China: Communist Party Silences Human Rights Lawyers

This year we’ve been reporting on how several human rights activists in China have been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party. Well behind those human rights activists is a law firm that tries to defend their right to fight for their beliefs. Well now that law firm is being targeted by communist authorities.

Beijing’s Yitong law firm has a reputation for representing high-profile human rights activists. Their clients include people like environmental and human rights defender Hu Jia, as well as blind rights activists Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng who defended persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. But now the firm is finding it difficult to stay in business.

Back in February the firm’s license to practice law was suspended for six months. The reason, according to authorities… the firm employed under-qualified lawyers.

And most of the lawyers in the firm have left due to pressure from authorities. Now only five remain.

Communist authorities have tried every means to shut down law firms similar to Yitong. The simplest method used is to not renew licenses of lawyers who represent so-called sensitive topics in China like Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan monks and parents who lost children due to shoddy school construction during the Sichuan earthquake.

[Guo Guoting, Former Chinese Rights Lawyer]: (male, chinese)
„Speaking of the registration, obviously it is a very unfair, unreasonable system that the CCP created to control the lawyers. Lawyers in other countries around the world do not have such a system, only in China.”

Human rights groups say 22 lawyers in China couldn’t renew their license to practice law.

(NTDTV)