Guangzhou hosted 800 legal professionals from 57 countries at the Global Lawyers Forum this week. The event partly coincided with International Human Rights Day on Tuesday, which the E.U. delegation to China marked by highlighting<\/a> “continuous arrests, detention and imprisonment of human rights defenders, lawyers and other citizens,” and noting that “human rights lawyers Wang Quanzhang, Li Yuhan, Gao Zhisheng and Yu Wensheng have been convicted, detained, or forcibly disappeared.” The “War on Law” that peaked with the 2015 Black Friday or 709 crackdown<\/a> has continued<\/a>: AFP reported last month that “at least a dozen legal representatives have had their licences canceled or revoked<\/strong><\/a> since last year,” while another who had previously suffered this punishment was formally arrested last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ongoing disbarment continues to serve as an effective tactic by the Chinese government to further diminish the space for human rights advocacy,\u201d said Yaqiu Wang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisbarment is to deprive the livelihood of human rights lawyers and their families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In China, authorities can revoke a lawyer\u2019s licence to punish behaviour such as bribing judges, but also ambiguous offences such as \u201cseriously disrupting court order\u201d.<\/p>\n

A licence can also be cancelled if a lawyer does not practise in a six-month period \u2013 which is not uncommon for rights lawyers who have been detained or arrested.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Sui Muqing, another Chinese lawyer who was detained during the 709 crackdown, said the widespread disbarment over the past two years had been \u201can even better deterrent than arresting lawyers\u201d. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Presiding over this week’s Guangzhou forum was Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua<\/a><\/strong>, a longtime “troubleshooter” for Xi Jinping<\/a> whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes crackdowns on Falun Gong practitioners, “Big V” social media influencers, and “malicious” stock trading. Fu also led the investigation into former security chief Zhou Yongkang and, as Beijing police chief, oversaw the death of activist Cao Shunli<\/a>, who had been denied medical treatment while in detention for public participation in a U.N. human rights review. From Xinhua:<\/p>\n

“The meeting is a platform built by Chinese lawyers to promote international exchanges and pragmatic cooperation for common development, and represents their practical action in playing their role as lawyers in advancing the reform of the global system for governance,” Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua said at the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

He added that the forum was also an opportunity for China to draw on global experience in developing the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Hosted by the All China Lawyers Association under the auspices of China’s Ministry of Justice, the forum drew foreign participants including heads of international lawyer associations and dozens of national associations.<\/p>\n

Topics under discussion cover legal services for the Belt and Road Initiative, technological advancement and legal services, cross-border investment, merger and acquisition, international trade and business compliance, international commercial dispute resolution, pro bono legal services and lawyers’ social responsibilities. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Guardian’s Lily Kuo reported<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

[\u2026 A]s the forum got under way, at least one spouse of a detained lawyer was put under house arrest. Several rights groups have issued open letters decrying the event as a \u201ccynical charade\u201d intended to gloss over China\u2019s ongoing crackdown on lawyers, from well-known human rights advocates to self-taught local, or \u201cbarefoot, lawyers\u201d who help residents petition for their rights.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] As the forum opened on Monday, Geng He, the wife of prominent lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who disappeared more than two years ago, published an open letter to those in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the responsibility and obligation to ask the Chinese government that invited you: \u2018Is Gao Zhisheng alive?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cOr else, why did you come? To enjoy the air tickets, the hotels and luxurious hospitality of the Chinese Communist party\u2019s dictatorship \u2026 or to let the CCP use your status and reputation to once again proclaim the greatness of CCP rule at home and abroad?\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another open letter from Xu Yan, wife of detained lawyer Yu Wensheng, was translated by ChinaChange<\/a><\/strong> on November 29. After describing her husband’s work, the various procedural violations in his case, and her own “profound sense of helplessness and sorrow,” Xu made the following requests:<\/p>\n

\n

\n
1. Please arrange a time to meet with me, Xu Yan, Yu Wensheng\u2019s wife, to understand what is happening right now in China regarding Lawyer Yu, who has been deprived of his freedom and his legal rights, and to hear about my rights defense experience. Please rescue your lawyer colleague. Thank you!<\/li>\n
2. I am asking you to clearly raise the following points at the Forum:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
   \n
   • Lawyer Yu exercised his lawyer\u2019s professional rights and freedom of expression according to law and should be immediately acquitted and released.<\/li>\n
   • The right of Lawyer Yu to meet with his defense attorneys and receive their help should be honored immediately.<\/li>\n
   • End his illegal extended detention, immediately issue a verdict, and acquit Lawyer Yu.<\/li>\n
   • Yu Wensheng has been deprived of his professional rights and prosecuted, but the All-China Lawyers Association (ACLA) has done nothing to defend the rights of its member Lawyer Yu, and even aided in persecuting him. I am requesting the Global Lawyers Forum to ask ACLA to immediately correct its previous mistakes and help to immediately launch an emergency rescue action of its member Yu Wensheng.<\/li>\n
   • Please inquire of the Chinese government on my behalf: has Lawyer Yu been tortured? Is he still alive? [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     In 2017, Guangzhou authorities prepared to host Fortune magazine’s Fortune Global Forum by sweeping the city of perceived troublemakers<\/a>. This time their preparations included pressure on the local legal community, whose members were warned not to speak out on issues like protests in Hong Kong, and urged to bring “even trivial matters of everyday life” under “moral supervision”; to “love the Party and socialism”; and to win government contracts and other benefits by reading Xi Jinping’s quotations and setting up Party branches within law firms. These were detailed in a ChinaChange post last week, which continued with a collection of views on the Global Lawyers Forum from several prominent rights lawyers<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

     \u201cThe All China Lawyers\u2019 Association (ACLA) is the same as the Chinese government; it is a part of the government. ACLA contributes little to defending human rights in China, and more often than not it is an accomplice in suppressing human rights. Such a country holding such a conference and urging lawyers from all over the world \u2018to jointly promote the rule of law around the world\u2019 \u2013\u2013 how could anyone believe this? How could anyone attend and support such a meeting? Are the participants burying their heads in the sand or just being ignorant?\u201d (Liang Xiaojun<\/strong>, Beijing)<\/p>\n

     [\u2026] \u201cJust as a country engaging in censorship has no business holding a \u2018World Internet Conference,\u2019 similarly, a one-party state where no competition of parties is allowed has no business holding a \u2018World Political Parties\u2019 Meeting,\u2019 and a country where the rule of law is merely an empty slogan has no business holding a \u2018Global Lawyers Forum.\u2019 (Lu Tingge<\/strong>, Shijiazhuang)<\/p>\n

     \u201cI hope attendees from foreign bar associations won\u2019t just listen to the officials\u2019 big empty words and propaganda but pay more attention to the actual human rights situation in China. I hope they learn more about religious groups, ethnic minorities, dissidents and human rights activists. These groups have suffered cruel persecution in China; I hope the foreign attendees will speak on their behalf at the conference and raise questions.\u201d (An anonymous Beijing lawyer)<\/p>\n

     [\u2026] \u201cThe concept of lawyers under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party is different from the normal Western concept of lawyers. The former Minister of Public Security who was the chief persecutor against human rights lawyers is now in the position to oversee all lawyers in China. In many locales, former domestic security policemen have become chiefs of the judicial bureaus overseeing lawyers. In recent years, the authorities have frequently introduced regulations that restrict lawyers\u2019 freedom of expression and litigation rights; they have established CCP branches in law firms, and intensified ideological education. In their everyday practice of law, lawyers are increasingly playing a role of a prop, without any independence to speak of, and have become a tool of authoritarian rule.\u201d (Xie Yanyi<\/strong>, Beijing) [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

     NYU law professor Jerome Cohen shared the ChinaChange post with this comment:<\/p>\n

     \n

     It’s shameful that the PRC has the nerve to convene such a farce to mark\u2014and sully\u2014Int’l Human Rights Day (Dec. 10), the second day of the \u201cForum\u201d. This cynical charade should be exposed & the world told about the tragedy of human rights lawyers in China.https:\/\/t.co\/hQvJoIi1Uc<\/a><\/p>\n

     \u2014 Jerome Cohen \u5b54\u5091\u69ae(\u67ef\u6069) (@jeromeacohen) December 5, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n