From the Christian Science Monitor:
Chen’s challenge to country justice makes him a kind of Rosa Parks of China. His standoff with Linyi authorities and Mayor Li Qun, who served briefly as assistant to the mayor of New Haven Conn., has captured the imagination of legal reformers here and top foreign legal eagles – raising the question of whether law in China is a tool for control or is evolving into a system to adjudicate justice. One question is: Will he go free?
Chen’s lawyers say it is David vs. Goliath. Officials in Linyi frame it as big-city lawyers in cahoots with “running dog foreign devils” who want to make China look bad.
Thursday, Chen’s Beijing-based lawyer, Li Jinsong, told the Monitor he was stepping down as chief counsel. Mr. Li, whose car was turned over by thugs in Linyi while Li was in it, will be replaced by Xu Zhiyong, a well-known lawyer who was beaten last year in Linyi when he tried to visit Chen. [Full text]
Background on Chen’s case, via CDT.