Link
August 26, 2009
Human rights advocates and Chinese lawyers say that the office assistant of a prominent rights lawyer probably was not freed by the government over the weekend, as some of the advocates had originally said. They said it was unclear whether the assistant was in detention or had been released but remained under some sort of restriction. The assistant, Zhuang Lu, 27, worked at the Gongmeng legal center, which has tried to represent downtrodden Chinese citizens in cases that often involve official corruption. Ms. Zhuang and a founder of Gongmeng, Xu Zhiyong, were taken from their homes by security forces on July 29. Mr. Xu was released on Sunday.
Several rights advocates said Mr. Xu had been told by officials that Ms. Zhuang had also been released. But Teng Biao, another founder of Gongmeng, said Wednesday night that Ms. Zhuang’s mother had just received a brief, cryptic call from her daughter, who said she was awaiting trial and was not allowed to leave Beijing.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "Without Explanation, China Releases 3 Activists," by Michael Wines, The New York Times
Link
August 23, 2009
BEIJING — Chinese authorities unexpectedly released three political activists from detention on Sunday, including one whose case had drawn global attention.
Officials offered no reason for the releases, but they occurred one day after the new American ambassador to China, former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, arrived in Beijing.
The government did not say whether it had also suspended criminal tax-evasion charges made last week against the most prominent of the freed men, Xu Zhiyong, a public-interest lawyer, that could result in a prison sentence of seven years were he to be convicted.
The prosecution of Mr. Xu in particular has attracted scrutiny abroad because of his role in other cases that are seen as a test of the Chinese legal system’s fairness. Mr. Xu, 36, and a co-worker, Zhuang Lu, were released more than three weeks after they were seized in their homes on July 29. The authorities also shut down Mr. Xu’s Gongmeng legal center, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, from which Mr. Xu and others had taken on cases against government authorities.
Recently, Mr. Xu’s center represented parents whose children were sickened by chemical-tainted milk, a regulatory scandal that embarrassed the government and led to the collapse of one of the nation’s biggest dairy companies.
In a separate case, Beijing authorities also released Ilham Tohti, an economist, Internet activist and ethnic Uighur detained after deadly riots erupted in the western Xinjiang region in early July.
Mr. Tohti, 39, ran a Web site called Uighur Online, a popular forum for ethnic Uighurs, who live mostly in Xinjiang, to discuss issues important to them. After the July rioting, Xinjiang’s governor, Nur Bekri, charged that the site had helped foment the violence by spreading rumors. The Web site has since been closed.
The government has accused Mr. Xu of evading taxes on a $100,000 grant that Yale University gave the Gongmeng center for legal programs. The charges are widely regarded by outsiders as punishment for Mr. Xu’s advocacy of the rule of law.
China’s court system is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, and legal decisions — especially in cases with important political or social ramifications — are often regarded as skirting written law to reflect the dictates of party officials.
The accusation against Mr. Xu was filed during a general crackdown by Chinese authorities on independent activists, and particularly on those activists who receive financing from foreign sources. In a recent speech, China’s justice minister warned lawyers that their primary duty was to support the Communist Party and promote a “harmonious society,” and said that party minders would be sent to law firms to enforce that doctrine.
China scholars and political analysts have speculated for months about whether the crackdown is temporary, perhaps linked to government concerns about disruption of the October celebration of the 60th anniversary of modern China’s founding, or whether it is part of a broader and longer-lasting effort to curtail free speech.
Mr. Xu’s detention and later arrest have surprised many here because his Gongmeng center is regarded as among the most cautious and conservative of China’s small band of public-interest organizations.
While the center has pursued some high-profile cases, it has been careful to work within the parameters of Chinese law and to focus on helping Chinese citizens secure already recognized legal rights.
August 23, 2009
BEIJING — Chinese authorities unexpectedly released three political activists from detention on Sunday, including one whose case had drawn global attention.
Officials offered no reason for the releases, but they occurred one day after the new American ambassador to China, former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, arrived in Beijing.
The government did not say whether it had also suspended criminal tax-evasion charges made last week against the most prominent of the freed men, Xu Zhiyong, a public-interest lawyer, that could result in a prison sentence of seven years were he to be convicted.
The prosecution of Mr. Xu in particular has attracted scrutiny abroad because of his role in other cases that are seen as a test of the Chinese legal system’s fairness. Mr. Xu, 36, and a co-worker, Zhuang Lu, were released more than three weeks after they were seized in their homes on July 29. The authorities also shut down Mr. Xu’s Gongmeng legal center, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, from which Mr. Xu and others had taken on cases against government authorities.
Recently, Mr. Xu’s center represented parents whose children were sickened by chemical-tainted milk, a regulatory scandal that embarrassed the government and led to the collapse of one of the nation’s biggest dairy companies.
In a separate case, Beijing authorities also released Ilham Tohti, an economist, Internet activist and ethnic Uighur detained after deadly riots erupted in the western Xinjiang region in early July.
Mr. Tohti, 39, ran a Web site called Uighur Online, a popular forum for ethnic Uighurs, who live mostly in Xinjiang, to discuss issues important to them. After the July rioting, Xinjiang’s governor, Nur Bekri, charged that the site had helped foment the violence by spreading rumors. The Web site has since been closed.
The government has accused Mr. Xu of evading taxes on a $100,000 grant that Yale University gave the Gongmeng center for legal programs. The charges are widely regarded by outsiders as punishment for Mr. Xu’s advocacy of the rule of law.
China’s court system is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, and legal decisions — especially in cases with important political or social ramifications — are often regarded as skirting written law to reflect the dictates of party officials.
The accusation against Mr. Xu was filed during a general crackdown by Chinese authorities on independent activists, and particularly on those activists who receive financing from foreign sources. In a recent speech, China’s justice minister warned lawyers that their primary duty was to support the Communist Party and promote a “harmonious society,” and said that party minders would be sent to law firms to enforce that doctrine.
China scholars and political analysts have speculated for months about whether the crackdown is temporary, perhaps linked to government concerns about disruption of the October celebration of the 60th anniversary of modern China’s founding, or whether it is part of a broader and longer-lasting effort to curtail free speech.
Mr. Xu’s detention and later arrest have surprised many here because his Gongmeng center is regarded as among the most cautious and conservative of China’s small band of public-interest organizations.
While the center has pursued some high-profile cases, it has been careful to work within the parameters of Chinese law and to focus on helping Chinese citizens secure already recognized legal rights.
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "China releases reform activists," by Kathrin Hille, The Financial Times
Link
August 23, 2009
China has released two prominent reform proponents in a twist following its recent crackdown on activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a law scholar and organiser of one of the country’s largest legal aid groups, who had been accused of tax evasion, and Zhuang Lu, his assistant, were released on bail on Sunday.
Ilham Tohti, an economist who belongs to the Uighur ethnic group and who was detained shortly after the July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang, also returned home.
The detentions of Mr Xu and Mr Tohti drew widespread criticism because, although outspoken, both academics are committed to reform within the system.
Mr Xu’s lawyers say the charge of tax evasion lacks evidence but is connected to the fact that his non-government organisation, the Open Constitution Initiative, is registered as a company and has been accused of failing to pay its taxes properly.
China’s opaque legal system, where decisions in cases regarded as important or politically sensitive are frequently made by Communist party officials rather than judges, makes it hard to tell whether Mr Xu’s release lowers the risk of prosecution.
Li Xiongbing, a lawyer working with the Open Constitution Initiative, said he believed that it was now much less likely that Mr Xu would be indicted. But Zhou Ze, one of Mr Xu’s lawyers, said: “We don’t know what will happen to the case.”
The authorities' unusual move indicates that the government is seeking to avoid unnecessary damage to its reputation from the recent crackdown.
Mr Xu had been taken from his home by police on July 29, but his employer had only received notice of his formal arrest on charges of tax evasion last Monday.
The Open Constitution Initiative was closed last month after tax authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m ($205,000, €143,000, £124,000), saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Many non-governmental groups in China choose to register as enterprises to avoid the difficulties of getting official approval as an NGO. This imposes a heavier tax burden on them and makes them vulnerable to accusations on accounting errors.
Mr Xu rose to prominence for his fight against detention without a legal basis and other cases where the state violates or fails to protect an individual’s rights.
Lawyers working with the Open Constitution Initiative have tried to sue for compensation on behalf of parents of children who died or fell ill from melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years.
Mr Tohti was detained the week after the July 5 race riots that killed close to 200 people, most of them members of the majority Han group, according to the government.
He has done consultancy work for the government before. On his blog, he had criticised the government’s economic and social policies in Xinjiang, the Uighur minority’s home region.
August 23, 2009
China has released two prominent reform proponents in a twist following its recent crackdown on activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a law scholar and organiser of one of the country’s largest legal aid groups, who had been accused of tax evasion, and Zhuang Lu, his assistant, were released on bail on Sunday.
Ilham Tohti, an economist who belongs to the Uighur ethnic group and who was detained shortly after the July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang, also returned home.
The detentions of Mr Xu and Mr Tohti drew widespread criticism because, although outspoken, both academics are committed to reform within the system.
Mr Xu’s lawyers say the charge of tax evasion lacks evidence but is connected to the fact that his non-government organisation, the Open Constitution Initiative, is registered as a company and has been accused of failing to pay its taxes properly.
China’s opaque legal system, where decisions in cases regarded as important or politically sensitive are frequently made by Communist party officials rather than judges, makes it hard to tell whether Mr Xu’s release lowers the risk of prosecution.
Li Xiongbing, a lawyer working with the Open Constitution Initiative, said he believed that it was now much less likely that Mr Xu would be indicted. But Zhou Ze, one of Mr Xu’s lawyers, said: “We don’t know what will happen to the case.”
The authorities' unusual move indicates that the government is seeking to avoid unnecessary damage to its reputation from the recent crackdown.
Mr Xu had been taken from his home by police on July 29, but his employer had only received notice of his formal arrest on charges of tax evasion last Monday.
The Open Constitution Initiative was closed last month after tax authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m ($205,000, €143,000, £124,000), saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Many non-governmental groups in China choose to register as enterprises to avoid the difficulties of getting official approval as an NGO. This imposes a heavier tax burden on them and makes them vulnerable to accusations on accounting errors.
Mr Xu rose to prominence for his fight against detention without a legal basis and other cases where the state violates or fails to protect an individual’s rights.
Lawyers working with the Open Constitution Initiative have tried to sue for compensation on behalf of parents of children who died or fell ill from melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years.
Mr Tohti was detained the week after the July 5 race riots that killed close to 200 people, most of them members of the majority Han group, according to the government.
He has done consultancy work for the government before. On his blog, he had criticised the government’s economic and social policies in Xinjiang, the Uighur minority’s home region.
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "Beijing Frees Jailed Activist Xu Zhiyong," by Sky Canaves, The Wall Street Journal
Link
August 23, 2009
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities unexpectedly freed from jail a prominent legal activist on Sunday after an increasingly vocal campaign against his detention by China's growing ranks of citizen activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a co-founder of the now shuttered legal-research and advocacy group, the Open Constitution Initiative, was taken from his home by police before dawn on July 29 and formally arrested for tax evasion three weeks later. The Beijing tax bureau had ordered the OCI to pay 1.4 million yuan (about $200,000) in back taxes on contributions, including hefty fines, a decision Mr. Xu was trying to appeal before he was detained.
Human-rights groups and legal experts said the tax charges were a pretext for jailing Mr. Xu and shutting down the group, which represented families of children sickened during last year's melamine-tainted-milk scandal, and also advocated against illegal detentions.
Mr. Xu said he didn't know the reason for his sudden release, but the public campaign "definitely could have had an influence." Speaking by phone, he said Zhuang Lu, another OCI staffer detained around the same time, also was released Sunday. Still, Mr. Xu said he might yet face prosecution.
Chinese Internet censors blocked Mr. Xu's name from search engines in mainland China. But activists managed to launch a campaign, largely online, to focus attention on the case.
The movement shows an "increasing awareness of the important role of law in society," says Li Fangping, one of Mr. Xu's lawyers.
After the OCI's Web site was shut down, other members of the group, a loose association of lawyers, academics and volunteers, relaunched the site on a server outside mainland China. Through Aug. 13, its online campaign had raised almost 850,000 yuan from mainland citizens to help pay the fines.
Another coalition, including bloggers and college students, started an offshore Web site dedicated to Mr. Xu's defense, www.WeZhiyong.org. Slogans on the site read, "Anyone can be Xu Zhiyong" and "tens of thousands of Zhiyongs are not in jail, but they are on the road to jail."
Joshua Rosenzweig, a senior researcher with the U.S.-based human-rights group Duihua Foundation, said Mr. Xu's release on bail indicated that authorities were treating him differently from political dissidents, who often are charged with more serious crimes of subversion.
"It shows the difference between this kind of case and a purely political case," Mr. Rosenzweig said. "Xu Zhiyong is not a dissident, unless you really stretch the definition of dissident."
Mr. Rosenzweig said the rare use of bail shows that the authorities "might be wavering" over Mr. Xu's case, although he doesn't rule out tax evasion and other charges.
The campaign for Mr. Xu attracted unusually wide support. "Many people who seldom talk about politics have come out" in support of Mr. Xu, says Jean Yim, a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at the University of Hong Kong. Ms. Yim and a friend organized a talk on Mr. Xu's case in Hong Kong on Saturday, which they made available to Internet users in mainland China via Twitter, and through video and audio files.
One computer programmer, who normally sells tech-geek-themed T-shirts on China's largest online shopping platform, Taobao.com, said he was moved by the unfair treatment of Mr. Xu to create an iron-on badge to sell to supporters, with all proceeds going toward Mr. Xu's legal defense. The programmer, who declined to be identified, said he had sold about 200 badges reading "Xu Zhiyong, True Man" before his Taobao account was suspended on Aug. 20 for selling prohibited items.
Wen Yunchao, a blogger from Guangzhou, urged people to send postcards to Mr. Xu's detention center calling for his release. Last month, Mr. Wen organized a similar postcard campaign on behalf of a fellow blogger detained by police in eastern China. The blogger was released after two weeks, though Mr. Wen says it is difficult to say whether the postcards had any direct impact on the outcome.
"What's important is for people to become aware and to participate," says Mr. Wen. "This promotes civil society."
August 23, 2009
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities unexpectedly freed from jail a prominent legal activist on Sunday after an increasingly vocal campaign against his detention by China's growing ranks of citizen activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a co-founder of the now shuttered legal-research and advocacy group, the Open Constitution Initiative, was taken from his home by police before dawn on July 29 and formally arrested for tax evasion three weeks later. The Beijing tax bureau had ordered the OCI to pay 1.4 million yuan (about $200,000) in back taxes on contributions, including hefty fines, a decision Mr. Xu was trying to appeal before he was detained.
Human-rights groups and legal experts said the tax charges were a pretext for jailing Mr. Xu and shutting down the group, which represented families of children sickened during last year's melamine-tainted-milk scandal, and also advocated against illegal detentions.
Mr. Xu said he didn't know the reason for his sudden release, but the public campaign "definitely could have had an influence." Speaking by phone, he said Zhuang Lu, another OCI staffer detained around the same time, also was released Sunday. Still, Mr. Xu said he might yet face prosecution.
Chinese Internet censors blocked Mr. Xu's name from search engines in mainland China. But activists managed to launch a campaign, largely online, to focus attention on the case.
The movement shows an "increasing awareness of the important role of law in society," says Li Fangping, one of Mr. Xu's lawyers.
After the OCI's Web site was shut down, other members of the group, a loose association of lawyers, academics and volunteers, relaunched the site on a server outside mainland China. Through Aug. 13, its online campaign had raised almost 850,000 yuan from mainland citizens to help pay the fines.
Another coalition, including bloggers and college students, started an offshore Web site dedicated to Mr. Xu's defense, www.WeZhiyong.org. Slogans on the site read, "Anyone can be Xu Zhiyong" and "tens of thousands of Zhiyongs are not in jail, but they are on the road to jail."
Joshua Rosenzweig, a senior researcher with the U.S.-based human-rights group Duihua Foundation, said Mr. Xu's release on bail indicated that authorities were treating him differently from political dissidents, who often are charged with more serious crimes of subversion.
"It shows the difference between this kind of case and a purely political case," Mr. Rosenzweig said. "Xu Zhiyong is not a dissident, unless you really stretch the definition of dissident."
Mr. Rosenzweig said the rare use of bail shows that the authorities "might be wavering" over Mr. Xu's case, although he doesn't rule out tax evasion and other charges.
The campaign for Mr. Xu attracted unusually wide support. "Many people who seldom talk about politics have come out" in support of Mr. Xu, says Jean Yim, a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at the University of Hong Kong. Ms. Yim and a friend organized a talk on Mr. Xu's case in Hong Kong on Saturday, which they made available to Internet users in mainland China via Twitter, and through video and audio files.
One computer programmer, who normally sells tech-geek-themed T-shirts on China's largest online shopping platform, Taobao.com, said he was moved by the unfair treatment of Mr. Xu to create an iron-on badge to sell to supporters, with all proceeds going toward Mr. Xu's legal defense. The programmer, who declined to be identified, said he had sold about 200 badges reading "Xu Zhiyong, True Man" before his Taobao account was suspended on Aug. 20 for selling prohibited items.
Wen Yunchao, a blogger from Guangzhou, urged people to send postcards to Mr. Xu's detention center calling for his release. Last month, Mr. Wen organized a similar postcard campaign on behalf of a fellow blogger detained by police in eastern China. The blogger was released after two weeks, though Mr. Wen says it is difficult to say whether the postcards had any direct impact on the outcome.
"What's important is for people to become aware and to participate," says Mr. Wen. "This promotes civil society."
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "Campaigning lawyer Xu Zhiyong released after arrest for tax evasion," by Jane Macartney, The Times
Link
August 23, 2009
In an unusual departure by a judicial system that rarely sets free anyone taken into detention, the authorities today released one of China’s most pioneering advocates of legal rights only days after his formal arrest for tax evasion.
The detention around three weeks ago and arrest last week of lawyer Xu Zhiyong had been seen as part of a campaign by the Communist Party authorities to stifle dissent before the 60th anniversary on October 1 of the founding of Communist rule.
Speaking to The Times, the lawyer said: “I am really not clear as to why I have been released. It is still possible that I will face formal charges.”
The lawyer, whose clients have ranged from death-row clients to parents of babies who died or fell ill after drinking tainted milk powder last year, said: “Right now I feel incredibly moved by everything that has happened. I want to thank everyone who has worried about me since I was detained.”
Mr Xu, 36, is one of the most dogged human-rights lawyers in China and was taken from his home at dawn about three weeks ago after a crackdown on a non-governmental organisation that he co-founded to advance legal rights.
He said that his detention and arrest, which could still bring to an end one of the most brilliant legal careers in China if charges are filed, had not come as a complete surprise. “I had felt before that it was possible I could be arrested.”
Mr Xu may have expected to have been arrested for his legal work rather than for tax evasion.
Last month, government officials closed Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, his legal aid and research group. The organisation worked on public interest law, addressing issues such as death penalty cases and the existence of unofficial "black jails".
Most recently, Gongmeng lawyers represented parents whose children fell ill last year after drinking milk contaminated with the chemical melamine. The tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies and made nearly 300,000 other children ill.
The centre's closure came after the tax authorities said that the group faced a fine of 1.4 million yuan (£140,000) for failing to pay taxes. Mr Xu had been scheduled to meet tax officials on July 30, the day after he was detained. Colleagues say that formal notification of the unpaid taxes has yet to be issued, meaning that his arrest was a violation of due process.
The incarceration of Mr Xu had come amid a nationwide crackdown on activist lawyers and non-governmental organisations. The legal activist is prominent not only as a lawyer but as one of the few elected members of a Beijing district branch of the National People’s Congress (parliament). Representatives of Gongmeng have paid back about 700,000 yuan. Under Chinese law if the taxes are repaid a defendant can face only civil and not criminal charges.
Mr Xu gained prominence in 2003 with the landmark Sun Zhigang case in which a 27-year-old university graduate died after being beaten in police custody. Mr Sun had been detained under an extrajudicial system called custody and repatriation that gave police virtually unlimited authority to hold anyone if they did not have a residence permit for that area.
Mr Xu and fellow legal scholars petitioned the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the system, which was abolished later that year.
He faces a maximum seven-year sentence if formally charged with tax evasion.
August 23, 2009
In an unusual departure by a judicial system that rarely sets free anyone taken into detention, the authorities today released one of China’s most pioneering advocates of legal rights only days after his formal arrest for tax evasion.
The detention around three weeks ago and arrest last week of lawyer Xu Zhiyong had been seen as part of a campaign by the Communist Party authorities to stifle dissent before the 60th anniversary on October 1 of the founding of Communist rule.
Speaking to The Times, the lawyer said: “I am really not clear as to why I have been released. It is still possible that I will face formal charges.”
The lawyer, whose clients have ranged from death-row clients to parents of babies who died or fell ill after drinking tainted milk powder last year, said: “Right now I feel incredibly moved by everything that has happened. I want to thank everyone who has worried about me since I was detained.”
Mr Xu, 36, is one of the most dogged human-rights lawyers in China and was taken from his home at dawn about three weeks ago after a crackdown on a non-governmental organisation that he co-founded to advance legal rights.
He said that his detention and arrest, which could still bring to an end one of the most brilliant legal careers in China if charges are filed, had not come as a complete surprise. “I had felt before that it was possible I could be arrested.”
Mr Xu may have expected to have been arrested for his legal work rather than for tax evasion.
Last month, government officials closed Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, his legal aid and research group. The organisation worked on public interest law, addressing issues such as death penalty cases and the existence of unofficial "black jails".
Most recently, Gongmeng lawyers represented parents whose children fell ill last year after drinking milk contaminated with the chemical melamine. The tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies and made nearly 300,000 other children ill.
The centre's closure came after the tax authorities said that the group faced a fine of 1.4 million yuan (£140,000) for failing to pay taxes. Mr Xu had been scheduled to meet tax officials on July 30, the day after he was detained. Colleagues say that formal notification of the unpaid taxes has yet to be issued, meaning that his arrest was a violation of due process.
The incarceration of Mr Xu had come amid a nationwide crackdown on activist lawyers and non-governmental organisations. The legal activist is prominent not only as a lawyer but as one of the few elected members of a Beijing district branch of the National People’s Congress (parliament). Representatives of Gongmeng have paid back about 700,000 yuan. Under Chinese law if the taxes are repaid a defendant can face only civil and not criminal charges.
Mr Xu gained prominence in 2003 with the landmark Sun Zhigang case in which a 27-year-old university graduate died after being beaten in police custody. Mr Sun had been detained under an extrajudicial system called custody and repatriation that gave police virtually unlimited authority to hold anyone if they did not have a residence permit for that area.
Mr Xu and fellow legal scholars petitioned the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the system, which was abolished later that year.
He faces a maximum seven-year sentence if formally charged with tax evasion.
***UPDATE: XU ZHIYONG FREED ON BAIL ACCORDING TO AP, VOICE OF AMERICA***
Link to Associated Press Story
Link to Voice of America Story
August 23, 2009
China legal activist freed, but may face tax case
By JOE MCDONALD (AP) – 4 hours ago
BEIJING — An activist Chinese lawyer who was detained in a possible crackdown on dissent ahead of October's 60th anniversary of Communist rule was released Sunday, but he said authorities were investigating possible tax charges against him.
Xu Zhiyong co-founded a Beijing legal aid group that has tackled some of China's most politically sensitive cases, most recently representing parents of children sickened last year by chemical-tainted milk. Xu was detained July 29 and formally arrested Aug. 12 on charges of evading taxes.
Xu has been at the forefront of legal reform and public interest law in China, and has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School in the United States several times.
He said he did not know whether authorities would proceed with a tax evasion case against his group, Gongmeng, or the Open Constitution Initiative.
"It is difficult to say," Xu told The Associated Press by telephone. He declined to give other details of his case or his detention.
His lawyer, Zhou Ze, said the case has yet to be sent to prosecutors.
"I think the tax evasion charge does not hold water," Zhou said. "We need to wait and see what will happen next."
Beijing appears to be trying to stifle possible dissent ahead of the Communist Party's celebration of its 60th anniversary in power Oct. 1.
In July, the government revoked the licenses of 53 lawyers in Beijing, many of them known for handling human rights and other sensitive cases.
Gongmeng was shut down in mid-July, and the Beijing tax bureau fined it 1.4 million yuan ($206,000) for failing to pay taxes.
Zhou said the case might involve accusations of failing to pay up to 200,000 yuan ($29,000) in taxes, but he said authorities have given no details.
Gongmeng lawyers represented parents in last year's tainted milk scandal. Six babies died and nearly 300,000 other children were sickened. The scandal led to an overhaul of China's dairy industry, but the government tried to block parents and activists from publicizing information about illnesses and complaints about authorities.
---
China Releases Prominent Human Rights Lawyer on Bail
By VOA News
23 August 2009
A leading Chinese human rights lawyer says he was released from detention Sunday, but still might face prosecution on charges of tax evasion.
Xu Zhiyong, co-founder of a legal-aid group known as the Open Constitution Initiative or Gongmeng, had been out of contact since security officials seized him from his home on July 29. He was formally arrested last Tuesday on charges of tax evasion.
Xu said Sunday he was released on bail pending trial.
Chinese authorities shut down the legal rights center more than a month ago for alleged nonpayment of taxes. Members of the group reported nearly two weeks later that Xu had been detained by police, and that they could not contact him.
The group has helped victims of China's tainted-milk scandal and offered assistance in human-rights cases. It also has issued a report criticizing the Chinese government's policies toward Tibet.
Rights groups say the latest developments are part of a widening crackdown on lawyers, rights activists and non-governmental organizations ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Chinese communist state.
Preparations are under way for a huge official celebration of the anniversary on October 1. Rights activists expect the government will try to prevent any public demonstration of dissent during the festivities.
China recently revoked the licenses of 53 Beijing lawyers, most of them prominent human-rights advocates. Amnesty International has condemned the crackdown on lawyers as a major blow to the human-rights defense movement in China.
In a widely quoted statement earlier this year, Xu said his Gongmeng group aims to help build the rule of law and advance Chinese society by objectively and independently studying human-rights protections, the situation in Tibet and other issues.
One of the government's main charges against Xu's group alleges that no taxes were paid on a $100,000 grant the Open Constitution Initiative received from Yale University. Xu has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School on several occasions.
Link to Voice of America Story
August 23, 2009
China legal activist freed, but may face tax case
By JOE MCDONALD (AP) – 4 hours ago
BEIJING — An activist Chinese lawyer who was detained in a possible crackdown on dissent ahead of October's 60th anniversary of Communist rule was released Sunday, but he said authorities were investigating possible tax charges against him.
Xu Zhiyong co-founded a Beijing legal aid group that has tackled some of China's most politically sensitive cases, most recently representing parents of children sickened last year by chemical-tainted milk. Xu was detained July 29 and formally arrested Aug. 12 on charges of evading taxes.
Xu has been at the forefront of legal reform and public interest law in China, and has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School in the United States several times.
He said he did not know whether authorities would proceed with a tax evasion case against his group, Gongmeng, or the Open Constitution Initiative.
"It is difficult to say," Xu told The Associated Press by telephone. He declined to give other details of his case or his detention.
His lawyer, Zhou Ze, said the case has yet to be sent to prosecutors.
"I think the tax evasion charge does not hold water," Zhou said. "We need to wait and see what will happen next."
Beijing appears to be trying to stifle possible dissent ahead of the Communist Party's celebration of its 60th anniversary in power Oct. 1.
In July, the government revoked the licenses of 53 lawyers in Beijing, many of them known for handling human rights and other sensitive cases.
Gongmeng was shut down in mid-July, and the Beijing tax bureau fined it 1.4 million yuan ($206,000) for failing to pay taxes.
Zhou said the case might involve accusations of failing to pay up to 200,000 yuan ($29,000) in taxes, but he said authorities have given no details.
Gongmeng lawyers represented parents in last year's tainted milk scandal. Six babies died and nearly 300,000 other children were sickened. The scandal led to an overhaul of China's dairy industry, but the government tried to block parents and activists from publicizing information about illnesses and complaints about authorities.
---
China Releases Prominent Human Rights Lawyer on Bail
By VOA News
23 August 2009
A leading Chinese human rights lawyer says he was released from detention Sunday, but still might face prosecution on charges of tax evasion.
Xu Zhiyong, co-founder of a legal-aid group known as the Open Constitution Initiative or Gongmeng, had been out of contact since security officials seized him from his home on July 29. He was formally arrested last Tuesday on charges of tax evasion.
Xu said Sunday he was released on bail pending trial.
Chinese authorities shut down the legal rights center more than a month ago for alleged nonpayment of taxes. Members of the group reported nearly two weeks later that Xu had been detained by police, and that they could not contact him.
The group has helped victims of China's tainted-milk scandal and offered assistance in human-rights cases. It also has issued a report criticizing the Chinese government's policies toward Tibet.
Rights groups say the latest developments are part of a widening crackdown on lawyers, rights activists and non-governmental organizations ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Chinese communist state.
Preparations are under way for a huge official celebration of the anniversary on October 1. Rights activists expect the government will try to prevent any public demonstration of dissent during the festivities.
China recently revoked the licenses of 53 Beijing lawyers, most of them prominent human-rights advocates. Amnesty International has condemned the crackdown on lawyers as a major blow to the human-rights defense movement in China.
In a widely quoted statement earlier this year, Xu said his Gongmeng group aims to help build the rule of law and advance Chinese society by objectively and independently studying human-rights protections, the situation in Tibet and other issues.
One of the government's main charges against Xu's group alleges that no taxes were paid on a $100,000 grant the Open Constitution Initiative received from Yale University. Xu has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School on several occasions.
Friday, August 21, 2009
"Assistant to pioneering Chinese rights lawyer 'disappears'" by Tania Branigan, The Guardian
Link
August 21, 2009
Office worker for Xu Zhiyong, who himself faces trial for tax evasion, has not been seen for three weeks.
Almost no one in China has heard of Zhuang Lu, which is hardly surprising. Plainly dressed and introverted, the 27-year-old office assistant completed her mundane daily tasks – booking tickets, paying bills – with minimum fuss. Then, three weeks ago, she disappeared.
Family and colleagues believe she is being held in a detention house in Beijing. Like her boss Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought a string of high-profile cases, she was taken from her home at dawn on 29 July by security officials. But unlike Xu's detention, which has made headlines internationally, her disappearance has gone unnoticed outside her immediate circle.
"Information about her has always been out. But because the main focus has been on Xu, not many people have noticed her case," said their colleague Yang Huawei.
Xu – who was formally arrested for tax evasion this week – is well known for his tenacious pursuit of sensitive cases such as deaths in custody. Shortly before his disappearance he was featured in Chinese Esquire. He co-founded the legal organisation Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, which has helped the families of children made ill by tainted baby milk powder and issued a report criticising the handling of demonstrations in Tibetan areas.
In comparison, Zhuang's work at Gongmeng was essential but inconspicuous - the administrative grind without which no organisation can run. She is "thin and small, plainly-dressed, introverted, not talkative," wrote Teng Biao, another of the founders.
But though she appeared vulnerable to Teng, "one thing proved that she was not weak and maybe that is the most shining thing she did [at] Gongmeng," he added.
"In 2008, when summer was replacing spring, she was invited by police for a cup of tea. The national security people asked her to report on our work to them and told her that she would benefit. But Zhuang Lu refused. She told us about it. She had the courage and [they] must have been very angry and we are not sure whether today's 'serious result' has anything to do with them or not."
In his blog posting – since erased by censors – he described how she wept when officials came to shut the Gongmeng legal centre in mid-July.
"Such a gentle and honest girl was kidnapped by Big Brother without any legal justification," he added.
Xu's case comes amid a crackdown on activist lawyers. Zhuang's shows how others can be drawn into such investigations.
"I guess it is possible that they took her in the hope of getting some testimony from her against Xu," Teng told the Guardian.
Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, describes that as "standard operating procedure".
"It is also, of course, a way of putting pressure on Xu, because he is responsible not only for himself. Police like to make threats about consequences for relatives and people around [detainees] and he doesn't have family," Bequelin added.
"This is scaring people who work for NGOs. They are thinking it's not only the boss who can be taken away; officials can also go for the 'small' people."
Zhuang and Xu were due to meet the tax bureau on the day they disappeared. Gongmeng's problems began when authorities slapped a 1.2m yuan (£100,000) fine for unpaid taxes on it last month. Its founders say it paid slightly late but in full and points out that the penalty is five times larger than the tax bill. Staff who tried to pay off some of the fine after Xu's detention were told they could not do so because he had not signed papers to appoint them as legal representatives.
Xu has now been formally arrested, allowing him access to lawyers, but Zhuang is still in limbo. Staff at the detention centre where she is thought to be held told the Guardian they were too busy to speak when asked about her case.
Zhuang's father, who rushed to the capital when he heard of her detention, has returned home to southern China without authorising lawyers to act for her. Now, like her colleagues, he waits anxiously for her return.
August 21, 2009
Office worker for Xu Zhiyong, who himself faces trial for tax evasion, has not been seen for three weeks.
Almost no one in China has heard of Zhuang Lu, which is hardly surprising. Plainly dressed and introverted, the 27-year-old office assistant completed her mundane daily tasks – booking tickets, paying bills – with minimum fuss. Then, three weeks ago, she disappeared.
Family and colleagues believe she is being held in a detention house in Beijing. Like her boss Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought a string of high-profile cases, she was taken from her home at dawn on 29 July by security officials. But unlike Xu's detention, which has made headlines internationally, her disappearance has gone unnoticed outside her immediate circle.
"Information about her has always been out. But because the main focus has been on Xu, not many people have noticed her case," said their colleague Yang Huawei.
Xu – who was formally arrested for tax evasion this week – is well known for his tenacious pursuit of sensitive cases such as deaths in custody. Shortly before his disappearance he was featured in Chinese Esquire. He co-founded the legal organisation Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, which has helped the families of children made ill by tainted baby milk powder and issued a report criticising the handling of demonstrations in Tibetan areas.
In comparison, Zhuang's work at Gongmeng was essential but inconspicuous - the administrative grind without which no organisation can run. She is "thin and small, plainly-dressed, introverted, not talkative," wrote Teng Biao, another of the founders.
But though she appeared vulnerable to Teng, "one thing proved that she was not weak and maybe that is the most shining thing she did [at] Gongmeng," he added.
"In 2008, when summer was replacing spring, she was invited by police for a cup of tea. The national security people asked her to report on our work to them and told her that she would benefit. But Zhuang Lu refused. She told us about it. She had the courage and [they] must have been very angry and we are not sure whether today's 'serious result' has anything to do with them or not."
In his blog posting – since erased by censors – he described how she wept when officials came to shut the Gongmeng legal centre in mid-July.
"Such a gentle and honest girl was kidnapped by Big Brother without any legal justification," he added.
Xu's case comes amid a crackdown on activist lawyers. Zhuang's shows how others can be drawn into such investigations.
"I guess it is possible that they took her in the hope of getting some testimony from her against Xu," Teng told the Guardian.
Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, describes that as "standard operating procedure".
"It is also, of course, a way of putting pressure on Xu, because he is responsible not only for himself. Police like to make threats about consequences for relatives and people around [detainees] and he doesn't have family," Bequelin added.
"This is scaring people who work for NGOs. They are thinking it's not only the boss who can be taken away; officials can also go for the 'small' people."
Zhuang and Xu were due to meet the tax bureau on the day they disappeared. Gongmeng's problems began when authorities slapped a 1.2m yuan (£100,000) fine for unpaid taxes on it last month. Its founders say it paid slightly late but in full and points out that the penalty is five times larger than the tax bill. Staff who tried to pay off some of the fine after Xu's detention were told they could not do so because he had not signed papers to appoint them as legal representatives.
Xu has now been formally arrested, allowing him access to lawyers, but Zhuang is still in limbo. Staff at the detention centre where she is thought to be held told the Guardian they were too busy to speak when asked about her case.
Zhuang's father, who rushed to the capital when he heard of her detention, has returned home to southern China without authorising lawyers to act for her. Now, like her colleagues, he waits anxiously for her return.
"Can Words Set Xu Free?" by Gady Epstein, Forbes
Link
August 21, 2009
BEIJING -- Do words really matter?
Candidate Barack Obama famously told Hillary Clinton that they do, and now we are about to find out exactly how much the president and secretary of state's words--and those of the new U.S. ambassador to China--matter to the Chinese government on human rights.
The Chinese government is in the midst of its most repressive crackdown on lawyers in the seven years since Hu Jintao took the helm of the Communist Party, forcing Obama administration officials to confront an issue they would rather have kept in the background before the president's first visit to China in November.
This week police formally arrested Xu Zhiyong, a highly respected legal scholar and elected legislator from the mainstream of China's legal rights movement, on dubious tax-evasion charges related to his legal services non-governmental organization, Gongmeng, which the government also shut down.
In February, a more outspoken crusader, Gao Zhisheng, disappeared into the unacknowledged custody of security forces. Some human rights groups and diplomats fear he may have been killed.
Xu and Gao are the bookends of a whole range of activist attorneys--legal "rights defenders"--who are under increasingly intense pressure from the Chinese authorities. The government threatens their livelihoods, then their freedom, and finally their lives. As chilling and disturbing as Gao's case is (see "The Nonexistent Case Of The Missing Lawyer"), many in the legal reform movement told themselves he was a radical, an outlier.
No one can say that about Xu, who was proud of playing by the government's own rules to achieve progress.
The problem was that Xu was advancing a cause, rule of law, that Chinese authorities have long avowed in writing but deliberately thwarted in practice. With Xu's arrest, security forces have signalled China's cadre of rights defenders that they have pushed the Communist Party far enough.
Now the U.S. government needs to send a message that this crackdown has gone too far. That means Ambassador Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who has just arrived in Beijing, will not have the luxury of a long honeymoon with his new interlocutors.
There is no doubt Huntsman will bring up Xu's case very soon--the only question is whether he chooses to do so immediately, and risk spoiling the festive ceremonial atmosphere of the first meeting with his hosts.
Does it matter when Huntsman makes his point, and how he makes it?
Yes and no.
The problem in dealing with China on human rights is that diplomatic pressure typically yields results only on a case-by-case basis. No matter when and how the message is delivered, the U.S. cannot hope to persuade Beijing to reverse its crackdown. That is the realistic limitation, the "no" in response to whether words matter.
But in fact words do matter in diplomacy, both practically and symbolically. Words are the tools of diplomacy, and can do the job when said at the right time by the right person. They can help set Xu free in advance of Obama's visit, which the White House and State Department are already trying to use as leverage to help the lawyer's case.
And even if these words do not secure the releases of Xu or Gao, or of the self-taught attorney Chen Guangcheng, or of the activists Hu Jia and Liu Xiaobo and Tan Zuoren, we know from the experience of imprisoned Soviet dissidents that the knowledge that they had the attention of the free nations of the world was a solace to them in captivity, and blunted the dehumanizing efforts of the regime that imprisoned them.
A diplomat's words also set the tone in relations, defining for the other side a nation's priorities. During her visit to China in February, when other problems dominated everyone's attention, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said publicly that although the U.S. should apply pressure on human rights, "our pressing on these issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis."
Clinton was speaking to the Chinese government then, not the people, but the people heard them. Her words certainly didn't change Chinese policy, didn't trigger or worsen the crackdown to come, but they remain disheartening to the people fighting for Xu's cause.
Now it is time for tougher words. Maybe not immediately--Huntsman's message will carry more weight if he doesn't come barreling through the front door with it--but very soon. Huntsman, Clinton and the president all should make clear how important Xu's case is to them.
They can't save all of China's lawyers with their words.
But they may be able to save one.
August 21, 2009
BEIJING -- Do words really matter?
Candidate Barack Obama famously told Hillary Clinton that they do, and now we are about to find out exactly how much the president and secretary of state's words--and those of the new U.S. ambassador to China--matter to the Chinese government on human rights.
The Chinese government is in the midst of its most repressive crackdown on lawyers in the seven years since Hu Jintao took the helm of the Communist Party, forcing Obama administration officials to confront an issue they would rather have kept in the background before the president's first visit to China in November.
This week police formally arrested Xu Zhiyong, a highly respected legal scholar and elected legislator from the mainstream of China's legal rights movement, on dubious tax-evasion charges related to his legal services non-governmental organization, Gongmeng, which the government also shut down.
In February, a more outspoken crusader, Gao Zhisheng, disappeared into the unacknowledged custody of security forces. Some human rights groups and diplomats fear he may have been killed.
Xu and Gao are the bookends of a whole range of activist attorneys--legal "rights defenders"--who are under increasingly intense pressure from the Chinese authorities. The government threatens their livelihoods, then their freedom, and finally their lives. As chilling and disturbing as Gao's case is (see "The Nonexistent Case Of The Missing Lawyer"), many in the legal reform movement told themselves he was a radical, an outlier.
No one can say that about Xu, who was proud of playing by the government's own rules to achieve progress.
The problem was that Xu was advancing a cause, rule of law, that Chinese authorities have long avowed in writing but deliberately thwarted in practice. With Xu's arrest, security forces have signalled China's cadre of rights defenders that they have pushed the Communist Party far enough.
Now the U.S. government needs to send a message that this crackdown has gone too far. That means Ambassador Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who has just arrived in Beijing, will not have the luxury of a long honeymoon with his new interlocutors.
There is no doubt Huntsman will bring up Xu's case very soon--the only question is whether he chooses to do so immediately, and risk spoiling the festive ceremonial atmosphere of the first meeting with his hosts.
Does it matter when Huntsman makes his point, and how he makes it?
Yes and no.
The problem in dealing with China on human rights is that diplomatic pressure typically yields results only on a case-by-case basis. No matter when and how the message is delivered, the U.S. cannot hope to persuade Beijing to reverse its crackdown. That is the realistic limitation, the "no" in response to whether words matter.
But in fact words do matter in diplomacy, both practically and symbolically. Words are the tools of diplomacy, and can do the job when said at the right time by the right person. They can help set Xu free in advance of Obama's visit, which the White House and State Department are already trying to use as leverage to help the lawyer's case.
And even if these words do not secure the releases of Xu or Gao, or of the self-taught attorney Chen Guangcheng, or of the activists Hu Jia and Liu Xiaobo and Tan Zuoren, we know from the experience of imprisoned Soviet dissidents that the knowledge that they had the attention of the free nations of the world was a solace to them in captivity, and blunted the dehumanizing efforts of the regime that imprisoned them.
A diplomat's words also set the tone in relations, defining for the other side a nation's priorities. During her visit to China in February, when other problems dominated everyone's attention, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said publicly that although the U.S. should apply pressure on human rights, "our pressing on these issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis."
Clinton was speaking to the Chinese government then, not the people, but the people heard them. Her words certainly didn't change Chinese policy, didn't trigger or worsen the crackdown to come, but they remain disheartening to the people fighting for Xu's cause.
Now it is time for tougher words. Maybe not immediately--Huntsman's message will carry more weight if he doesn't come barreling through the front door with it--but very soon. Huntsman, Clinton and the president all should make clear how important Xu's case is to them.
They can't save all of China's lawyers with their words.
But they may be able to save one.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
"Release Xu Zhiyong And Others," by Voice of America
Link
August 20, 2009
China continues to crack down on prominent lawyers and human rights activists and NGOs affiliated with them. Most recently, prosecutors have charged one of China's leading public interest lawyers, Xu Zhiyong, with tax evasion. If convicted, he could face 7 years in prison.
Mr. Xu, 36, is a founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, a nonprofit group that often takes on high-profile cases involving ordinary citizens' civil rights. It has challenged China's so-called "black jails," the illegal detention centers some local officials have reportedly used to detain and intimidate petitioning citizens.
The organization has also campaigned for the rights of migrant workers and death-row inmates, and helped parents of babies poisoned during last year's tainted milk scandal seek legal redress. The Chinese government shut down the Open Constitution Initiative center on July 17th and police arrested Mr. Xu on July 29th.
Many observers say the charges against Mr. Xu are politically motivated and part of a growing effort by security officials to shut down independent activism, especially groups funded from abroad. The Chinese government has blocked many foreign-based Web sites and social-networking services. It also disbarred about 50 lawyers earlier this year.
About the same time Mr. Xu was arrested, Chinese police raided the Beijing Yirenping Center, another non-governmental organization, which works to fight discrimination against Hepatitis B patients and HIV carriers. Authorities accused the NGO of illegal publishing.
In the meantime, Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s foremost human rights lawyers, was detained for a second time in February 2009 and has not been heard from since. Another of China's most prominent political dissidents Liu Xiaobo has been held virtually incommunicado in Beijing since December.
Chinese human rights activists should not be harassed, detained, or tortured by Chinese authorities for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression. As President Barack Obama said, "Freedom of religion and expression lead to a strong and vibrant civil society that only strengthens the state. ... An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve the security that comes from justice for all people.
August 20, 2009
China continues to crack down on prominent lawyers and human rights activists and NGOs affiliated with them. Most recently, prosecutors have charged one of China's leading public interest lawyers, Xu Zhiyong, with tax evasion. If convicted, he could face 7 years in prison.
Mr. Xu, 36, is a founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, a nonprofit group that often takes on high-profile cases involving ordinary citizens' civil rights. It has challenged China's so-called "black jails," the illegal detention centers some local officials have reportedly used to detain and intimidate petitioning citizens.
The organization has also campaigned for the rights of migrant workers and death-row inmates, and helped parents of babies poisoned during last year's tainted milk scandal seek legal redress. The Chinese government shut down the Open Constitution Initiative center on July 17th and police arrested Mr. Xu on July 29th.
Many observers say the charges against Mr. Xu are politically motivated and part of a growing effort by security officials to shut down independent activism, especially groups funded from abroad. The Chinese government has blocked many foreign-based Web sites and social-networking services. It also disbarred about 50 lawyers earlier this year.
About the same time Mr. Xu was arrested, Chinese police raided the Beijing Yirenping Center, another non-governmental organization, which works to fight discrimination against Hepatitis B patients and HIV carriers. Authorities accused the NGO of illegal publishing.
In the meantime, Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s foremost human rights lawyers, was detained for a second time in February 2009 and has not been heard from since. Another of China's most prominent political dissidents Liu Xiaobo has been held virtually incommunicado in Beijing since December.
Chinese human rights activists should not be harassed, detained, or tortured by Chinese authorities for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression. As President Barack Obama said, "Freedom of religion and expression lead to a strong and vibrant civil society that only strengthens the state. ... An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve the security that comes from justice for all people.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
"Pioneering human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong faces trial in China" by Tania Branigan, The Guardian
Link
August 18, 2009
Chinese authorities have formally arrested a pioneering lawyer, more than two weeks after security officials took him from his home at dawn. His lawyer warned today that he was likely to face a trial.
Xu Zhiyong, 36, is one of the best-known human rights lawyers in the country and co-founder of Gongmeng, a legal group that has dealt with some of the most sensitive cases in recent years. He is accused of tax evasion and, if found guilty, could face up to seven years in prison.
"It's not an indictment. But in the usual run of things, I expect the procuratorate will take the case to court, and the court is very unlikely to reject their case," Xu's lawyer, Li Fangping, told Reuters.
Amnesty International alleged in a statement: "The charges of tax evasion are a simple ploy to shut down the Open Constitution Initiative [Gongmeng]."
It added that Zhuang Lu, a staff member detained at the same time as Xu, had also been arrested.
Gongmeng has taken on high-profile cases, including the parents of children made ill by tainted baby milk formula, and issued a report criticising the handling of unrest across the Tibetan plateau.
Xu's arrest comes amid a broader crackdown on activist lawyers, in which more than 50 have lost their licences to practise, and the curbing of other dissent in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of Communist party rule in October this year.
August 18, 2009
Chinese authorities have formally arrested a pioneering lawyer, more than two weeks after security officials took him from his home at dawn. His lawyer warned today that he was likely to face a trial.
Xu Zhiyong, 36, is one of the best-known human rights lawyers in the country and co-founder of Gongmeng, a legal group that has dealt with some of the most sensitive cases in recent years. He is accused of tax evasion and, if found guilty, could face up to seven years in prison.
"It's not an indictment. But in the usual run of things, I expect the procuratorate will take the case to court, and the court is very unlikely to reject their case," Xu's lawyer, Li Fangping, told Reuters.
Amnesty International alleged in a statement: "The charges of tax evasion are a simple ploy to shut down the Open Constitution Initiative [Gongmeng]."
It added that Zhuang Lu, a staff member detained at the same time as Xu, had also been arrested.
Gongmeng has taken on high-profile cases, including the parents of children made ill by tainted baby milk formula, and issued a report criticising the handling of unrest across the Tibetan plateau.
Xu's arrest comes amid a broader crackdown on activist lawyers, in which more than 50 have lost their licences to practise, and the curbing of other dissent in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of Communist party rule in October this year.
"Chinese Public-Interest Lawyer Charged Amid Crackdown" by Michael Wines, The New York Times
Link
August 18, 2009
BEIJING — Prosecutors have charged one of China’s leading public-interest lawyers, Xu Zhiyong, with tax evasion, his lawyer said on Tuesday, continuing a government crackdown on this nation’s small band of activist lawyers and scholars that has lasted months.
Mr. Xu, 36, is a founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, known in Chinese as Gongmeng, a nonprofit group that often has taken on high-profile cases involving citizens’ civil rights. The government shut down the organization’s Gongmeng legal center on July 17, three days after accusing it of tax violations, and the police seized Mr. Xu on July 29.
In an interview on Tuesday, his lawyer, Zhou Ze, said Mr. Xu was formally charged on Aug. 12. Mr. Xu could face seven years in prison if he is tried and convicted. The prosecutors now must seek an indictment, but that is widely considered a formality.
The government’s main accusation is that Mr. Xu’s group failed to pay taxes on a $100,000 grant from Yale University that was earmarked for the legal center. But human rights advocates and foreign political analysts agree that the charges are politically inspired, part of what seems to be a growing effort by security officials to shut down independent activism and especially activism that is supported with foreign funds.
The government has moved this year to block many foreign-based Web sites and social-networking services used by Chinese activists and, often, by Chinese citizens. It also has taken action against a host of activist scholars and lawyers, effectively disbarring about 50 lawyers earlier this summer. Gao Zhisheng, whose aggressive legal campaigns earned him a reputation as a gadfly, has not been heard from since being taken into custody more than six months ago.
A number of activist lawyers have been beaten or harassed by unidentified assailants while working this year on cases. And one of China’s most prominent political dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been held virtually incommunicado in a suburban Beijing detention center since December.
Separately, the Beijing financial publication Economic Observer reported on Tuesday that the government had begun a broad inquiry into the so-called resident representative offices of foreign-based enterprises — in essence, offices that many foreign groups, including many charities and nonprofit organizations, establish on Chinese soil.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying that the government was drafting new regulations governing the offices and that many of the existing offices were suspected of violating Chinese law.
The current rules exempt the offices from paying taxes but also bar them from conducting business activities. The unnamed source was quoted as saying that many offices have flouted that prohibition, while others are guilty of lesser violations like failing to report address changes or renew expired registrations.
The report stated that investigators had already begun visiting some resident representative offices. In at least some instances, the investigators have been accompanied by the police, Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The government’s move against Gongmeng and Mr. Xu, he said, has sent a chill sweeping over China’s activist organizations, in large part because Gongmeng is widely seen as one of the most scrupulous groups working to expand the rule of law. Indeed, Mr. Xu, a professor at Beijing’s University of Posts and Telecommunications, has been an elected member of a local governing body, the People’s Congress in Beijing’s Haidian district, since 2003.
“He was doing everything aboveboard,” said Mr. Bequelin, who called Mr. Xu “the voice of moderation” in public-interest legal circles. “If he goes down, who is safe?”
August 18, 2009
BEIJING — Prosecutors have charged one of China’s leading public-interest lawyers, Xu Zhiyong, with tax evasion, his lawyer said on Tuesday, continuing a government crackdown on this nation’s small band of activist lawyers and scholars that has lasted months.
Mr. Xu, 36, is a founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, known in Chinese as Gongmeng, a nonprofit group that often has taken on high-profile cases involving citizens’ civil rights. The government shut down the organization’s Gongmeng legal center on July 17, three days after accusing it of tax violations, and the police seized Mr. Xu on July 29.
In an interview on Tuesday, his lawyer, Zhou Ze, said Mr. Xu was formally charged on Aug. 12. Mr. Xu could face seven years in prison if he is tried and convicted. The prosecutors now must seek an indictment, but that is widely considered a formality.
The government’s main accusation is that Mr. Xu’s group failed to pay taxes on a $100,000 grant from Yale University that was earmarked for the legal center. But human rights advocates and foreign political analysts agree that the charges are politically inspired, part of what seems to be a growing effort by security officials to shut down independent activism and especially activism that is supported with foreign funds.
The government has moved this year to block many foreign-based Web sites and social-networking services used by Chinese activists and, often, by Chinese citizens. It also has taken action against a host of activist scholars and lawyers, effectively disbarring about 50 lawyers earlier this summer. Gao Zhisheng, whose aggressive legal campaigns earned him a reputation as a gadfly, has not been heard from since being taken into custody more than six months ago.
A number of activist lawyers have been beaten or harassed by unidentified assailants while working this year on cases. And one of China’s most prominent political dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been held virtually incommunicado in a suburban Beijing detention center since December.
Separately, the Beijing financial publication Economic Observer reported on Tuesday that the government had begun a broad inquiry into the so-called resident representative offices of foreign-based enterprises — in essence, offices that many foreign groups, including many charities and nonprofit organizations, establish on Chinese soil.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying that the government was drafting new regulations governing the offices and that many of the existing offices were suspected of violating Chinese law.
The current rules exempt the offices from paying taxes but also bar them from conducting business activities. The unnamed source was quoted as saying that many offices have flouted that prohibition, while others are guilty of lesser violations like failing to report address changes or renew expired registrations.
The report stated that investigators had already begun visiting some resident representative offices. In at least some instances, the investigators have been accompanied by the police, Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The government’s move against Gongmeng and Mr. Xu, he said, has sent a chill sweeping over China’s activist organizations, in large part because Gongmeng is widely seen as one of the most scrupulous groups working to expand the rule of law. Indeed, Mr. Xu, a professor at Beijing’s University of Posts and Telecommunications, has been an elected member of a local governing body, the People’s Congress in Beijing’s Haidian district, since 2003.
“He was doing everything aboveboard,” said Mr. Bequelin, who called Mr. Xu “the voice of moderation” in public-interest legal circles. “If he goes down, who is safe?”
"Chinese activist arrested for tax evasion" by Kathrin Hille, The Financial Times
Link
August 18, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, a Chinese legal scholar and aid campaigner, has been formally arrested on tax evasion charges, in the latest step in Beijing’s crackdown on legal activists.
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, where Mr Xu teaches law, was notified of his official arrest, said Zhou Ze, Mr Xu’s lawyer. “This letter was received,” said a colleague of Mr Xu’s who asked not to be identified.
Under China’s opaque legal system, it is unclear whether Mr Xu will be prosecuted. But his formal arrest makes it more likely that he will go to trial. As a leading proponent of legal reform in China, his case could serve as a test for how committed Beijing is to continue developing the rule of law.
Mr Xu was taken away from his home at dawn on July 29 shortly after the government closed down the Open Constitution Initiative, a non-governmental group co-founded and run by him which provides legal assistance in public interest cases.
The centre was closed after the authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m, saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Mr Xu’s detention came a day before he was due for a hearing on that case.
Mr Xu became widely known in 2003 when he campaigned against China’s extralegal detention of people staying in a city they lack a residential permit for. Mr Xu called upon the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, to check whether the system was constitutional after Sun Zhigang, a university graduate, died following a beating while in police custody. Later that year, that form of detention was abolished.
Since then, Mr Xu has taken on numerous public interest cases. Most recently, his centre’s lawyers represented parents of children who died or fell ill after consuming melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years. Lawyers working with the centre said the tax evasion charges were part of Beijing’s broader attempt to harass activist lawyers and legal aid groups.
Open Constitution was set up as a company because aid groups that try to register as nonprofits often face insurmountable administrative hurdles in China. However, the alternative exposes them to government demands to declare tax as a for-profit business.
Earlier this month, centre organizers called for public donations and tried to settle the fine. However, they said this proved difficult because tax authorities refused to issue necessary paperwork and the bank accounts of the centre and Mr Xu were frozen.
Mr Zhou said he was allowed to visit Mr Xu late last week in a Beijing detention facility where Mr Xu remained as of Tuesday.
August 18, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, a Chinese legal scholar and aid campaigner, has been formally arrested on tax evasion charges, in the latest step in Beijing’s crackdown on legal activists.
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, where Mr Xu teaches law, was notified of his official arrest, said Zhou Ze, Mr Xu’s lawyer. “This letter was received,” said a colleague of Mr Xu’s who asked not to be identified.
Under China’s opaque legal system, it is unclear whether Mr Xu will be prosecuted. But his formal arrest makes it more likely that he will go to trial. As a leading proponent of legal reform in China, his case could serve as a test for how committed Beijing is to continue developing the rule of law.
Mr Xu was taken away from his home at dawn on July 29 shortly after the government closed down the Open Constitution Initiative, a non-governmental group co-founded and run by him which provides legal assistance in public interest cases.
The centre was closed after the authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m, saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Mr Xu’s detention came a day before he was due for a hearing on that case.
Mr Xu became widely known in 2003 when he campaigned against China’s extralegal detention of people staying in a city they lack a residential permit for. Mr Xu called upon the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, to check whether the system was constitutional after Sun Zhigang, a university graduate, died following a beating while in police custody. Later that year, that form of detention was abolished.
Since then, Mr Xu has taken on numerous public interest cases. Most recently, his centre’s lawyers represented parents of children who died or fell ill after consuming melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years. Lawyers working with the centre said the tax evasion charges were part of Beijing’s broader attempt to harass activist lawyers and legal aid groups.
Open Constitution was set up as a company because aid groups that try to register as nonprofits often face insurmountable administrative hurdles in China. However, the alternative exposes them to government demands to declare tax as a for-profit business.
Earlier this month, centre organizers called for public donations and tried to settle the fine. However, they said this proved difficult because tax authorities refused to issue necessary paperwork and the bank accounts of the centre and Mr Xu were frozen.
Mr Zhou said he was allowed to visit Mr Xu late last week in a Beijing detention facility where Mr Xu remained as of Tuesday.
"Chinese Legal Rights Group Blocked from Paying Its Fines" by NTDTV
Link
August 17, 2009
Chinese legal scholar Xu Zhiyong is still in detention for supposedly violating tax law. He’s part of an organization called The Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng in Chinese. They take on welfare and human rights cases.
Chinese authorities are demanding that Gongmeng pay fines for overdue taxes. But now authorities are making it hard for them.
A report by the organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders says that Gongmeng asked supporters for donations to help pay the fines. But authorities have frozen Gongmeng’s bank account—and that makes it impossible for them to pay.
Meanwhile, Xu is still being detained.
Recent months have seen an increased number of arrests and trials of activists and lawyers in China.
August 17, 2009
Chinese legal scholar Xu Zhiyong is still in detention for supposedly violating tax law. He’s part of an organization called The Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng in Chinese. They take on welfare and human rights cases.
Chinese authorities are demanding that Gongmeng pay fines for overdue taxes. But now authorities are making it hard for them.
A report by the organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders says that Gongmeng asked supporters for donations to help pay the fines. But authorities have frozen Gongmeng’s bank account—and that makes it impossible for them to pay.
Meanwhile, Xu is still being detained.
Recent months have seen an increased number of arrests and trials of activists and lawyers in China.
"Chinese Lawyers "Disappear" After Seeking Justice" by NTDTV
Link
August 17, 2009
It's a chain of events that's becoming familiar: Chinese authorities are causing well-known lawyers to “disappear.”
Beijing attorney Xu Zhiyong was detained last month on alleged tax issues, and he hasn’t been seen since. He upset authorities by taking on cases involving civil rights violations and unfair imprisonment.
Xu had always fought for justice within the bounds of China’s legal system and constitution. But now he himself has been abducted and detained.
[Gao Wenqian, Senior Policy Advisor, Human Rights in China]:
“This judgment against Xu Zhiyong that the Chinese government is preparing is in fact not a judgment on Xu, but on the very nature of the Chinese legal system... The methods they are using against these civil rights groups really just display the cynicism with which they use these terms like 'rule of law.'”
But rule of law is precisely what Xu and many other lawyers are seeking. They’re involved in what's being called a “legal rights” movement. Some lawyers have been disbarred, some imprisoned.
Rights attorney Gao Zhisheng was arrested and tortured several times. He’s defended clients like Falun Gong practitioners and house Christians—two groups persecuted by the Chinese regime. He went missing again in February this year and his current whereabouts are unknown.
In 2006, legal rights activist Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to four years in prison. He had drawn attention to the plight of victims of China’s forced abortion program.
And in 2007, six lawyers from top Beijing law firms defended a Falun Gong practitioner—arguing that the Communist Party had violated her freedom of belief as guaranteed by the constitution. As a result, authorities intimidated them, and even abducted several of them, including prominent rights lawyer Teng Biao.
Clive Ansley works with Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, an organization that supports lawyers whose rights are threatened in their home countries.
[Clive Ansley, China Country Monitor, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada]:
"They see them [these lawyers] as a very real threat, and for very good reason, because these are people who genuinely believe in the rule of law. And the rule of law is just basically incompatible with political monopoly of power by a single party."
Just days ago, China’s justice minister announced that all lawyers should serve the Communist Party first, and that law firms would soon receive “Party liaisons.” Some see this as part of the Party’s attempt to control lawyers—and stifle dissent from within the legal profession.
Lawyer Clive Ansley says the Party feels it has no choice.
[Clive Ansley, China Country Monitor, Lawyers' Rights Watch]:
"The implementation of genuine rule of law, meaning that the law is the ultimate authority, would be the end of the Chinese Communist Party's monopoly of power."
August 17, 2009
It's a chain of events that's becoming familiar: Chinese authorities are causing well-known lawyers to “disappear.”
Beijing attorney Xu Zhiyong was detained last month on alleged tax issues, and he hasn’t been seen since. He upset authorities by taking on cases involving civil rights violations and unfair imprisonment.
Xu had always fought for justice within the bounds of China’s legal system and constitution. But now he himself has been abducted and detained.
[Gao Wenqian, Senior Policy Advisor, Human Rights in China]:
“This judgment against Xu Zhiyong that the Chinese government is preparing is in fact not a judgment on Xu, but on the very nature of the Chinese legal system... The methods they are using against these civil rights groups really just display the cynicism with which they use these terms like 'rule of law.'”
But rule of law is precisely what Xu and many other lawyers are seeking. They’re involved in what's being called a “legal rights” movement. Some lawyers have been disbarred, some imprisoned.
Rights attorney Gao Zhisheng was arrested and tortured several times. He’s defended clients like Falun Gong practitioners and house Christians—two groups persecuted by the Chinese regime. He went missing again in February this year and his current whereabouts are unknown.
In 2006, legal rights activist Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to four years in prison. He had drawn attention to the plight of victims of China’s forced abortion program.
And in 2007, six lawyers from top Beijing law firms defended a Falun Gong practitioner—arguing that the Communist Party had violated her freedom of belief as guaranteed by the constitution. As a result, authorities intimidated them, and even abducted several of them, including prominent rights lawyer Teng Biao.
Clive Ansley works with Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, an organization that supports lawyers whose rights are threatened in their home countries.
[Clive Ansley, China Country Monitor, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada]:
"They see them [these lawyers] as a very real threat, and for very good reason, because these are people who genuinely believe in the rule of law. And the rule of law is just basically incompatible with political monopoly of power by a single party."
Just days ago, China’s justice minister announced that all lawyers should serve the Communist Party first, and that law firms would soon receive “Party liaisons.” Some see this as part of the Party’s attempt to control lawyers—and stifle dissent from within the legal profession.
Lawyer Clive Ansley says the Party feels it has no choice.
[Clive Ansley, China Country Monitor, Lawyers' Rights Watch]:
"The implementation of genuine rule of law, meaning that the law is the ultimate authority, would be the end of the Chinese Communist Party's monopoly of power."
"Chinese Authorities Remove Activist from Internet" by NTDTV
Link
August 14, 2009
Now turning to the human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong who has been detained by Chinese authorities for alleged tax offences. It appears that now the Communist regime is attempting to erase him from public discussion.
Xu’s blog on Hong Kong-based Sina.cn.com has been deleted.
And a search on the Chinese version of Google using the simplified Chinese characters for Xu’s name shows only this message.
On July 17, authorities shut down the office of Gongmeng, a.k.a. the Open Constitution Initiative—a legal support center that Xu co-founded. And now they’ve shut down Gongmeng’s website, too—this page is all that’s left.
In addition, a blog forum discussing Gongmeng has been closed since Tuesday.
Many netizens are angry about authorities’ attempts to stop discussions about Xu. One 17-year-old Hong Kong student posted this open letter on Facebook to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao—she’s asking him why the regime is treating Xu so cruelly.
August 14, 2009
Now turning to the human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong who has been detained by Chinese authorities for alleged tax offences. It appears that now the Communist regime is attempting to erase him from public discussion.
Xu’s blog on Hong Kong-based Sina.cn.com has been deleted.
And a search on the Chinese version of Google using the simplified Chinese characters for Xu’s name shows only this message.
On July 17, authorities shut down the office of Gongmeng, a.k.a. the Open Constitution Initiative—a legal support center that Xu co-founded. And now they’ve shut down Gongmeng’s website, too—this page is all that’s left.
In addition, a blog forum discussing Gongmeng has been closed since Tuesday.
Many netizens are angry about authorities’ attempts to stop discussions about Xu. One 17-year-old Hong Kong student posted this open letter on Facebook to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao—she’s asking him why the regime is treating Xu so cruelly.
"Chinese Tweets: “Send Your Feelings” to Xu Zhiyong Today!" by Xiao Qiang, China Digital Times
Link
August 12, 2009
Since legal scholar and founder of Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) Xu Zhiyong was detained, his virtual existence has also been cleaned up in Chinese cyberspace. His blog on sina.cn.com was completely deleted around 11 am on August 12 and searching his name in Baidu and Google will produce the following error pages:
Netizens have pointed out that similar search results will appear at the following links as well: Douban group Search, Douban Topic search, Sina Community Search, Sougou, Netease Search, Tom, Qihu Search … (豆瓣小组搜索，豆瓣话题搜索，新浪社区搜索，搜狗，网易有道，TOM，奇虎搜索……)
Hecaitou, a long time and hugely popular blogger tweeted about his experience in searching “Xu Zhiyong” “许志永” on Baidu today: in addition to the standard error message (”Your search results may relate to contents which is not consistent with relevant law, regulations and policies, and therefore cannot be displayed”), the upper-right corner banner ad on the same page will automatically enter the search term “Xu Zhiyong” into a popular Baidu online service, “Baidu Send Your Feelings (百度传情).” So the banner reads:
Other tech savvy netizens provided links to download the compressed version of Xu Zhiyong’ blog content.
Even before Xu Zhiyong’s blog was taken off-line, Beijing blogger Wang Lihong (王荔蕻) anticipated this possibility and set up a blog on a Yam.com, a hosting service in Taiwan. She then spent several days hand copying and pasting each of Xu’s articles into this new mirror site here.
August 12, 2009
Since legal scholar and founder of Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) Xu Zhiyong was detained, his virtual existence has also been cleaned up in Chinese cyberspace. His blog on sina.cn.com was completely deleted around 11 am on August 12 and searching his name in Baidu and Google will produce the following error pages:
Netizens have pointed out that similar search results will appear at the following links as well: Douban group Search, Douban Topic search, Sina Community Search, Sougou, Netease Search, Tom, Qihu Search … (豆瓣小组搜索，豆瓣话题搜索，新浪社区搜索，搜狗，网易有道，TOM，奇虎搜索……)
Hecaitou, a long time and hugely popular blogger tweeted about his experience in searching “Xu Zhiyong” “许志永” on Baidu today: in addition to the standard error message (”Your search results may relate to contents which is not consistent with relevant law, regulations and policies, and therefore cannot be displayed”), the upper-right corner banner ad on the same page will automatically enter the search term “Xu Zhiyong” into a popular Baidu online service, “Baidu Send Your Feelings (百度传情).” So the banner reads:
Other tech savvy netizens provided links to download the compressed version of Xu Zhiyong’ blog content.
Even before Xu Zhiyong’s blog was taken off-line, Beijing blogger Wang Lihong (王荔蕻) anticipated this possibility and set up a blog on a Yam.com, a hosting service in Taiwan. She then spent several days hand copying and pasting each of Xu’s articles into this new mirror site here.
Friday, August 14, 2009
¨Jailing Xu Zhiyong A legal scholar's case tests China on the rule of law¨ by The Washington Post Opinion
Link
August 14, 2009
AT THE CONCLUSION of the Strategic Economic Dialogue on July 28, the United States and China issued a news release affirming "the importance of the rule of law to our two countries." One day later, Chinese police led prominent legal scholar Xu Zhiyong out of his apartment to be detained indefinitely.
Few people embrace the rule of law in China as openly or as wholeheartedly as Mr. Xu. After graduating from one of China's most prestigious law schools, he has dedicated his life to fighting for justice by means of the Chinese legal system. He has represented the parents of more than 300,000 children affected by melamine-contaminated milk, opposed secret "black jails" and fought for the rights of death row inmates. Mr. Xu is a strong proponent of working within the system for change -- so much so that he ran for office in one of China's rare contested elections and won. Along with his colleagues at the Open Constitution Initiative, which he helped establish, Mr. Xu is a highly visible legal figure to whom people have increasingly turned as they gained awareness of their constitutional rights.
Nongovernmental organizations such as the Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng, occupy an uneasy place in China. Many register as businesses to avoid dealing with a system that limits the number of NGOs and that requires government agencies to oversee their operations. This decision leaves them in a legal gray area, and in July, Chinese authorities charged that Gongmeng was improperly registered and had failed to pay taxes. Officials entered the organization's offices and confiscated dozens of files.
Mr. Xu was confident that he could defend his organization against these allegations by his usual means: through the system. But scarcely a week before he was to appear in court, police took him from his home.
He is not the first to see his trust in the system backfire. Last month, China refused to renew the licenses of 53 human rights lawyers whose cases troubled the Communist Party. But by taking on a figure as public and as scrupulously law-respecting as Mr. Xu, the Chinese government has crossed a new line. China frequently affirms its commitment to the "rule of law." But because the Chinese judiciary is not independent -- its chief justice is a longtime party member who lacks a law degree -- and court decisions often depend upon policy calculations, it is thanks only to the tireless efforts of those such as Mr. Xu that the "rule of law" might come to mean anything at all.
According to Chinese practice, Mr. Xu can be held for 30 days while the government decides whether to press charges; during this interval, protests from abroad might have some impact. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that human rights issues should not "interfere" in the discussion with China. But engaging with China does not mean abdicating the responsibility to strenuously object to its human rights violations -- especially in such an egregious case as the detention of Mr. Xu.
August 14, 2009
AT THE CONCLUSION of the Strategic Economic Dialogue on July 28, the United States and China issued a news release affirming "the importance of the rule of law to our two countries." One day later, Chinese police led prominent legal scholar Xu Zhiyong out of his apartment to be detained indefinitely.
Few people embrace the rule of law in China as openly or as wholeheartedly as Mr. Xu. After graduating from one of China's most prestigious law schools, he has dedicated his life to fighting for justice by means of the Chinese legal system. He has represented the parents of more than 300,000 children affected by melamine-contaminated milk, opposed secret "black jails" and fought for the rights of death row inmates. Mr. Xu is a strong proponent of working within the system for change -- so much so that he ran for office in one of China's rare contested elections and won. Along with his colleagues at the Open Constitution Initiative, which he helped establish, Mr. Xu is a highly visible legal figure to whom people have increasingly turned as they gained awareness of their constitutional rights.
Nongovernmental organizations such as the Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng, occupy an uneasy place in China. Many register as businesses to avoid dealing with a system that limits the number of NGOs and that requires government agencies to oversee their operations. This decision leaves them in a legal gray area, and in July, Chinese authorities charged that Gongmeng was improperly registered and had failed to pay taxes. Officials entered the organization's offices and confiscated dozens of files.
Mr. Xu was confident that he could defend his organization against these allegations by his usual means: through the system. But scarcely a week before he was to appear in court, police took him from his home.
He is not the first to see his trust in the system backfire. Last month, China refused to renew the licenses of 53 human rights lawyers whose cases troubled the Communist Party. But by taking on a figure as public and as scrupulously law-respecting as Mr. Xu, the Chinese government has crossed a new line. China frequently affirms its commitment to the "rule of law." But because the Chinese judiciary is not independent -- its chief justice is a longtime party member who lacks a law degree -- and court decisions often depend upon policy calculations, it is thanks only to the tireless efforts of those such as Mr. Xu that the "rule of law" might come to mean anything at all.
According to Chinese practice, Mr. Xu can be held for 30 days while the government decides whether to press charges; during this interval, protests from abroad might have some impact. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that human rights issues should not "interfere" in the discussion with China. But engaging with China does not mean abdicating the responsibility to strenuously object to its human rights violations -- especially in such an egregious case as the detention of Mr. Xu.
¨Legal rights violations in China: Should Obama speak up?¨ Los Angeles Times Opinion
Link
August 13, 2009
In what seems to be part of a crackdown on civil rights lawyers in China, the Chinese government has arrested prominent civil rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong on tax fraud charges. Zhiyong, who has not been heard from since his arrest two weeks ago, started the nonprofit Open Constitution Initiative legal clinic six years ago, which has recently represented victims of the poisoned milk powder that left three children dead and 6,000 sick in China. Zhiyong's clinic was shut down for "tax evasion." Experts say this arrest does not bode well for the already precarious rule of law in China, and human rights activists across the political spectrum are calling for President Obama to speak up on the issue.
While the Chinese government over the last several years has made much progress in multiple areas of law, including trade and corporate issues, civil rights law is less established and growing slowly because of the risks lawyers who practice in this field face. Very few lawyers (Freedom Watch says there are only several dozen) are willing to take on cases such as defending parents whose infants were affected by poisonous baby formula or death row inmates.
Xu was one of the few. Many of his fellow lawyers have been disbarred and believe they will never be reinstated as practicing attorneys, even though they were working within the law to try make change in China. "None of these guys were going around the government," Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch told me. "They took cases to court that were violations under Chinese law. It's not an anomaly when you disbar the only 50 people who practice this kind of law."
The question is, why now? According to Clayton Dube, associate director of the USC U.S.-China Institute, many blame this recent crackdown on the upcoming celebration of the 60th anniversary of Communist China. He says the government's skepticism of these lawyers started back with the earthquake in the Sichuan province, continued with the Tibetan protests (many of whom were represented by rights lawyers) and grew with the milk contamination cases. In other words, this isn't a new phenomenon.
Both Freedom Watch and Human Rights Watch have said that they wish the Obama administration would do more to confront China over the violation of legal and civil rights, the effects of which they say are not only felt by Chinese citizens but often also by foreigners, as was the case with the exported baby formula.
Should the Obama administration speak out against the infringement of human rights in China and the deterioration of this field of law? China is a strategic partner that might not react well to harsh criticism from its economic ally. Even so, is it the president's duty to press on this issue and risk economic consequences for the United States?
August 13, 2009
In what seems to be part of a crackdown on civil rights lawyers in China, the Chinese government has arrested prominent civil rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong on tax fraud charges. Zhiyong, who has not been heard from since his arrest two weeks ago, started the nonprofit Open Constitution Initiative legal clinic six years ago, which has recently represented victims of the poisoned milk powder that left three children dead and 6,000 sick in China. Zhiyong's clinic was shut down for "tax evasion." Experts say this arrest does not bode well for the already precarious rule of law in China, and human rights activists across the political spectrum are calling for President Obama to speak up on the issue.
While the Chinese government over the last several years has made much progress in multiple areas of law, including trade and corporate issues, civil rights law is less established and growing slowly because of the risks lawyers who practice in this field face. Very few lawyers (Freedom Watch says there are only several dozen) are willing to take on cases such as defending parents whose infants were affected by poisonous baby formula or death row inmates.
Xu was one of the few. Many of his fellow lawyers have been disbarred and believe they will never be reinstated as practicing attorneys, even though they were working within the law to try make change in China. "None of these guys were going around the government," Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch told me. "They took cases to court that were violations under Chinese law. It's not an anomaly when you disbar the only 50 people who practice this kind of law."
The question is, why now? According to Clayton Dube, associate director of the USC U.S.-China Institute, many blame this recent crackdown on the upcoming celebration of the 60th anniversary of Communist China. He says the government's skepticism of these lawyers started back with the earthquake in the Sichuan province, continued with the Tibetan protests (many of whom were represented by rights lawyers) and grew with the milk contamination cases. In other words, this isn't a new phenomenon.
Both Freedom Watch and Human Rights Watch have said that they wish the Obama administration would do more to confront China over the violation of legal and civil rights, the effects of which they say are not only felt by Chinese citizens but often also by foreigners, as was the case with the exported baby formula.
Should the Obama administration speak out against the infringement of human rights in China and the deterioration of this field of law? China is a strategic partner that might not react well to harsh criticism from its economic ally. Even so, is it the president's duty to press on this issue and risk economic consequences for the United States?
Monday, August 10, 2009
"Fearing the Rule of Law, Chinese Government Arrests Prominent Human Rights Lawyer," by Jessica Corsi, Human Rights Foreign Policy Blog
Link
August 10, 2009
The blogosphere is abuzz with the unsettling news that the Chinese government has arrested Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old attorney, thereby dealing another blow to the growing Chinese rule of law movement. In authoritarian countries or nations in transition, lawyers often play a key role in bringing greater democracy through the judicial protections, accountability, and transparency that are hallmarks of the rule of law. In 2007, Pakistan’s so-called lawyers revolution demonstrated the centrality of the judiciary and attorneys in protecting Constitutional freedoms and the rule of law in the face of General Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule. While Pakistan is lauded as a successful instance of resistance, human rights lawyers around the world continue to face a hostile environment. To name a few examples, in 2003 the Ethiopian government disbanded the Women’s Lawyers Association, a women’s rights group, and in the same year the Tunisian government assaulted human rights lawyers and refused to legalize their organizations. As recently as January 2009, a human rights lawyer working on abuses by the Russian military in Chechnya was shot and killed in broad daylight, following a news conference in Moscow. In China as elsewhere, corrupt and oppressive governments fear being held legally accountable, and strike out against lawyers in an attempt to maintain impunity.
Mr. Xu seems by all accounts an excellent but certainly far from radical lawyer. Since his graduation from Peking University law school he had taken up cases of disenfranchised or abused persons, such as those suffering from government beatings, arrested for publishing news offensive to the Chinese government, and victims of poisoned milk. Before his arrest he was preparing to challenge “black jails,” the Chinese government’s illegal holding cells for vocal critics. He had co-founded the Open Constitution Initiative, a Beijing-based non-profit legal services and research center, which the Chinese government shut down following a raid on July 17, 2009. Claiming that the center was involved in tax evasion, the government also disbarred 53 Beijing lawyers at this time. The center had been involved in highly sensitive cases such as challenging the Chinese government’s role in 2008’s Tibetan unrest, and this together with Mr. Xu’s arrest imply that, whatever tax problems did or did not exist, the government’s motive in closing the center and in Mr. Xu’s arrest is to squash the rule of law movement.
Lawyers play a critical role in investigating and reporting human rights violations and in ensuring the responsibility of the state and remedies for victims. Mr. Xu and the Open Constitution Initiative represent real and effective action to secure human rights in China; for example, Mr. Xu’s very first case led to the abolition of vagrancy laws that allowed police to detain people traveling without a permit outside of their registered towns, demonstrating that one legal action can have significant impact throughout China. The New York Times writes today that “China is at a critical [legal] juncture” following 30 years of reform. China lacks neither lawyers nor functioning courts, and while objectively this is a good thing and necessary for the rule of law, the government appears immensely threatened by the prospect of a functioning judiciary and the ability of its citizens to redress human rights violations. Chinese law professor He Weifang states that the Communist Party’s concern regarding lawyers is that they will be able to challenge China’s one party rule and to lead a pro-democracy movement by mobilizing their network of clients that have legal and other grievances against the Chinese government. More generally, the Chinese government seems to fear any movement from civil society to hold it legally accountable.
Whether the next wave of democratic change in China will come at the hands of lawyers remains to be seen, but it is certain that future reforms cannot take place without progress towards the rule of law. Like human rights defenders around the world, Mr. Xu is owed protection by his government rather than attack from it. Hopefully, the current media attention around his case will save him from harm and ensure his prompt release.
August 10, 2009
The blogosphere is abuzz with the unsettling news that the Chinese government has arrested Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old attorney, thereby dealing another blow to the growing Chinese rule of law movement. In authoritarian countries or nations in transition, lawyers often play a key role in bringing greater democracy through the judicial protections, accountability, and transparency that are hallmarks of the rule of law. In 2007, Pakistan’s so-called lawyers revolution demonstrated the centrality of the judiciary and attorneys in protecting Constitutional freedoms and the rule of law in the face of General Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule. While Pakistan is lauded as a successful instance of resistance, human rights lawyers around the world continue to face a hostile environment. To name a few examples, in 2003 the Ethiopian government disbanded the Women’s Lawyers Association, a women’s rights group, and in the same year the Tunisian government assaulted human rights lawyers and refused to legalize their organizations. As recently as January 2009, a human rights lawyer working on abuses by the Russian military in Chechnya was shot and killed in broad daylight, following a news conference in Moscow. In China as elsewhere, corrupt and oppressive governments fear being held legally accountable, and strike out against lawyers in an attempt to maintain impunity.
Mr. Xu seems by all accounts an excellent but certainly far from radical lawyer. Since his graduation from Peking University law school he had taken up cases of disenfranchised or abused persons, such as those suffering from government beatings, arrested for publishing news offensive to the Chinese government, and victims of poisoned milk. Before his arrest he was preparing to challenge “black jails,” the Chinese government’s illegal holding cells for vocal critics. He had co-founded the Open Constitution Initiative, a Beijing-based non-profit legal services and research center, which the Chinese government shut down following a raid on July 17, 2009. Claiming that the center was involved in tax evasion, the government also disbarred 53 Beijing lawyers at this time. The center had been involved in highly sensitive cases such as challenging the Chinese government’s role in 2008’s Tibetan unrest, and this together with Mr. Xu’s arrest imply that, whatever tax problems did or did not exist, the government’s motive in closing the center and in Mr. Xu’s arrest is to squash the rule of law movement.
Lawyers play a critical role in investigating and reporting human rights violations and in ensuring the responsibility of the state and remedies for victims. Mr. Xu and the Open Constitution Initiative represent real and effective action to secure human rights in China; for example, Mr. Xu’s very first case led to the abolition of vagrancy laws that allowed police to detain people traveling without a permit outside of their registered towns, demonstrating that one legal action can have significant impact throughout China. The New York Times writes today that “China is at a critical [legal] juncture” following 30 years of reform. China lacks neither lawyers nor functioning courts, and while objectively this is a good thing and necessary for the rule of law, the government appears immensely threatened by the prospect of a functioning judiciary and the ability of its citizens to redress human rights violations. Chinese law professor He Weifang states that the Communist Party’s concern regarding lawyers is that they will be able to challenge China’s one party rule and to lead a pro-democracy movement by mobilizing their network of clients that have legal and other grievances against the Chinese government. More generally, the Chinese government seems to fear any movement from civil society to hold it legally accountable.
Whether the next wave of democratic change in China will come at the hands of lawyers remains to be seen, but it is certain that future reforms cannot take place without progress towards the rule of law. Like human rights defenders around the world, Mr. Xu is owed protection by his government rather than attack from it. Hopefully, the current media attention around his case will save him from harm and ensure his prompt release.
"What Xu Zhiyong Stands For," by Austin Ramzy, TIME.com
Link
August 10, 2009
On the China Beat blog, our former colleague Susan Jakes takes a look at the breadth and boldness of detained legal scholar Xu Zhiyong's work:
Xu has a knack for seeing what's possible where others see only futility. In 2003 and again in 2006 he ran as one of China's handful of independent—that is, not CCP pre-approved—candidates in an election for his district People's Congress. He not only won by a landslide, but in both of his terms in office has sought to prove through his actions—by providing constituent services, demanding budget reviews, preventing the relocation of the Beijing Zoo and lobbying on behalf of aggrieved dog owners—that the congress was not the parody of a political institution it sometimes seemed to be. “Actually,” he explained, “the People's Congress has real power. It's just that people don't take it seriously.” I interviewed Xu shortly after his first election. When I asked him how he decided to run, he looked at me evenly for a moment before replying. “I ran,” he said, “because the law allows me to.”
Link: Susan Jakes full blog entry on The China Beat Blog.
August 10, 2009
On the China Beat blog, our former colleague Susan Jakes takes a look at the breadth and boldness of detained legal scholar Xu Zhiyong's work:
Xu has a knack for seeing what's possible where others see only futility. In 2003 and again in 2006 he ran as one of China's handful of independent—that is, not CCP pre-approved—candidates in an election for his district People's Congress. He not only won by a landslide, but in both of his terms in office has sought to prove through his actions—by providing constituent services, demanding budget reviews, preventing the relocation of the Beijing Zoo and lobbying on behalf of aggrieved dog owners—that the congress was not the parody of a political institution it sometimes seemed to be. “Actually,” he explained, “the People's Congress has real power. It's just that people don't take it seriously.” I interviewed Xu shortly after his first election. When I asked him how he decided to run, he looked at me evenly for a moment before replying. “I ran,” he said, “because the law allows me to.”
Link: Susan Jakes full blog entry on The China Beat Blog.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
"Lawyer’s Detention Shakes China’s Rights Movement," by Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times
Link
August 9, 2009
BEIJING — China’s nascent legal rights movement, already reeling from a crackdown on crusading lawyers, the kidnapping of defense witnesses and the shuttering of a prominent legal clinic, has been shaken by the detention of a widely respected rights defender who has been incommunicado since the police led him away from his apartment 12 days ago.
Xu Zhiyong, 36, a soft-spoken and politically shrewd legal scholar who has made a name representing migrant workers, death row inmates and the parents of babies poisoned by tainted milk, is accused of tax evasion. The charge is almost universally seen here as a cover for his true offense: angering the Communist Party leadership through his advocacy of the rule of law.
If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.
“We’re all shocked by his detention, because Xu Zhiyong has always tried to avoid taking on radical and politically sensitive cases,” said Teng Biao, a colleague. “His only interest is fighting for the rights of the vulnerable and trying to enhance China’s legal system.”
Mr. Teng helped Mr. Xu establish the Open Constitution Initiative, a six-year-old nonprofit legal center that the authorities closed last month, charging that it was improperly registered and that it failed to pay taxes.
Mr. Xu is not the first rights advocate in China to face the wrath of the authorities in recent years. Gao Zhisheng, a vocal lawyer, vanished into police custody six months ago, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer, was beaten and then jailed after exposing abuses in China’s birth-control program.
Although rights lawyers and grass-roots social organizations have always been tightly controlled here, the pressure has intensified in recent weeks. More than 20 lawyers known for taking on politically tinged cases were effectively disbarred, and the police raided a group that works to ease discrimination against people with Hepatitis B.
Last week China’s justice minister gave a speech saying that lawyers should above all obey the Communist Party and help foster a harmonious society. To improve discipline, the minister said, all law firms in the country would be sent party liaisons to “guide their work.”
But given Mr. Xu’s international stature and reputation for working within the law, legal scholars both in China and abroad say his prosecution suggests a new level of repression.
“What makes his detention particularly disturbing is that he’s a special figure in so many ways,” said Paul Gewirtz, director of the China Law Center at Yale Law School, which helped Mr. Xu establish his legal center, known here by its Chinese name, Gongmeng. “He’s at the forefront of advancing the rule of law, which is something everyone agrees China needs for its ongoing development.”
After 30 years of reform, China’s legal system is at a critical juncture. Law schools continue to pump out thousands of graduates each year, and the courts, even if imperfect, have increasingly become a forum for resolving disputes. Late last month the Supreme People’s Court announced reforms intended to markedly reduce executions.
But as lawyers here discover, there are limits to China’s embrace of judicial reform.
The Constitution, which includes guarantees of free speech and human rights, is unenforceable in court. Judges routinely ignore evidence, making determinations based on political considerations. And when it comes to vaguely defined offenses like “subversion of state power” or the invocation of “state secrets” laws, even the best-trained lawyers are powerless to defend the accused.
He Weifang, a law professor and legal adviser to Gongmeng, said conservative forces in the Communist Party were increasingly wary of lawyers, whom they suspect are ultimately seeking to challenge one-party rule. Their greatest fear, Mr. He said, is that advocacy lawyers and civil society organizations could one day lead a pro-democracy movement among the poor and disenfranchised citizens they represent.
“What the authorities don’t appreciate, though, is that lawyers are leading these people to the courts, where their complaints can be resolved by rule of law,” he said. “People like Xu Zhiyong can only help the government solve some of the problems it faces.”
According to Gongmeng, Mr. Xu is being held at the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center, although public security officials have not confirmed that he is in their custody. Peng Jian, a lawyer who is advising Gongmeng, said the authorities had imposed a $208,000 penalty for nonpayment of taxes due on funds received from Yale for cooperative research projects.
A day after the raid on Gongmeng’s office, Mr. Xu held a news conference to say that the accusations were baseless. He described the attack on his research center as a battle between corrupt officials and society’s most vulnerable citizens. “We believe conscience will surely triumph over the evil forces,” he said.
A week later, police officers came to his door and led him away. Another employee of the research center, Zhuang Lu, was also taken away the same day.
Soon after graduating from Peking University law school, Mr. Xu became immersed in the case of a graphic artist who was beaten to death in 2003 in police custody in the southern city of Guangzhou. The artist, Sun Zhigang, 27, had been arrested under vagrancy laws that allowed the police to detain people for traveling outside their registered hometowns without a permit.
Mr. Xu led a campaign to end the practice, which gained widespread media attention. A few months later, the State Council abolished the system.
That same year Mr. Xu rose to the defense of a muckraking editor jailed in Guangzhou after his newspaper, Southern Metropolis, ran a series of articles about Mr. Sun’s death. The editor, Cheng Yizhong, said Mr. Xu helped rally lawyers and journalists, leading to his release five months later. “Only Xu had the courage to take on my case,” he said.
More recently, he tried to prepare a challenge to black jails, the illegal holding cells that some officials use to silence persistent critics. Last year, friends say, he was roughed up several times while gathering evidence from petitioners who had come to Beijing to press their grievances to the central government.
Raised in a Christian home in Henan Province, Mr. Xu was fond of noting his birth in a county called Minquan, which translates as “civil rights.” In an interview last year with The Economic Observer, a Chinese weekly, he said this had a profound impact on his social consciousness.
“I strive to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he said. “I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change.”
August 9, 2009
BEIJING — China’s nascent legal rights movement, already reeling from a crackdown on crusading lawyers, the kidnapping of defense witnesses and the shuttering of a prominent legal clinic, has been shaken by the detention of a widely respected rights defender who has been incommunicado since the police led him away from his apartment 12 days ago.
Xu Zhiyong, 36, a soft-spoken and politically shrewd legal scholar who has made a name representing migrant workers, death row inmates and the parents of babies poisoned by tainted milk, is accused of tax evasion. The charge is almost universally seen here as a cover for his true offense: angering the Communist Party leadership through his advocacy of the rule of law.
If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.
“We’re all shocked by his detention, because Xu Zhiyong has always tried to avoid taking on radical and politically sensitive cases,” said Teng Biao, a colleague. “His only interest is fighting for the rights of the vulnerable and trying to enhance China’s legal system.”
Mr. Teng helped Mr. Xu establish the Open Constitution Initiative, a six-year-old nonprofit legal center that the authorities closed last month, charging that it was improperly registered and that it failed to pay taxes.
Mr. Xu is not the first rights advocate in China to face the wrath of the authorities in recent years. Gao Zhisheng, a vocal lawyer, vanished into police custody six months ago, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer, was beaten and then jailed after exposing abuses in China’s birth-control program.
Although rights lawyers and grass-roots social organizations have always been tightly controlled here, the pressure has intensified in recent weeks. More than 20 lawyers known for taking on politically tinged cases were effectively disbarred, and the police raided a group that works to ease discrimination against people with Hepatitis B.
Last week China’s justice minister gave a speech saying that lawyers should above all obey the Communist Party and help foster a harmonious society. To improve discipline, the minister said, all law firms in the country would be sent party liaisons to “guide their work.”
But given Mr. Xu’s international stature and reputation for working within the law, legal scholars both in China and abroad say his prosecution suggests a new level of repression.
“What makes his detention particularly disturbing is that he’s a special figure in so many ways,” said Paul Gewirtz, director of the China Law Center at Yale Law School, which helped Mr. Xu establish his legal center, known here by its Chinese name, Gongmeng. “He’s at the forefront of advancing the rule of law, which is something everyone agrees China needs for its ongoing development.”
After 30 years of reform, China’s legal system is at a critical juncture. Law schools continue to pump out thousands of graduates each year, and the courts, even if imperfect, have increasingly become a forum for resolving disputes. Late last month the Supreme People’s Court announced reforms intended to markedly reduce executions.
But as lawyers here discover, there are limits to China’s embrace of judicial reform.
The Constitution, which includes guarantees of free speech and human rights, is unenforceable in court. Judges routinely ignore evidence, making determinations based on political considerations. And when it comes to vaguely defined offenses like “subversion of state power” or the invocation of “state secrets” laws, even the best-trained lawyers are powerless to defend the accused.
He Weifang, a law professor and legal adviser to Gongmeng, said conservative forces in the Communist Party were increasingly wary of lawyers, whom they suspect are ultimately seeking to challenge one-party rule. Their greatest fear, Mr. He said, is that advocacy lawyers and civil society organizations could one day lead a pro-democracy movement among the poor and disenfranchised citizens they represent.
“What the authorities don’t appreciate, though, is that lawyers are leading these people to the courts, where their complaints can be resolved by rule of law,” he said. “People like Xu Zhiyong can only help the government solve some of the problems it faces.”
According to Gongmeng, Mr. Xu is being held at the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center, although public security officials have not confirmed that he is in their custody. Peng Jian, a lawyer who is advising Gongmeng, said the authorities had imposed a $208,000 penalty for nonpayment of taxes due on funds received from Yale for cooperative research projects.
A day after the raid on Gongmeng’s office, Mr. Xu held a news conference to say that the accusations were baseless. He described the attack on his research center as a battle between corrupt officials and society’s most vulnerable citizens. “We believe conscience will surely triumph over the evil forces,” he said.
A week later, police officers came to his door and led him away. Another employee of the research center, Zhuang Lu, was also taken away the same day.
Soon after graduating from Peking University law school, Mr. Xu became immersed in the case of a graphic artist who was beaten to death in 2003 in police custody in the southern city of Guangzhou. The artist, Sun Zhigang, 27, had been arrested under vagrancy laws that allowed the police to detain people for traveling outside their registered hometowns without a permit.
Mr. Xu led a campaign to end the practice, which gained widespread media attention. A few months later, the State Council abolished the system.
That same year Mr. Xu rose to the defense of a muckraking editor jailed in Guangzhou after his newspaper, Southern Metropolis, ran a series of articles about Mr. Sun’s death. The editor, Cheng Yizhong, said Mr. Xu helped rally lawyers and journalists, leading to his release five months later. “Only Xu had the courage to take on my case,” he said.
More recently, he tried to prepare a challenge to black jails, the illegal holding cells that some officials use to silence persistent critics. Last year, friends say, he was roughed up several times while gathering evidence from petitioners who had come to Beijing to press their grievances to the central government.
Raised in a Christian home in Henan Province, Mr. Xu was fond of noting his birth in a county called Minquan, which translates as “civil rights.” In an interview last year with The Economic Observer, a Chinese weekly, he said this had a profound impact on his social consciousness.
“I strive to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he said. “I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change.”
"China snares NGOs with foreign funding," by Simon Montlake, Christian Science Monitor
Link
August 4, 2009
Beijing - It began with a tax notice for $200,000. Three days later, on July 17, officials raided the group's Beijing office and seized its computers. Then, just before dawn on July 29, police detained its founder, Xu Zhiyong at his home
On the same day, government officials went to the office of Yi Ren Ping, another nongovernmental organization, and confiscated copies of its newsletter on the grounds that it didn't have a publishing license.
Taken together, the raids appear part of a tightening of controls on critical voices in the run-up to Oct. 1, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The two NGOs are among a growing number here using the law to hold authorities to account on issues such as food safety, patient rights, and illegal detention.
But they share another common thread: Both received grants from American and other foreign donors. The tax fine for Open Constitution Initiative, the group headed by Mr. Xu, was assessed largely on a donation from Yale Law School. Xu, a lawyer and elected legislator, is being detained on suspicion of tax evasion, according to an OCI official.
The harassment of these and other foreign-funded NGOs in Beijing has raised fears of a Russian-style squeeze on civil society. Since 2006, Russia has stripped the tax-free status of many foreign foundations and forced NGOs to report their activities in exhaustive detail, while accusing foreign-funded human rights groups of being Trojan horses for Western powers. It recently amended its NGO law, easing some of these controls.
An alternate view in Beijing is that the groups targeted had pushed too aggressively into forbidden political zones, setting off a reaction. NGO workers and experts on civil society say the investigations into taxes and licenses are a smokescreen for a clampdown on legal activism, including the recent disbarring of 20 civil rights lawyers in Beijing.
"It's what you do with the money that matters," says a researcher on Chinese NGOs, who declined to be named. He says investigations into foreign funding provide a "post hoc excuse" for authorities.
Foreign funds become a liability
Because of the difficulty of registering as nonprofits, many Chinese NGOs are listed as businesses. That makes them liable for potentially crippling tax demands, says Wan Yanhai, who runs an HIV/AIDS advocacy group in Beijing.
"This is a big issue. If there is a similar action [as OCI's tax case] against us, we could be fined tens of millions of yuan," he says.
Mr. Wan and other activists say that soliciting foreign funds is routine for many NGOs in China. Some government officials are supportive as they also benefit from funding for public programs from the same foreign donors. And they tend to overlook the fact that foreign-funded NGOs were registered as businesses, say activists.
A crackdown on this practice – and the risk of a backdated tax bill – would be chilling, says Sara Davis, executive director of Asia Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit that provides technical support to civil society groups in China.
"It's a tough situation. For most grass-roots groups working on humanitarian and civil rights issues in China, there's no domestic funding. They're also not allowed to register as NGOs. That leaves very little option except to go to foreign donors," she says.
Another dilemma for activists is that foreign donors often want to fund projects that rub against the grain in China, such as research into last year's riots in Tibet, which inflamed foreign opinion. In a recent report, OCI said the official explanation that the Dalai Lama had fomented the unrest ignored the government's own repressive actions in Tibet.
It also took up the cause of families suing companies that sold contaminated milk powder last year, until the practice was exposed. China's government has tried to draw a line under the scandal by paying compensation to those that agree not to bring lawsuits against manufacturers.
An official at an overseas grant-making organization, who requested anonymity, says informal agreements with tax authorities on giving money to Chinese recipients may now be in doubt. But he and others in the NGO field say it's too soon to say if a broader crackdown is underway and, if so, whether foreign funding would be squeezed.
State projects get outside aid, too
On the day of his arrest, Xu was due to prepare his defense in the tax case. The next day, a municipal tax bureau found against OCI, which had argued that the money from Yale and another private donor had already been declared.
Jeffrey Prescott, deputy director of Yale's China Law Center, says he was disturbed by the detention of Xu, a former visiting scholar at Yale, and its implications for lawyers working with marginalized groups. He says Yale also supported government-run programs in China, including research on legal reform with state universities.
"Obviously these issues can be sensitive in China. But if you look at what [OCI] is doing, it's pretty mainstream public interest law," he says.
August 4, 2009
Beijing - It began with a tax notice for $200,000. Three days later, on July 17, officials raided the group's Beijing office and seized its computers. Then, just before dawn on July 29, police detained its founder, Xu Zhiyong at his home
On the same day, government officials went to the office of Yi Ren Ping, another nongovernmental organization, and confiscated copies of its newsletter on the grounds that it didn't have a publishing license.
Taken together, the raids appear part of a tightening of controls on critical voices in the run-up to Oct. 1, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The two NGOs are among a growing number here using the law to hold authorities to account on issues such as food safety, patient rights, and illegal detention.
But they share another common thread: Both received grants from American and other foreign donors. The tax fine for Open Constitution Initiative, the group headed by Mr. Xu, was assessed largely on a donation from Yale Law School. Xu, a lawyer and elected legislator, is being detained on suspicion of tax evasion, according to an OCI official.
The harassment of these and other foreign-funded NGOs in Beijing has raised fears of a Russian-style squeeze on civil society. Since 2006, Russia has stripped the tax-free status of many foreign foundations and forced NGOs to report their activities in exhaustive detail, while accusing foreign-funded human rights groups of being Trojan horses for Western powers. It recently amended its NGO law, easing some of these controls.
An alternate view in Beijing is that the groups targeted had pushed too aggressively into forbidden political zones, setting off a reaction. NGO workers and experts on civil society say the investigations into taxes and licenses are a smokescreen for a clampdown on legal activism, including the recent disbarring of 20 civil rights lawyers in Beijing.
"It's what you do with the money that matters," says a researcher on Chinese NGOs, who declined to be named. He says investigations into foreign funding provide a "post hoc excuse" for authorities.
Foreign funds become a liability
Because of the difficulty of registering as nonprofits, many Chinese NGOs are listed as businesses. That makes them liable for potentially crippling tax demands, says Wan Yanhai, who runs an HIV/AIDS advocacy group in Beijing.
"This is a big issue. If there is a similar action [as OCI's tax case] against us, we could be fined tens of millions of yuan," he says.
Mr. Wan and other activists say that soliciting foreign funds is routine for many NGOs in China. Some government officials are supportive as they also benefit from funding for public programs from the same foreign donors. And they tend to overlook the fact that foreign-funded NGOs were registered as businesses, say activists.
A crackdown on this practice – and the risk of a backdated tax bill – would be chilling, says Sara Davis, executive director of Asia Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit that provides technical support to civil society groups in China.
"It's a tough situation. For most grass-roots groups working on humanitarian and civil rights issues in China, there's no domestic funding. They're also not allowed to register as NGOs. That leaves very little option except to go to foreign donors," she says.
Another dilemma for activists is that foreign donors often want to fund projects that rub against the grain in China, such as research into last year's riots in Tibet, which inflamed foreign opinion. In a recent report, OCI said the official explanation that the Dalai Lama had fomented the unrest ignored the government's own repressive actions in Tibet.
It also took up the cause of families suing companies that sold contaminated milk powder last year, until the practice was exposed. China's government has tried to draw a line under the scandal by paying compensation to those that agree not to bring lawsuits against manufacturers.
An official at an overseas grant-making organization, who requested anonymity, says informal agreements with tax authorities on giving money to Chinese recipients may now be in doubt. But he and others in the NGO field say it's too soon to say if a broader crackdown is underway and, if so, whether foreign funding would be squeezed.
State projects get outside aid, too
On the day of his arrest, Xu was due to prepare his defense in the tax case. The next day, a municipal tax bureau found against OCI, which had argued that the money from Yale and another private donor had already been declared.
Jeffrey Prescott, deputy director of Yale's China Law Center, says he was disturbed by the detention of Xu, a former visiting scholar at Yale, and its implications for lawyers working with marginalized groups. He says Yale also supported government-run programs in China, including research on legal reform with state universities.
"Obviously these issues can be sensitive in China. But if you look at what [OCI] is doing, it's pretty mainstream public interest law," he says.
"China tightens reins on dissent," by Bill Schiller, Toronto Star
Link
August 8, 2009
BEIJING–Xu Zhiyong once confided to a Chinese journalist that even as a young high school student he knew exactly what he wanted to do in life. In a careful, youthful hand he'd penned it into his diary:
"Dedicate myself to public service," he wrote. "Advocate for social reform. Change the tradition of a nation. Help build an ideal society."
They were lofty, noble goals – outsized for most people, but not for Xu. He felt it was his duty – in fact his fate – to aspire to nothing less, born as he was in a place called Minquan County.
"Minquan means `civil rights,'" he often says.
Until last week, Xu Zhiyong, a highly respected 36-year-old legal scholar and rising role model for young Chinese, was busy achieving those goals: spreading knowledge about Chinese law among the common people; using Chinese law to defend the poor and the vulnerable; and earning a reputation as a selfless, tireless builder of China's nascent civil society.
Then six policemen came to his home at 5 a.m. Wednesday and led him away.
Today, Xu Zhiyong is detained somewhere in Beijing, another victim of China's ever-tightening control on lawyers, activists and non-governmental organizations, people the government views as potential threats to their absolute power.
Xu's detention surprised many, both here and abroad: he didn't criticize China's Communist Party, never spoke out against the government, and he abided by the law and played by the rules.
"With his detention, the government has now crossed a threshold in terms of its intolerance of dissent," says Nicholas Bequelin of the international rights organization Human Rights Watch. "This indicates a hardening of the government's attitude towards civil society. If Xu goes from detention to `formal arrest,' then no one is really safe."
Xu is being held without charges.
The government alleges his organization, the Open Constitution Initiative (OCI), which he helped found in 2003, failed to pay its taxes.
Supporters say the taxes were paid and that the trumped-up charges are aimed at halting overseas funding and shutting the operation down.
"Xu Zhiyong and OCI have done nothing illegal," says Teng Biao, friend of co-founder of the organization. "We have respected the law in every instance."
While some in the rights lawyers' movement take a more muscular approach to the law, often taking on the government head-on, Xu is a pragmatist, insisting on working within the system, pushing for change while taking care not to incite authorities. But he and his organization have not shirked from taking on controversial cases.
He provided legal assistance to farmers in the northeast whose land had been illegally seized by corrupt government officials for private gain.
He exposed and publicized a system of illegal "black jails" where citizens from the provinces, who'd come to Beijing to complain about corrupt provincial politicians, were routinely taken to be beaten.
More recently, he organized a class-action suit for parents whose babies had been poisoned by melamine-laced milk during last year's Sanlu milk scandal. At least 300,000 babies were poisoned, but the government says only six died.
"This is precisely the kind of organization whose work the government should value, as it helps ease grievances and minimizes unrest," says Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch's advocacy director. "This attack on the Open Constitution Initiative marks a new low in the Chinese government's campaign against human rights defenders."
But Xu and his organization are by no means the only ones in the government's sights.
China's most prominent human rights lawyers are also under attack. At least 53 had their licences invalidated earlier this year, 20 of whom have now been disbarred. All are known for their work on sensitive cases.
The Yirenping Centre, an organization that gives counsel and support to hepatitis B carriers, was also raided by security police last week. Police seized leaflets that advised patients of their rights, claiming the centre needed a publishing permit to distribute the leaflets.
"The purpose is to find excuses for suppressing China's NGOs," the centre's director, Lu Jun, charged.
This week, the New York-based NGO Asia Catalyst also revealed that a Chinese AIDS advocate had his passport seized by Chinese authorities and prevented from attending an international AIDS conference in Indonesia.
Police warned the advocate, who had been invited to the conference by UNAIDS, that if he spoke to the media or international organizations about the passport seizure, he would face "the same fate as Hu Jia."
Hu Jia is a well-known Chinese HIV/AIDS activist currently serving 3 1/2 years in prison.
Cumulatively, says Bequelin, the government's actions suggest that its security apparatus has been given freer rein.
The turning point, he believes, was U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement during her visit to China this year that human rights issues need not interfere with Sino-American relations. Says Bequelin, "We're now seeing how unwise it was for Clinton and the U.S. to have basically said, `We won't do anything on the human rights front.'"
August 8, 2009
BEIJING–Xu Zhiyong once confided to a Chinese journalist that even as a young high school student he knew exactly what he wanted to do in life. In a careful, youthful hand he'd penned it into his diary:
"Dedicate myself to public service," he wrote. "Advocate for social reform. Change the tradition of a nation. Help build an ideal society."
They were lofty, noble goals – outsized for most people, but not for Xu. He felt it was his duty – in fact his fate – to aspire to nothing less, born as he was in a place called Minquan County.
"Minquan means `civil rights,'" he often says.
Until last week, Xu Zhiyong, a highly respected 36-year-old legal scholar and rising role model for young Chinese, was busy achieving those goals: spreading knowledge about Chinese law among the common people; using Chinese law to defend the poor and the vulnerable; and earning a reputation as a selfless, tireless builder of China's nascent civil society.
Then six policemen came to his home at 5 a.m. Wednesday and led him away.
Today, Xu Zhiyong is detained somewhere in Beijing, another victim of China's ever-tightening control on lawyers, activists and non-governmental organizations, people the government views as potential threats to their absolute power.
Xu's detention surprised many, both here and abroad: he didn't criticize China's Communist Party, never spoke out against the government, and he abided by the law and played by the rules.
"With his detention, the government has now crossed a threshold in terms of its intolerance of dissent," says Nicholas Bequelin of the international rights organization Human Rights Watch. "This indicates a hardening of the government's attitude towards civil society. If Xu goes from detention to `formal arrest,' then no one is really safe."
Xu is being held without charges.
The government alleges his organization, the Open Constitution Initiative (OCI), which he helped found in 2003, failed to pay its taxes.
Supporters say the taxes were paid and that the trumped-up charges are aimed at halting overseas funding and shutting the operation down.
"Xu Zhiyong and OCI have done nothing illegal," says Teng Biao, friend of co-founder of the organization. "We have respected the law in every instance."
While some in the rights lawyers' movement take a more muscular approach to the law, often taking on the government head-on, Xu is a pragmatist, insisting on working within the system, pushing for change while taking care not to incite authorities. But he and his organization have not shirked from taking on controversial cases.
He provided legal assistance to farmers in the northeast whose land had been illegally seized by corrupt government officials for private gain.
He exposed and publicized a system of illegal "black jails" where citizens from the provinces, who'd come to Beijing to complain about corrupt provincial politicians, were routinely taken to be beaten.
More recently, he organized a class-action suit for parents whose babies had been poisoned by melamine-laced milk during last year's Sanlu milk scandal. At least 300,000 babies were poisoned, but the government says only six died.
"This is precisely the kind of organization whose work the government should value, as it helps ease grievances and minimizes unrest," says Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch's advocacy director. "This attack on the Open Constitution Initiative marks a new low in the Chinese government's campaign against human rights defenders."
But Xu and his organization are by no means the only ones in the government's sights.
China's most prominent human rights lawyers are also under attack. At least 53 had their licences invalidated earlier this year, 20 of whom have now been disbarred. All are known for their work on sensitive cases.
The Yirenping Centre, an organization that gives counsel and support to hepatitis B carriers, was also raided by security police last week. Police seized leaflets that advised patients of their rights, claiming the centre needed a publishing permit to distribute the leaflets.
"The purpose is to find excuses for suppressing China's NGOs," the centre's director, Lu Jun, charged.
This week, the New York-based NGO Asia Catalyst also revealed that a Chinese AIDS advocate had his passport seized by Chinese authorities and prevented from attending an international AIDS conference in Indonesia.
Police warned the advocate, who had been invited to the conference by UNAIDS, that if he spoke to the media or international organizations about the passport seizure, he would face "the same fate as Hu Jia."
Hu Jia is a well-known Chinese HIV/AIDS activist currently serving 3 1/2 years in prison.
Cumulatively, says Bequelin, the government's actions suggest that its security apparatus has been given freer rein.
The turning point, he believes, was U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement during her visit to China this year that human rights issues need not interfere with Sino-American relations. Says Bequelin, "We're now seeing how unwise it was for Clinton and the U.S. to have basically said, `We won't do anything on the human rights front.'"
"An Open Letter in Support of Xu Zhiyong," Cheng Wing Yan/Alice Poon, Asia Sentinel
Link
August 8, 2009
An excerpt of an open letter written by a Form 7 Hong Kong female student Cheng Wing Yan (鄭詠欣) addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in support of Xu Zhiyong, the civil rights lawyer who has been arrested by the Chinese government. The letter has been published in Ming Pao Daily.
Here is my translation of the excerpt of the open letter titled “Please Convince Me from a Legal Standpoint”:-
"Recently Xu Zhiyong and Gongmeng (公盟) under his leadership have been targeted by the government. Gongmeng is a civil organization formed by a group of lawyers and academics who are concerned with China’s development. Through academic research, the organization has offered some advice and suggestions on China’s legal system reform, thereby promoting the realization of rule of law and democracy. Another area of their work, which is well known to Chinese citizens, is to provide legal aid to the powerless grass roots like petitioners and victims of land grabs and melamine milk powder, helping them to get justice within the existing legal framework. Judging from the fact that many petitioners who had received legal aid went bravely to Gongmeng’s office to voice their support soon after the tax authorities shut it down, everybody can clearly see that Gongmeng is the people’s ally. Why is it that the government under your leadership is still insisting on doing something that goes against the will of the people?
As far as I know, Gongmeng is a non-profit organization. They had once considered registering as a non-business civil unit, but their application was rejected and they had no alternative but to register as a limited company. In international societies, such an organization is tax-exempt, and donors can also obtain tax exemption benefits. But as Gongmeng members are law-abiding legal professionals, even though they think the system is unreasonable, they still pay their taxes as required. When the tax authorities accused them of omitting to report certain taxable items, they admitted their fault honestly. Why is it that the government under your leadership still imposing the maximum penalty, and on top of that, using a search warrant to take away all the files and data that are related to protection of civil rights? What is even more puzzling is that right before the convening of the second hearing, Mr. Xu was taken away from his home by security bureau officers and under-cover police, detained in custody and was not allowed to contact lawyers or his family. At the same time, Gongmeng was being ordered to shut down its website. This is a case of groundless seizure of citizens’ basic civil rights.
Premier Wen, you always say things like ‘administering according to rule of law’ and ‘governing according to rule of law’. May I ask, based on which legal clause did the law enforcement agency take away Mr. Xu? I only have a cursory knowledge of Chinese Law, but I know that the Constitution is the country’s most comprehensive basic law and has the highest level of binding power. Article 35 of our country’s Constitution states that citizens of People’s Republic of China have the freedom of speech and the freedom to form associations. Article 37 states clearly that citizens of People’s Republic of China enjoy personal freedom and it prohibits illegal arrest or other means of illegally seizing or limiting citizens’ personal freedom. Based on my own interpretation of these Articles, I think Mr. Xu should be free to stay in his home or work at his office.
In April this year, when my classmates and I were in Beijing as exchange students, we had the honor of discussing Chinese politics with Mr. Xu at his Gongmeng office. I saw that he is prepared to be selfless in doing all he can in the area of rule of law and democracy, and that he has great hope for China’s future. I was deeply moved. I can still remember during that visit I saw with my own eyes those menacing scarecrow gangsters who were trying to scare away the pitiable petitioners at the State Bureau for Letters and Visits. So, in our discussion, one of my classmates asked Mr. Xu, ‘Why does the Central Government tolerate the existence of those scarecrow gangsters?’ You know how Mr. Xu replied? He said that the number of petitioners far exceeds what the Letters and Visits Office can handle; so, in order to avoid overloading the Office, government cannot but bear with the scarecrow rogues. He reminded us several times that government is already doing its very best and that we need to be patient with it.
This is what Mr. Xu is like. He is full of ideals but he is not presumptuous. He is visionary but he insists on taking one step at a time. He does not mind getting negligible results that come slowly and bit by bit. He firmly believes that one day China will realize rule of law, democracy and freedom.
Premier Wen, I really don’t understand why your government can be so cruel. Why do you have to use such means to deal with a scholar who understands the hardship of the government and who wants only rational discourse? All he does is to play by the current rules of game and provide proper assistance to the weak and helpless to fight for the rights that the Constitution gives them. None of his deeds is not for the love of the country and its people. Why can’t the government spare such a person, and let him and Gongmeng handle the (tax) matter in accordance with open and fair civil proceedings?"
August 8, 2009
An excerpt of an open letter written by a Form 7 Hong Kong female student Cheng Wing Yan (鄭詠欣) addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in support of Xu Zhiyong, the civil rights lawyer who has been arrested by the Chinese government. The letter has been published in Ming Pao Daily.
Here is my translation of the excerpt of the open letter titled “Please Convince Me from a Legal Standpoint”:-
"Recently Xu Zhiyong and Gongmeng (公盟) under his leadership have been targeted by the government. Gongmeng is a civil organization formed by a group of lawyers and academics who are concerned with China’s development. Through academic research, the organization has offered some advice and suggestions on China’s legal system reform, thereby promoting the realization of rule of law and democracy. Another area of their work, which is well known to Chinese citizens, is to provide legal aid to the powerless grass roots like petitioners and victims of land grabs and melamine milk powder, helping them to get justice within the existing legal framework. Judging from the fact that many petitioners who had received legal aid went bravely to Gongmeng’s office to voice their support soon after the tax authorities shut it down, everybody can clearly see that Gongmeng is the people’s ally. Why is it that the government under your leadership is still insisting on doing something that goes against the will of the people?
As far as I know, Gongmeng is a non-profit organization. They had once considered registering as a non-business civil unit, but their application was rejected and they had no alternative but to register as a limited company. In international societies, such an organization is tax-exempt, and donors can also obtain tax exemption benefits. But as Gongmeng members are law-abiding legal professionals, even though they think the system is unreasonable, they still pay their taxes as required. When the tax authorities accused them of omitting to report certain taxable items, they admitted their fault honestly. Why is it that the government under your leadership still imposing the maximum penalty, and on top of that, using a search warrant to take away all the files and data that are related to protection of civil rights? What is even more puzzling is that right before the convening of the second hearing, Mr. Xu was taken away from his home by security bureau officers and under-cover police, detained in custody and was not allowed to contact lawyers or his family. At the same time, Gongmeng was being ordered to shut down its website. This is a case of groundless seizure of citizens’ basic civil rights.
Premier Wen, you always say things like ‘administering according to rule of law’ and ‘governing according to rule of law’. May I ask, based on which legal clause did the law enforcement agency take away Mr. Xu? I only have a cursory knowledge of Chinese Law, but I know that the Constitution is the country’s most comprehensive basic law and has the highest level of binding power. Article 35 of our country’s Constitution states that citizens of People’s Republic of China have the freedom of speech and the freedom to form associations. Article 37 states clearly that citizens of People’s Republic of China enjoy personal freedom and it prohibits illegal arrest or other means of illegally seizing or limiting citizens’ personal freedom. Based on my own interpretation of these Articles, I think Mr. Xu should be free to stay in his home or work at his office.
In April this year, when my classmates and I were in Beijing as exchange students, we had the honor of discussing Chinese politics with Mr. Xu at his Gongmeng office. I saw that he is prepared to be selfless in doing all he can in the area of rule of law and democracy, and that he has great hope for China’s future. I was deeply moved. I can still remember during that visit I saw with my own eyes those menacing scarecrow gangsters who were trying to scare away the pitiable petitioners at the State Bureau for Letters and Visits. So, in our discussion, one of my classmates asked Mr. Xu, ‘Why does the Central Government tolerate the existence of those scarecrow gangsters?’ You know how Mr. Xu replied? He said that the number of petitioners far exceeds what the Letters and Visits Office can handle; so, in order to avoid overloading the Office, government cannot but bear with the scarecrow rogues. He reminded us several times that government is already doing its very best and that we need to be patient with it.
This is what Mr. Xu is like. He is full of ideals but he is not presumptuous. He is visionary but he insists on taking one step at a time. He does not mind getting negligible results that come slowly and bit by bit. He firmly believes that one day China will realize rule of law, democracy and freedom.
Premier Wen, I really don’t understand why your government can be so cruel. Why do you have to use such means to deal with a scholar who understands the hardship of the government and who wants only rational discourse? All he does is to play by the current rules of game and provide proper assistance to the weak and helpless to fight for the rights that the Constitution gives them. None of his deeds is not for the love of the country and its people. Why can’t the government spare such a person, and let him and Gongmeng handle the (tax) matter in accordance with open and fair civil proceedings?"
"China lawyer who fought unfair arrest is arrested," by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
Link
August 7, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, who founded the consumer-oriented Open Constitution Initiative law firm in Beijing, is accused of tax evasion. The issues he's taken on include secret jails and the tainted-milk scandal.
Reporting from Beijing -- Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old Beijing lawyer, is renowned for his spirited defense of Chinese citizens victimized by unfair arrest or consumer fraud. Nowadays, the founder of the Open Constitution Initiative law firm will be lucky if he is able to defend himself.
Xu was seized from his home at 5 a.m. on July 29. His family and colleagues were given no official notice and only after a week of inquiries learned secondhand that he was arrested on charges of tax evasion. His detention has sent a chilling message not only to China's lawyers but to citizens who have found themselves in need of legal representation.
"If even a famous lawyer gets arrested, what can we ordinary little people do?" said Tong Zhongjun, 28, a migrant worker whose infant son developed kidney stones from drinking tainted baby formula.
Xu's law firm was one of the few in China willing to represent the parents of the nearly 300,000 children sickened and the six who died last year as a result of dangerous milk additives.
Since its founding in 2003, the firm, also known as Gongmeng, has not shied away from sensitive topics. It challenged China's secret detention centers, the so-called black jails, after a 27-year-old graphic designer who was arrested for failing to carry his identification card died in custody. Xu represented an editor of the hard-hitting newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily who was arrested in 2004 on what were widely seen as politically motivated bribery charges.
This summer, Xu's firm joined the chorus of voices opposing a requirement that all computers sold in China come preinstalled with software that would filter out pornographic or controversial content.
But Xu is by no means a dissident, preferring to work within a system he has hoped to improve, not overthrow.
His pedigree is impeccable: He earned his doctorate in law at prestigious Peking University, taught law at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and served as a representative to the People's Congress for the Haidian District of Beijing, where he lives. He also was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School.
"He had such confidence in the legal system," said Yang Huiwen, the only lawyer still in the offices Wednesday. Yang said he had wanted to quit the law because of hassles by authorities, but Xu talked him out of it. "He always talked about how the rule of law would help China advance."
This has been a singularly grim year for China's lawyers, with some of the country's leading human rights advocates under arrest or denied the right to practice law. Last month, the Beijing Justice Bureau stripped 53 lawyers of their licenses, mostly on administrative technicalities.
Xu's troubles began last month when the firm got a tax bill for more than $200,000, an assessment made on donations it received from supporters, including Yale Law School.
Just three days later, before the firm had time to file a response, the police came and confiscated most of its computers, furniture and files.
Even after that, Xu was optimistic he could beat back the charges of tax evasion. In China, civic groups such as Xu's cannot legally register as nongovernmental organizations, so disputes about whether they should be taxed as charities or businesses are commonplace.
The evening of July 28, Xu met late into the night at a cafe with other lawyers, planning his defense. But the next morning, when he failed to show up for work, colleagues became worried.
"We were calling all his friends. We went to the university to look for him," said Tian Qizhuang, the firm's general manager. It wasn't until the next day that they found the night guard at Xu's apartment complex, who confirmed that the lawyer had been arrested.
Another week went by before Xu's brother learned from the Communist Party secretary at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications that his brother had been charged with tax evasion.
"We still haven't heard anything officially. Under Chinese law, family members are supposed to get notification within 48 hours, but they've heard nothing," said Tian in an interview at the law offices on Wednesday.
The offices are now virtually bare. The files have all been seized except for those relating to the tainted-milk cases, which are still wending their way through the courts. One of the senior lawyers at the firm, Teng Biao, managed to save those files by appealing to the conscience of the police officers as parents. ("How will you be able to face your kids if you take those files?" Teng asked the police, the office manager said.)
Sisi Liu of Amnesty International in Hong Kong said someone of Xu's stature suspected of tax evasion would normally be released on bail pending formal charges.
"Clearly, this is a politically motivated prosecution," she said, "and if there is such strong political motivation, we doubt that legal procedure will be followed."
No one knows how long Xu might be held without formal charges, but recent history isn't encouraging: Gao Zhisheng, a maverick lawyer who represented members of the banned Falun Gong movement, has been held incommunicado for more than six months.
August 7, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, who founded the consumer-oriented Open Constitution Initiative law firm in Beijing, is accused of tax evasion. The issues he's taken on include secret jails and the tainted-milk scandal.
Reporting from Beijing -- Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old Beijing lawyer, is renowned for his spirited defense of Chinese citizens victimized by unfair arrest or consumer fraud. Nowadays, the founder of the Open Constitution Initiative law firm will be lucky if he is able to defend himself.
Xu was seized from his home at 5 a.m. on July 29. His family and colleagues were given no official notice and only after a week of inquiries learned secondhand that he was arrested on charges of tax evasion. His detention has sent a chilling message not only to China's lawyers but to citizens who have found themselves in need of legal representation.
"If even a famous lawyer gets arrested, what can we ordinary little people do?" said Tong Zhongjun, 28, a migrant worker whose infant son developed kidney stones from drinking tainted baby formula.
Xu's law firm was one of the few in China willing to represent the parents of the nearly 300,000 children sickened and the six who died last year as a result of dangerous milk additives.
Since its founding in 2003, the firm, also known as Gongmeng, has not shied away from sensitive topics. It challenged China's secret detention centers, the so-called black jails, after a 27-year-old graphic designer who was arrested for failing to carry his identification card died in custody. Xu represented an editor of the hard-hitting newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily who was arrested in 2004 on what were widely seen as politically motivated bribery charges.
This summer, Xu's firm joined the chorus of voices opposing a requirement that all computers sold in China come preinstalled with software that would filter out pornographic or controversial content.
But Xu is by no means a dissident, preferring to work within a system he has hoped to improve, not overthrow.
His pedigree is impeccable: He earned his doctorate in law at prestigious Peking University, taught law at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and served as a representative to the People's Congress for the Haidian District of Beijing, where he lives. He also was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School.
"He had such confidence in the legal system," said Yang Huiwen, the only lawyer still in the offices Wednesday. Yang said he had wanted to quit the law because of hassles by authorities, but Xu talked him out of it. "He always talked about how the rule of law would help China advance."
This has been a singularly grim year for China's lawyers, with some of the country's leading human rights advocates under arrest or denied the right to practice law. Last month, the Beijing Justice Bureau stripped 53 lawyers of their licenses, mostly on administrative technicalities.
Xu's troubles began last month when the firm got a tax bill for more than $200,000, an assessment made on donations it received from supporters, including Yale Law School.
Just three days later, before the firm had time to file a response, the police came and confiscated most of its computers, furniture and files.
Even after that, Xu was optimistic he could beat back the charges of tax evasion. In China, civic groups such as Xu's cannot legally register as nongovernmental organizations, so disputes about whether they should be taxed as charities or businesses are commonplace.
The evening of July 28, Xu met late into the night at a cafe with other lawyers, planning his defense. But the next morning, when he failed to show up for work, colleagues became worried.
"We were calling all his friends. We went to the university to look for him," said Tian Qizhuang, the firm's general manager. It wasn't until the next day that they found the night guard at Xu's apartment complex, who confirmed that the lawyer had been arrested.
Another week went by before Xu's brother learned from the Communist Party secretary at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications that his brother had been charged with tax evasion.
"We still haven't heard anything officially. Under Chinese law, family members are supposed to get notification within 48 hours, but they've heard nothing," said Tian in an interview at the law offices on Wednesday.
The offices are now virtually bare. The files have all been seized except for those relating to the tainted-milk cases, which are still wending their way through the courts. One of the senior lawyers at the firm, Teng Biao, managed to save those files by appealing to the conscience of the police officers as parents. ("How will you be able to face your kids if you take those files?" Teng asked the police, the office manager said.)
Sisi Liu of Amnesty International in Hong Kong said someone of Xu's stature suspected of tax evasion would normally be released on bail pending formal charges.
"Clearly, this is a politically motivated prosecution," she said, "and if there is such strong political motivation, we doubt that legal procedure will be followed."
No one knows how long Xu might be held without formal charges, but recent history isn't encouraging: Gao Zhisheng, a maverick lawyer who represented members of the banned Falun Gong movement, has been held incommunicado for more than six months.
"Chinese Legal Activist Charged With Tax Evasion as Crackdown Widens," by William Ide, Voice of America
Link
August 6, 2009
Close associates of Chinese legal activist Xu Zhiyong say he is being detained on charges of tax evasion. Xu's case is one of several that appear to be part of widening crackdown on dissent in China ahead of October's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
More than a week ago, without explanation, Chinese police detained Xu Zhiyong, the head of a legal aid organization Gongmeng in Beijing.
Teng Biao, a co-founder of the group, says Xu's family has not seen him since he was taken from his home early on Wednesday last week.
Teng says Xu's brother went to the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, where Xu Zhiyong taught. There, he learned that his brother had been taken away by public security forces and was being charged with tax evasion.
Teng added that Zhang Lu, another member of Gongmeng who also has been missing since last week, has still not been heard from.
Many political analysts and human rights groups say Gongmeng and other activist groups are being targeted as part of a widening crackdown on dissent ahead of the October 1 anniversary of the founding of the communist government.
However, Randy Peerenboom a professor of law at La Trobe University in Melbourne who is now based in Beijing, sees a broader purpose. He thinks what is happening is part of an effort to ensure social stability that is not exclusively linked to the coming anniversary.
"The number of demonstrations has been rising in recent years, many of them becoming more violent, and so you see the government trying to crackdown on various sources of instability," he said.
Peerenboom says the government has tried to force many of the country's disputes and controversial cases into the court system, but in his opinion that has ended up being too costly and has not ended the protests. Because of that, the government has started targeting activist lawyers and legal groups like Gongmeng.
"I think that one of the problems is they've [Gongmeng] handled an increasingly wide range of cases and gotten involved in a wider range of issues and this is one of the reasons why I think the government is re-calibrating its strategy," he said.
Gongmeng's lawyers represented victims of the Sanlu toxic milk powder scandal, which made nearly 300,000 babies ill, and has investigated institutions such as illegal detention centers. Their researchers even issued a review of last year's unrest in Tibet, which said Tibetans were protesting because of failed government policies.
Gongmeng is not the only one being targeted.
Last month, Yirenping, which fights discrimination against hepatitis patients, faced a clampdown, and more than 50 Beijing lawyers, many of whom focus on human rights issues, had their licenses revoked.
Two activists who have criticized the government's handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake have also been put on trial.
One of them, Huang Qi, appeared in court Wednesday ON charges of illegally possessing state secrets.
Tan Zuoren, an activist who questioned why so many children died in the earthquake, will be tried for subversion next week.
August 6, 2009
Close associates of Chinese legal activist Xu Zhiyong say he is being detained on charges of tax evasion. Xu's case is one of several that appear to be part of widening crackdown on dissent in China ahead of October's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
More than a week ago, without explanation, Chinese police detained Xu Zhiyong, the head of a legal aid organization Gongmeng in Beijing.
Teng Biao, a co-founder of the group, says Xu's family has not seen him since he was taken from his home early on Wednesday last week.
Teng says Xu's brother went to the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, where Xu Zhiyong taught. There, he learned that his brother had been taken away by public security forces and was being charged with tax evasion.
Teng added that Zhang Lu, another member of Gongmeng who also has been missing since last week, has still not been heard from.
Many political analysts and human rights groups say Gongmeng and other activist groups are being targeted as part of a widening crackdown on dissent ahead of the October 1 anniversary of the founding of the communist government.
However, Randy Peerenboom a professor of law at La Trobe University in Melbourne who is now based in Beijing, sees a broader purpose. He thinks what is happening is part of an effort to ensure social stability that is not exclusively linked to the coming anniversary.
"The number of demonstrations has been rising in recent years, many of them becoming more violent, and so you see the government trying to crackdown on various sources of instability," he said.
Peerenboom says the government has tried to force many of the country's disputes and controversial cases into the court system, but in his opinion that has ended up being too costly and has not ended the protests. Because of that, the government has started targeting activist lawyers and legal groups like Gongmeng.
"I think that one of the problems is they've [Gongmeng] handled an increasingly wide range of cases and gotten involved in a wider range of issues and this is one of the reasons why I think the government is re-calibrating its strategy," he said.
Gongmeng's lawyers represented victims of the Sanlu toxic milk powder scandal, which made nearly 300,000 babies ill, and has investigated institutions such as illegal detention centers. Their researchers even issued a review of last year's unrest in Tibet, which said Tibetans were protesting because of failed government policies.
Gongmeng is not the only one being targeted.
Last month, Yirenping, which fights discrimination against hepatitis patients, faced a clampdown, and more than 50 Beijing lawyers, many of whom focus on human rights issues, had their licenses revoked.
Two activists who have criticized the government's handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake have also been put on trial.
One of them, Huang Qi, appeared in court Wednesday ON charges of illegally possessing state secrets.
Tan Zuoren, an activist who questioned why so many children died in the earthquake, will be tried for subversion next week.
"Chinese start postcard drive to support dissidents," by Yu Le and Lucy Hornby (Reuters)
Link
August 6, 2009
BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Chinese web users have launched a postcard campaign to support dissidents in prisons and to protest against their detention, one of the organizers told Reuters.
Chinese Internet activists launched their first postcard campaign last month, in a little-known case of a man detained in Fujian province in southern China.
They are now expanding the campaign to support better-known activists, including legal aid lawyer Xu Zhiyong and earthquake victim advocate Tan Zuoren.
"It depends on the prison or detention house whether they can receive the postcards," wrote Wen Yunchao, the blogger who initiated the idea.
"But pressure could be felt when huge amounts of postcards are flooding in."
Beijing is tightening its grip on the country's determined but small activist community, which has come under intense government pressure ahead of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic in October.
Xu Zhiyong, who had taken on causes including helping victims of tainted baby milk formula and issuing an independent report on Tibet, was taken from his home last week and is being held in an undisclosed location.
Tan Zuoren, a writer who compiled a list of earthquake victims, faces trial next week on a charge of "inciting subversion of state power".
The first postcard campaign supported Guo Baofeng, detained for spreading information about ties between police and suspected rapists and murderers. Police said the woman died of illness.
Guo was released two weeks later, although it was not clear whether the postcards had helped. None ever reached his hands.
Advocates told web surfers and friends to write "Your mother calls you back home for lunch" on the postcards, referring to a phrase currently popular among the Chinese Internet community.
"'Come back home for lunch' is a metaphor for freedom," Ran Yunfei, a magazine editor who said he had sent postcards to Tan and Huang, told Reuters.
"And the word 'mother' makes people feel warm."
There is no evidence so far to show that the movement has any influence on the dissidents' cases, but Ran said at least it provides a way for people to express their opinion without risking unwelcome attention from security forces.
"The most important thing is to show your attitude," Ran said. "That's why it makes sense."
August 6, 2009
BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Chinese web users have launched a postcard campaign to support dissidents in prisons and to protest against their detention, one of the organizers told Reuters.
Chinese Internet activists launched their first postcard campaign last month, in a little-known case of a man detained in Fujian province in southern China.
They are now expanding the campaign to support better-known activists, including legal aid lawyer Xu Zhiyong and earthquake victim advocate Tan Zuoren.
"It depends on the prison or detention house whether they can receive the postcards," wrote Wen Yunchao, the blogger who initiated the idea.
"But pressure could be felt when huge amounts of postcards are flooding in."
Beijing is tightening its grip on the country's determined but small activist community, which has come under intense government pressure ahead of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic in October.
Xu Zhiyong, who had taken on causes including helping victims of tainted baby milk formula and issuing an independent report on Tibet, was taken from his home last week and is being held in an undisclosed location.
Tan Zuoren, a writer who compiled a list of earthquake victims, faces trial next week on a charge of "inciting subversion of state power".
The first postcard campaign supported Guo Baofeng, detained for spreading information about ties between police and suspected rapists and murderers. Police said the woman died of illness.
Guo was released two weeks later, although it was not clear whether the postcards had helped. None ever reached his hands.
Advocates told web surfers and friends to write "Your mother calls you back home for lunch" on the postcards, referring to a phrase currently popular among the Chinese Internet community.
"'Come back home for lunch' is a metaphor for freedom," Ran Yunfei, a magazine editor who said he had sent postcards to Tan and Huang, told Reuters.
"And the word 'mother' makes people feel warm."
There is no evidence so far to show that the movement has any influence on the dissidents' cases, but Ran said at least it provides a way for people to express their opinion without risking unwelcome attention from security forces.
"The most important thing is to show your attitude," Ran said. "That's why it makes sense."
"More on the detained Chinese lawyer," by James Fallows, The Atlantic
Link
August 1, 2009
Not being on-scene in Beijing, I don't have fresh info myself. But as a reference for anyone wanting to follow the case of Xu Zhiyong, the Chinese civil-rights lawyer who was taken from his home at 5am last week and has not been heard from since, here are some relevant sites:
- China Digital Times summary of the event and coverage;
- CDT on the recent crackdown on other legal-aid groups;
- Evan Osnos dispatch for the New Yorker on "Where is Xu Zhiyong?"
- The Chinese Media Project story;
- Xu's personal blog, in Chinese;
- Blog account in Chinese of tax charges against Xu and his response;
- English version of similar response;
- English account by one of Xu's colleagues, Teng Biao, of his own "kidnapping" by the police.
Check those sites for updates. The minor point that comes through these accounts is the excuse for the arrest of Xu. His legal-defense center, the Open Constitution Initiative, had been receiving support and grants from Yale Law School -- one of many instances of Western legal groups working to expand the rule of law in China. The authorities have found a way to declare that this support was improperly reported for tax purposes.
The major point that comes through is that Xu and his colleagues are the farthest thing from overthrow-the-system radical subversives. On the contrary: he files suit in Chinese courts, he bases his claims for protection on the Chinese constitution, and he has even been a successful candidate in a local election. (China has elections at the local level.) He is what real radicals would dismiss as a "liberal" and "inside-the-system reformer," but now his and similar efforts are beyond the pale.
Over the 20 years since Tiananmen Square, and certainly during the three years I could observe first-hand there, rule of law and civil liberties made a steady if uneven expansion in China. This and related recent crackdowns are a setback, whose significance we can judge depending on what happens next.
Consistent with the policy that the US should view China as a partner and friend in the many areas where collaboration is necessary and fruitful, but should speak up for its own values when they differ from Chinese government practice, US officials should say that they are watching this case. Not interfering in Chinese affairs, not telling the Chinese government what to do -- but watching, to see how the government respects its own citizens' rights.
August 1, 2009
Not being on-scene in Beijing, I don't have fresh info myself. But as a reference for anyone wanting to follow the case of Xu Zhiyong, the Chinese civil-rights lawyer who was taken from his home at 5am last week and has not been heard from since, here are some relevant sites:
- China Digital Times summary of the event and coverage;
- CDT on the recent crackdown on other legal-aid groups;
- Evan Osnos dispatch for the New Yorker on "Where is Xu Zhiyong?"
- The Chinese Media Project story;
- Xu's personal blog, in Chinese;
- Blog account in Chinese of tax charges against Xu and his response;
- English version of similar response;
- English account by one of Xu's colleagues, Teng Biao, of his own "kidnapping" by the police.
Check those sites for updates. The minor point that comes through these accounts is the excuse for the arrest of Xu. His legal-defense center, the Open Constitution Initiative, had been receiving support and grants from Yale Law School -- one of many instances of Western legal groups working to expand the rule of law in China. The authorities have found a way to declare that this support was improperly reported for tax purposes.
The major point that comes through is that Xu and his colleagues are the farthest thing from overthrow-the-system radical subversives. On the contrary: he files suit in Chinese courts, he bases his claims for protection on the Chinese constitution, and he has even been a successful candidate in a local election. (China has elections at the local level.) He is what real radicals would dismiss as a "liberal" and "inside-the-system reformer," but now his and similar efforts are beyond the pale.
Over the 20 years since Tiananmen Square, and certainly during the three years I could observe first-hand there, rule of law and civil liberties made a steady if uneven expansion in China. This and related recent crackdowns are a setback, whose significance we can judge depending on what happens next.
Consistent with the policy that the US should view China as a partner and friend in the many areas where collaboration is necessary and fruitful, but should speak up for its own values when they differ from Chinese government practice, US officials should say that they are watching this case. Not interfering in Chinese affairs, not telling the Chinese government what to do -- but watching, to see how the government respects its own citizens' rights.
"Arrested Lawyer's 'Chinese Dream'" by Austin Ramzy, TIME.com
Link
August 5, 2009
The lawyer Xu Zhiyong disappeared in Beijing one week ago, but now his image is popping up all over town. Xu, who was taken from his house by police, is featured in the latest edition of Shishang Xiansheng, the Chinese version of Esquire. He is one of 60 people interviewed by the magazine in recent months about their idea of the Chinese dream. The police haven't explained the charges against Xu, but his brother told the Associated Press that officials at the university where Xu taught said he was being held for tax evasion. The Open Constitution Initiative (or Gongmeng in Chinese), a legal advocacy group that Xu founded, was shuttered by tax authorities last month over allegations it owes $208,000 in taxes. Many observers think the closure is more likely related to Gongmeng's pioneering work on sensitive legal cases.
In the Esquire piece Xu is pictured with a white light behind his head and wearing a French-cuffed shirt and tie--not, by any means, his usual attire. He is featured with six other activists. Here, via China Digital Times, is a translation of his Chinese dream:
I wish our country could be a free and happy one. Every citizen does not need go against their conscience and can find their own place by their virtue and talents; a simple and happy society, where the goodness of humanity is expanded to the maximum, and the evilness of humanity is constrained to the maximum; honesty, trust, kindness, and helping each other are everyday occurences in life; there is not so much anger and anxiety, a pure smile on everyone's face.
August 5, 2009
The lawyer Xu Zhiyong disappeared in Beijing one week ago, but now his image is popping up all over town. Xu, who was taken from his house by police, is featured in the latest edition of Shishang Xiansheng, the Chinese version of Esquire. He is one of 60 people interviewed by the magazine in recent months about their idea of the Chinese dream. The police haven't explained the charges against Xu, but his brother told the Associated Press that officials at the university where Xu taught said he was being held for tax evasion. The Open Constitution Initiative (or Gongmeng in Chinese), a legal advocacy group that Xu founded, was shuttered by tax authorities last month over allegations it owes $208,000 in taxes. Many observers think the closure is more likely related to Gongmeng's pioneering work on sensitive legal cases.
In the Esquire piece Xu is pictured with a white light behind his head and wearing a French-cuffed shirt and tie--not, by any means, his usual attire. He is featured with six other activists. Here, via China Digital Times, is a translation of his Chinese dream:
I wish our country could be a free and happy one. Every citizen does not need go against their conscience and can find their own place by their virtue and talents; a simple and happy society, where the goodness of humanity is expanded to the maximum, and the evilness of humanity is constrained to the maximum; honesty, trust, kindness, and helping each other are everyday occurences in life; there is not so much anger and anxiety, a pure smile on everyone's face.
"Rules of the Game," by Evan Osnos, The New Yorker
Link
August 4, 2009
A Chinese lawyer uses the court to challenge policies he considers unfair and illegal, and he lands in police custody. Another Chinese lawyer uses the court in a similar spirit and earns a balanced story about him in a state-run newspaper. What’s the difference between them?
Nobody really knows these days. But finding the line on any given day is the central question facing Chinese lawyers and advocates at a moment in Chinese history when the boundaries of dissent are defined more by rules of thumb than by the rule of law. In the days since Xu Zhiyong, a prominent public-interest lawyer, was detained last week on suspicion of tax evasion, his case has emerged as a test of how China’s commitment to promoting the rule of law will unfold. (A few new details have emerged about Xu’s case.) Curiously, the Global Times, a new state-run English-language paper, chose to publish a story Tuesday about another lawyer, Xie Yanyi who reportedly “filed a lawsuit against Li Yizhong, the Industry and Information Technology minister, for infringing upon citizens’ freedom and privacy.” The “audacious legal action” is “in retaliation to the government’s plan to install all new computers in China with a filtering software program which can monitor an individual’s Internet use.”
Xie is no stranger to “audacious legal action,” and history suggests that his lawsuit will not get far. One rule of thumb is that legal actions against the state, even if technically permitted, rarely go anywhere. Then again, the filtering software known as Green Dam is just unpopular enough with Chinese Web users that maybe a pocket of the leadership will try to earn some populist capital by letting the case go for a while. Another rule of thumb, after all, is that the leadership recognizes the volatile power of Chinese Web users, and might be eager to let off some steam. So, who knows? If China achieves the rule of law that it avowedly seeks, this will someday be an answerable question.
August 4, 2009
A Chinese lawyer uses the court to challenge policies he considers unfair and illegal, and he lands in police custody. Another Chinese lawyer uses the court in a similar spirit and earns a balanced story about him in a state-run newspaper. What’s the difference between them?
Nobody really knows these days. But finding the line on any given day is the central question facing Chinese lawyers and advocates at a moment in Chinese history when the boundaries of dissent are defined more by rules of thumb than by the rule of law. In the days since Xu Zhiyong, a prominent public-interest lawyer, was detained last week on suspicion of tax evasion, his case has emerged as a test of how China’s commitment to promoting the rule of law will unfold. (A few new details have emerged about Xu’s case.) Curiously, the Global Times, a new state-run English-language paper, chose to publish a story Tuesday about another lawyer, Xie Yanyi who reportedly “filed a lawsuit against Li Yizhong, the Industry and Information Technology minister, for infringing upon citizens’ freedom and privacy.” The “audacious legal action” is “in retaliation to the government’s plan to install all new computers in China with a filtering software program which can monitor an individual’s Internet use.”
Xie is no stranger to “audacious legal action,” and history suggests that his lawsuit will not get far. One rule of thumb is that legal actions against the state, even if technically permitted, rarely go anywhere. Then again, the filtering software known as Green Dam is just unpopular enough with Chinese Web users that maybe a pocket of the leadership will try to earn some populist capital by letting the case go for a while. Another rule of thumb, after all, is that the leadership recognizes the volatile power of Chinese Web users, and might be eager to let off some steam. So, who knows? If China achieves the rule of law that it avowedly seeks, this will someday be an answerable question.
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