasingly under attack, with legal restrictions impeding their ability to provide an effective defense, to champion causes that challenge local power, or to form independent bar associations.

The balance is HERE.