Xiao Guozhen

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China vs. Its Human Rights Lawyers

Until two years ago, I lived in Beijing and belonged to a loosely organized group of legal professionals known among ordinary Chinese as weiquan lushi, or rights defense lawyers. The government called us “a criminal gang” that disturbed social order because we openly challenged the way the Communist Party controlled China’s legal system. Most of the people we helped were seen by officials as troublemakers: petitioners whose houses had been forcibly demolished, political dissidents, members of Christian house churches, Falun Gong practitioners, and migrant workers bullied by their urban employers.

In 2013, I came to the United States as a visiting scholar and continue my advocacy through research and writing.…  Seguir leyendo »

I’ve been a lawyer in China for 14 years, and have been recently seeking to use the rule of law to achieve social justice. This isn’t easy in a country where legal vagueness and arbitrary enforcement make advocacy a constant uphill battle. But in my career, I’ve encountered few cases as maddening as that of Song Ze.

I first met Mr. Song in the winter of 2011 as part of a project to help petitioners — poor people from the provinces who had come to Beijing to petition the central government for redress after suffering official misconduct back home. His work was purely an act of humanitarianism, but a risky one — a risk that had to be taken in today’s China.…  Seguir leyendo »