China News: Liu Xiaoyuan | China Digital Times (CDT)

China news tagged with: Liu Xiaoyuan (11)

RSS feed for this topic

Related tags

Lawyer Liu Must Not Leave - A Letter from the Homeless of Tiananmen

The Beijing-based Yitong law firm has been ordered to closed down for six months, because civil rights lawyer and noted blogger, Liu Xiaoyuan (刘晓原), had petitioned for direct elections of leaders in the Beijing Lawyers Association.

Another Beijing-based blogger, Laohumiao [aka Zhang Shihe] has worked in the past with Liu Xiaoyuan to help homeless people who lived near the Tiananmen Square area. His efforts were chronicled in a profile in today’s New York Times. Laohumiao published the following letter from the homeless on his blog, translated by CDT’s Andrew Willis:

Lawyer Liu must not leave - A letter from the homeless of Tiananmen to the relevant offices.

Written by Laohu Miao (Tiger Temple)

To the relevant work units:

We are a group of drifters that wanders Tiananmen Square; most of us are from the countryside. We came because of unforeseen changes in our families, or because we lost our land; the majority of us are orphaned, old, or handicapped, and there are also elderly women who have come to Beijing to plead for justice.

We are cared for by the residents of Beijing, all Chinese citizens, and the Netizens, and now have places to live and are no longer cold or hungry. We have only one intention, to earn a little money and plan-out our lives. Under the care of all these good people, we trust that life will go on. Before the New Year, many people came to celebrate with us, to eat the traditional New Year’s Eve meal. Happily gathered under one roof, we felt that the world really was full of kindness.

We don’t know if Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan works in Yitong Law Firm, but when we heard Master Zhang’s [Laohu Miao's] introduction, and saw Master Zhang’s nervous appearance, we realized that Lawyer Liu was in trouble. We couldn’t understand the situation that Master Zhang referred to, but we understand that Lawyer Liu is one-in-a-million, and a good lawyer. If he loses his job, then Heaven must be blind. Last night, 24 of us homeless living in a government house had a little meeting, and those women who had received Lawyer Liu’s help and care were especially worried; they had already begun weeping for Lawyer Liu. They’ve said there are no lawyers like Lawyer Liu who seriously consider their petitions. They believe that meeting Lawyer Liu is their greatest fortune. Why must he meet with disaster? We don’t know the overarching reasons, but what we want to say is that if the world doesn’t allow good people to exist, then this world certainly has problems.

For over a year Master Zhang has worked hard on our behalf, all of Tiananmen’s transients love to hear him speak. He is our leader, and since he has told us about Lawyer Liu’s situation and their work unit’s situation, we cannot help but speak several words to the public. Even small drops of kindness will be repaid with gushing springs. We plead for the relevant offices to consider the general situation; this situation was handled poorly and should be researched again.

Below are the signatures of the homeless of Tiananmen. Please consider our groups’ supporting vote for Lawyer Liu and his work unit.

[Note by LaoHu Miao (Tiger Temple): At the end of 2008, Lawyer Liu accepted a job offer to become a legal advisor for the rights of the homeless.］

Signatures: Wang Yuhai, Min Shunqin, Gao Junhua, Zhang Xianping, Wang Zhiqing, Miyun, Zhang Zhi'an, Liu Deqin, Wang Yun, Dong Bei， Xu Jicheng, Song Baoguo, Wu Quanwei, Hei Zhang, Chai Xiulan, Ma Huarui, Hua Dexiu, Yu Xiuqing, Dong Xiuqin... [All in Beijing]

Read also: Who “Harmonized” Us? - Liu Xiaoyuan (刘晓原) on CDT.
» Read more
- March 4, 2009 10:47 PM
Law Firm to Be Shut Down

The Beijing-based Yitong law firm will be shut down for six months. Officials have cited that the temporary shut-down is due to the practice of an unlicensed lawyer. Noted blogger and lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan, however, believes that the reason is most likely tied to the fact that lawyers at Yitong had petitioned for direct elections of leaders in the Beijing Lawyer Association. From Rebecca MacKinnon of RConversation:

The real reason for the punishment, Liu believes, is that lawyers in his firm had petitioned last year for direct elections of the leadership of the Beijing Lawyers Association. He says the goal is to drive his lawyers to flee to other firms and cause the Yi Tong law firm to fail. He points out that this is the same tactic used against civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. This is non-trivial, given that Gao went on to be tortured, spoke out about it, and has now disappeared.

[...] Liu is a prolific blogger and defense lawyer who writes passionately about the cases he is involved with and other cases he follows. He has not shied away from controversy in the past couple of years. Perhaps most controversially, he represented family members of Yang Jia, the confessed cop killer, arguing on his blog that while the defendant may have been guilty he was not afforded due process under Chinese law. He called attention to various shenanigans pulled by the prosecution around the time of the trial, such as the illegal detention of Yang Jia’s mother in a mental institution. Public sympathy for Yang Jia was widespread - discussion of the case around the Chinese Internet was arguably more widespread than, say, Charter 08 and also potentially much more threatening to the regime in the immediate term.

For more, see “China: Beijing Blogger-Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan Harassed by Authority” by Oiwan Lam at Global Voices Advocacy.
» Read more
- February 21, 2009 12:19 PM
Blogging for Change (Video Added)

Sohu recently hosted a blogger dinner on the topic “how blogging has changed our lives.” Below is the transcript in part, from Oiwan Lam of Global Voices:

Liu Xiaoyuan: Blogging is great, I have opened more than 20 blogs, and more than a dozen of them are still active. In 2008, my blogs concern about social and legal issue. Although I was disappointed by the Yang Jia case, my writings leave traces of the incident. I have written more than 140 blog post for Yang Jia. I also concern about Wenchuan earthquake, whether or not it is predictable and the teachers who had killed in the disaster and I wrote to the education ministry on this. If blogs didn’t exist, I have to talk to journalists to express my idea. But a blog changes the process, now the journalists approach me. That’s why I wish netizens with resources can open more blogs and express your own opinion.

Ai Weiwei: I opened my first blog by chance. At that time, I didn’t even know how to type with computer… Yang Jia’s mother Wang Jingmei, a very honest person, she tried to open a blog, but was forced to close down… You can see that a blog is a very great invention. Words written can become a threat that stirs up so much anxiety. Blog is the most powerful weapon in one’s life. Blogging is the best thing given to human being. This is a loose form of civil society before we have genuine democracy and more organized civil society. It will lead us to a great new world. I respect all those who insist to blog.

» Read more
- January 17, 2009 5:40 PM
Video: Liu Xiaoyuan

Adam Schokora interviewed blogger and lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan at the recent Chinese Blogger Conference. From Danwei.org:

» Read more
- December 22, 2008 8:02 PM
Deutsche Welle Announces International Weblog Awards

Deutsche Welle’s International Weblog Awards (The BOBs) have been announced. Generación Y, a Cuban blog written by Yoani Sanchez won the Jury Prize for Best Blog. Among many nominated Chinese blogs, Liu Xiaoyuan’s (刘晓原) blog won Best Blog Chinese, and zengjinyan.spaces.live.com, written by Zeng Jinyan, the wife of the jailed human rights activitist Hu Jia, claimed the Reporters Without Borders Award. The BOBs were also open to public online voting. Science Guru, a science blog written collaboratively by a group of Chinese authors, was the People’s Choice Winner of both Best Blog and Best Blog Chinese awards.

Liu Xiaoyuan's blog

Liu Xiaoyuan is a famous Beijing Lawyer who fights against injustice in the Chinese legal system. According to Rebbeca MacKinnon, Liu Xiaoyuan’s sohu blog got taken down soon after the award was announced. MacKinnon’s past conversation with Liu also inspired her to conduct a study on Chinese blog censorship.

Censorship by Chinese Blog-hosting Companies

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: blogs chineseinternetresearch)

EastSouthWestNorth translated Zeng Jinyan’s latest post, “Thanksgiving.”

Please see the CDT tags, “Hu Jia” and “LIu Xiaoyuan”, for more relevant information.
» Read more
- December 1, 2008 6:41 AM
Dispatches from the Chinese Bloggers Conference

The following are dispatches from bloggers who attended the recently concluded Chinese Bloggers Conference in Guangzhou. Attendees at the conference included a broad range of bloggers who write on technology, business, culture, and a variety of other topics. CN Reviews blogged the conference and the presentations by many of the participants. Most of the discussions centered around technology, the Internet, culture and business. But inevitably a few bloggers turn their thoughts to more political topics, as these posts show:

In the concluding speech of the conference, Chinese blogger Yang Hengjun reflected on how the Internet has played a significant role in informing the public in China, and how blogging has renewed his life (excerpts translated by CDT’s Linjun Fan):
» Read more
- November 19, 2008 11:30 PM
China Opens Website Charging For ID Verification Service

China’s Public Security Ministry recently launched a website for the public to verify individual identification card information. However, some netizens have expressed their doubts as the service appears commercial, and privacy issues are also a concern.

From Xinhua,

China’s Public Security Ministry on Friday opened a website for citizens to verify individual identity cards.

Any ID card can be verified for a 5 yuan (73 U.S. cents) online payment at the site, www.nciic.org.com, with a few seconds.

The system is intended to facilitate transactions where ID is needed, such as online trading and apartment rentals, where fake IDs are often used.

However, according to Xinwen chenbao (News Morning Post) (in Chinese), because the search results will also include photos and other individual information, netizens fear that some of their private information may become public, and this service may further become a utility for “human flesh search engines.” The post also presents a controversial claim made by Liu Deliang, the director of the Center for Internet Legal Research at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, who says that information that appears on individual identification cards should not be regarded as private.

Despite privacy issues, some bloggers also doubt the legality of this business service. Liu Xiaoyuan, a famous Beijing lawyer, points out in his blog (in Chinese) that the ID verification service is managed by a commercial company. Although it appears convenient for the public, it is really the public security department’s responsibility to provide such a service for free. How can they appoint some commercial company to make a profit from it? If the government executives transfer their functions to commercial companies, then the state should abolish those executives to save its expenditures.

For more on the “human flesh search engine,” see CDT posts, “Virtual Carnivores,” and

“Chinese Fear Online Mobs.”
» Read more
- November 9, 2008 9:05 PM
Liu Xiaoyuan: Taking a Stroll — The Chinese Way of Demonstration

Beijing-based lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan wrote an article on his blog commenting on the recent demonstration in Chengdu against petrochemical projects, translated by CDT.

May 4th was a special day. 200 residents of Chengdu City took a unique “stroll” in the city. They were not participating in a walk contest to memorize the May 4th movement, but to voice their objections to ongoing petrochemical projects. The “stroll” took about two hours and ended peacefully, according to participants.

This was the first “stroll” to take place this year after two similar “strolls” occured twice in China last year: Xiamen residents “took a stroll” to resist a chemical project, and Shanghai residents protested against a Maglev project in similar fashion.

Why do residents have to use the “stroll” method to express their opinions?

A citizen of China is entitled to freedom of speech, publication, association, assembly, and demonstration under Article 35 of the Constitution of People’s Republic of China. According to the article, a resident has the right to express his opinions in public and to demonstrate.

However, it’s not easy for Chinese citizens to put the law into practice. They have to apply to the authorities for approval before they can stage a demonstration, as stated in the seventh article of the Assembly and Demonstration Act.

It is regarded as illegal for a Chinese citizen to demonstrate without government approval. The government has granted very few approvals to demonstration applications since the legislation came out. Therefore, residents resort to “strolls” to legally express their opinions in public.

The “strolls” taken by residents of Chengdu, Shanghai and Xiamen reminded me of recent demonstrations against CNN and protests against Carrefour stores. Overseas Chinese can go out to the streets freely and express their dissatisfaction with CNN without having to take a “stroll.” their civil rights are protected by laws of the country they’re visiting.

The “strolls” inside China and the demonstrations overseas are both ways in which people have sought to express their opinions, although they were about different subjects.

“Stroll” is not an assembly or demonstration. It’s a unique way of practicing civil rights in China. I wish related government departments could allow the citizens a space for “strolling” and expressing their opinion, and more importantly, the government could respect citizens’ opinions expressed through the “strolls”.

This article was deleted from the author’s blogs on netease.com and sina.com after he posted it.

Read also: Police Arrest Six For Protesting Against Chengdu Petrochemical Project.
» Read more
- May 11, 2008 1:01 PM
Who “Harmonized” Us? - Liu Xiaoyuan (刘晓原)

The following was originally posted on Beijing based lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan’s blog and translated by CDT:

On the afternoon of November 2, a lawyer named Mr. Li received a phone call from a lawyer friend with another law firm, notifying him that a funeral for Mr. Bao would be held at Dongjiao Funeral Parlor. Li was asked whether he would like to go along to honor the old man who fought for democracy and civil rights.

Around 7:30 that night, our landlady came up to ask us to renew the lease, three months shy of expiration. She said we’re supposed to renew the lease three months in advance. Also, she said, there will be a hike in the rent.
» Read more
- November 11, 2007 8:47 PM
China’s Censorship 2.0 - Rebecca MacKinnon

From RConversation:

On a recent trip to Beijing I visited Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer who is suing the Chinese web portal and blog-hosting service, Sohu, for censoring several of his blog posts. He wrote about our conversation here. The International Herald Tribune has an Associated Press article about him this week here. Liu argues that Sohu violated its own user contract by censoring his posts - since his posts discussing various legal issues did not violate any law, and did not fit the description of type of content that Sohu’s user agreement says must not be published. Liu’s case was thrown out by the Haidian district court in Beijing, but he is appealing to the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court. The odds on his appeal getting much of anywhere are considered rather long. [Full Text]
» Read more
- October 12, 2007 7:47 PM
China’s Internet Controls Tightened Ahead Of Sensitive Political Congress - AP

From AP, via International Herald Tribune:

At first, Liu Xiaoyuan (ÂàòÊôìÂéü) just fumed when his online journal postings disappeared with no explanation. Then he decided to do something few if any of China’s censored bloggers had tried. He sued his service provider.

“Each time I would see one of my entries blocked, I’d feel so furious and indignant,” said Liu, a 43-year-old Beijing lawyer. “It was just so disrespectful.”

Liu’s frustration is hardly unique. For China’s 162 million Web users, surfing the Internet can be like running an obstacle course with blocked Web sites, partial search results, and posts disappearing at every turn. [Full Text]
» Read more
- October 12, 2007 6:38 AM