The Fight for China's Future by Lam Willy Wo-Lap;

Author:Lam, Willy Wo-Lap; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2020-09-27T20:00:00+00:00

Extra-legal steps to silence lawyers and their relatives

Within a week of his arrest on July 9, the principal partner of Fengrui Law Firm, Zhou Shifeng, was seen on national TV making the following confession of his “guilt.” The video was recorded while Zhou was being interrogated by Beijing police in an undisclosed detention center in the capital. “Our firm only became a partnership firm in 2012, and could not compete with established law firms,” said Zhou in the televised confession. “We wanted to fabricate several big cases and become famous, after which we can earn more money easily.” Zhou noted that he was able to politicize cases by means including saturating the social media with sympathetic reports about the suspects, as well as organizing “petitioners” to hold noisy protests outside court rooms. “I allow and encourage my staff to engage in illegal activities while handling court cases,” said Zhou. “I bear irrevocable responsibility for harming social stability.”127

At about the same time, CCTV aired a 10-minute confession made by a lawyer and two employees from the same law firm. Labeled “criminal suspects” on the screen, the three described how they organized paid protests, hyped public sentiment and disseminated online rumors to put pressure on court decisions in sensitive cases. Staring into the camera, lawyer Huang Liqun said that the major shareholder of Fengrui, Zhou Shifeng, was behind the cases. Huang said Zhou was “motivated by unspeakable political purposes … He has the final say over the finances [of the firm]. And he is very lecherous.”128

The authorities also used tough tactics to intimidate the spouses, relatives and children of the incarcerated attorneys. Perhaps the most criticized – and inhumane – weapon used by law enforcement officials was not to disclose the whereabouts of the detainees. In July 2016, the wives of five of the lawyers, Li Heping, Xie Yanyi, Zhai Yanmin, Wang Quanzhang and Xie Yang, managed to shake off police surveillance and went to Tianjin, where the lawyers were thought to have been incarcerated. They told stories of the miscarriage of justice to a dozen-odd reporters from the foreign and Hong Kong press.129 Earlier, Li Wenzu told the foreign media that police had visited her parents’ home in Shandong Province to intimidate her father and sister. Law-enforcement officials even threatened her sister by saying that her children might not be able to find schools if Li did not stop her advocacy activities. “I feel guilty because my family has been dragged in,” Li said. “I am scared of what they might do to my parents and my sister’s family.”130

Also consider the serious maltreatment accorded lawyer Wang Yu, one of the most illustrious female rights attorneys in the country. Her 16-year-old son Bao Zhuoxuan was held as a hostage and prevented from leaving China for overseas studies for a few years.131 Wang suffered ill-treatment akin to torture in jail: at one point, she was stripped naked by female guards in a cell with security cameras. In August 2016, Wang was forced to make a “confession of guilt,” which was broadcast on several pro-Beijing Hong Kong media.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.