Rights activists say the top judge’s rhetoric could signal a crackdown on lawyers is still far from over
In his annual work report for high-level political meetings in Beijing, China’s top judge listed a crackdown on human rights lawyers as one of the country’s biggest achievements over the past year.
Rights activists say that could signal the crackdown on lawyers is still far from over.
They also cast doubts over his vision towards the nation’s future pursuit of judicial reforms and court independence.
Addressing the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Sunday, Zhou Qiang, president and Chief Justice of China’s Supreme Court, opened his annual work report by firstly pledging loyalty to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party’s rule.
State subversion crimes
He then touted the country’s first achievement by courts of all levels in safeguarding national security and social stability, saying that harsh punishments had been meted out against the likes of those including Zhou Shifeng, who subverted state power.
Zhou Shifeng was director of Beijing’s Fengrui law firm, which was at the center of the government’s crackdown against more than 300 human rights defenders since July 2015 after having taken on sensitive cases for clients that challenged the authorities.
FILE – A delivery cart and cyclist ride past a building housing the Fengrui law firm in Beijing.
The crackdown on lawyers for doing largely what is seen as their job has sparked calls for their release from rights groups in the United States, European Union and legal groups overseas.
Lawyer Zhou was given a seven-year sentence in August of last year — a conviction based largely on confessions during his 13-month detention and reached without examination of evidence or a defense against his subversion charges.
Many observers have described the trials against the lawyer and the other defendants as “sham trials, which is mostly a political charade.”
With the lawyer’s case now bluntly labeled as an achievement in the eyes of the nation’s top judge, many rights activists say it shows the true nature of China’s authoritarian rule. It also sheds some light on the government’s continued crackdown of lawyers.
An alarming indication
“The rhetoric in which they are saying that the crackdown of [human rights] activists is an achievement, I think it’s an alarming indication that this is going to continue to be a major part of the Chinese government policies in the near future,” said Maya Wang, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.
