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September 2009

China's Assault on the Rule of Law

by Sophie Richardson

SUBSCRIBER LOGIN Posted September 9, 2009

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In a year that’s seen the arbitrary detentions of Chinese legal activists and
Password government critics like Gao Zhisheng and Liu Xiaobo, the Aug. 23 release of
Xu Zhiyong, the head of the Open Constitution Initiative (Gongmeng),
should be cause for celebration. There is of course profound relief that Mr.
Xu has emerged from custody physically unscathed and after only a few
Forgot your password weeks in detention—unlike Mr. Gao, whom we believe, based on his
ESSAYS
Register writings about his past detentions, has probably been tortured, or Mr. Liu,
who is now in his second decade of being politically persecuted for his
activism. read more

But there are few other reasons to celebrate. Even after the release of Mr.
Xu, the larger picture is one of Chinese government assault on the rule of
law and civil society.

Mr. Xu founded Gongmeng to provide legal research and aid to a host of

people and causes, believing that his skills were best put to use in the DOW JONES LINKS
existing legal system, helping with under-represented and controversial
cases. That spectrum has ranged from representing petitioners in cases asia.WSJ.com
against local officials to attempting to defend Chen Guangcheng, a blind WSJA.com
lawyer persecuted for exposing government corruption. As law professor at Chinese WSJ.com
Beijing’s Post and Telecommunications University and as a member of the
Dow Jones
Haidian People’s Congress, Mr. Xu hardly embodied radical antigovernment
sentiment.

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But apparently a devotion to justice is perceived by the government as just
Introduction to FEER that—a threat to its power. On July 29, Mr. Xu and Zhuang Lu, Introduction

History Gongmeng’s financial manager, were arrested for allegedly evading tax Incentive Plan & Rates
payments on a grant from Yale University, while Gongmeng itself was fined Technical Specifications
Who we are
1.4 million yuan ($206,000). Gongmeng had in fact attempted to pay some
Summer Internships Publication Schedule
of the fine and expected to be represented at a court hearing on the
matter, but Mr. Xu was arrested before having that chance.

The charges themselves are symptomatic of the challenges facing China’s

proliferating civil society groups. Despite considerable obstacles, many
groups do in fact try to comply with Chinese laws on registration. The rub?
Only groups that have prior approval from a government agency can
register as nonprofits, and groups created to remedy government
shortcomings—be they in the areas of health care, corruption,
environmental damage, or garden-variety physical abuse by local officials—
have no hope of getting such permission. They instead register as
“enterprises.” For years the government has opted not to enforce all of the
“enterprise” requirements on groups like Gongmeng, and so its sudden zeal
for doing so—and doing so to a particular group—is ominous for the entire
civil society community.

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Far Eastern Economic Review | China's Assault on the Rule of Law 09-11-03 9:46 AM

civil society community.

That Mr. Xu was released on bail, rather than having the charges against
him or Gongmeng dropped, means that the Sword of Damocles continues to
hang over his head. He could still be prosecuted, and, if found guilty—which
would seem inevitable given the highly politicized nature of the case—spend
up to seven years in prison. Worse still, Gongmeng itself is effectively dead.
The organization’s files and computers remain in the police’s possession,
and the office is shuttered. The societal problems Mr. Xu tried to alleviate
through Gongmeng are thus left to fester.

Mr. Xu’s problems also have to be set against the backdrop of the past
year, in which virtually all of the prominent Chinese lawyers and legal
activists struggling to defend human rights through the court system have
been disbarred, imprisoned, or worse. The cumulative message of these
developments is that even those who try to promote rights within the
existing judicial system have no protection when authorities choose to
clamp down.

Celebrations will be in order when the charges against Mr. Xu are dropped,
when Gongmeng and other non-governmental organizations can operate
free of arbitrary interference, and when Gao Zhisheng and Liu Xiaobo are
freed. We can think of no better way for the Chinese government to
demonstrate its recognition of basic rights on the eve of its sixtieth birthday
than by giving some of its most dedicated citizens something to celebrate.

But instead, another week has gone by, and the news comes that yet
another lawyer—this time in Liaoning Province—has been disbarred and
allegedly tortured, reportedly for defending Falungong practitioners. The
prohibition against Beijing lawyers offering to defend alleged “separatists”
involved in the July 2009 Xinjiang protests remains in place. The example
of Mr. Xu and his organization continues to discourage other would-be
public service lawyers. And there is still no word of Gao Zhisheng.

Sophie Richardson is Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

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comments (1)

B T Tan @ 2009-10-18 11:26:47

As FEER is near closure, one would wish that it could show kinder if not
more logical thoughts toward the human rights issues in China, especially
when addressing the legality of the rule of law in any civil society. Just tell
me which nation in this world does not, in one way or another, violate the
human rights of their citizens – it is only a matter of difference in degree,
not in kind. When a government feels that the national security is being
threatened, rightly or wrongly, it would certainly want to restrict the
movement of the activists. There is no need to exaggerate the problem out
of context or over-blow it out of proportion. Be more impartial and objective
in one’s perception. (tanboontee)

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