Prominent Chinese Lawyers Call On Lawyers Association To Investigate the Detention of Zhu Jiuhu

August 31, 2005

A group of prominent Chinese lawyers has published an open letter to the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) calling on it to investigate the detention of Beijing lawyer Zhu Jiuhu in Shaanxi province and work more actively to protect the legal rights of lawyers. Zhu had been representing thousands of investors in a sensitive administrative lawsuit against several local government entities in Shaanxi. The investors claim that Shaanxi officials illegally seized more than 5,000 privately run oil fields worth hundreds of millions of dollars after provincial officials encouraged them to invest in the properties. The seizures affected more than 1,000 private enterprises with more than 60,000 investors, and observers view the case as a test of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving protections for private property rights.

A group of prominent Chinese lawyers has published an open letter to the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) calling on it to investigate the detention of Beijing lawyer Zhu Jiuhu in Shaanxi province and work more actively to protect the legal rights of lawyers. Zhu had been representing thousands of investors in a sensitive administrative lawsuit against several local government entities in Shaanxi. The investors claim that Shaanxi officials illegally seized more than 5,000 privately run oil fields worth hundreds of millions of dollars after provincial officials encouraged them to invest in the properties. The seizures affected more than 1,000 private enterprises with more than 60,000 investors, and observers view the case as a test of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving protections for private property rights.

After conducting a 10-month investigation, Zhu filed a lawsuit against the Shaanxi province, Yulin city, and Jingbian county governments on behalf of the investors in June 2004. On May 26, 2005, local authorities detained Zhu in a pre-dawn raid and charged him with the crimes of "illegal assembly" and "assembling the crowd to disturb social order." One source suggests that police charged Zhu with these crimes merely for meeting with groups of clients. Zhu's defense lawyers attempted to meet with him on several occasions in June, but local public security officials reportedly denied them access to their client on the grounds that the case involved "state secrets." On July 26, authorities also detained Feng Bingxian, one of the lead plaintiffs in the case. Several signatories on the open letter suggest that their goal is not only to push ACLA for action in the Zhu case, but to prompt ACLA to play a more prominent role in protecting the rights of its members generally.

Chinese lawyers and commentators have expressed growing concern about the intimidation, harassment, and imprisonment of legal professionals in recent years. According to Chinese sources, nearly 80 percent of the 500 lawyers detained, accused, or punished for all reasons between 1997 and 2002 were eventually found innocent of any wrongdoing. The ACLA letter notes this trend, concluding that "one practicing lawyer after another has been punished for criminal defense work, leading to a situation where fewer and fewer lawyers undertake criminal cases" and noting that "these days, the human rights of practicing lawyers are not protected in civil or administrative cases either." It states that the legal profession firmly protests such "wonton violations of lawyer rights" and is "anxious about the deterioration in the work environment for lawyers."

For a Human Rights in China article providing summaries of 27 lawyer detention cases in China, click here. For further discussion and analysis of the legal and political implications of the open letter on the Zhu Jiuhu case, see below.
 


In raising concerns about Zhu’s case and calling for ACLA action, the lawyers’ letter draws carefully on recent official rhetoric on social unrest and legal reform. For example, in what was widely interpreted as a sign of deep leadership concern about the growing number of social protests in China, the People’s Daily published a stern commentary on July 28 stressing that stability is China’s overriding interest, warning that threats to stability will be punished, and encouraging citizens to resolve disputes through “a normal channel according to law.” The authors of the letter suggest that Zhu was pursuing just such an approach. It notes that for more than a year after the 2003 property seizures, “the investors petitioned continuously for help, seriously influencing social harmony.” They note that after Zhu and his team of lawyers became involved, they took the case “down the correct path of rule of law and turned “China’s largest the collective petition into a lawsuit to uphold right in accordance with the law.”

The letter also draws indirectly on a flurry of recent publicity on lawyers rights and upcoming amendments to China’s Lawyers Law. In recent months, Chinese official sources published numerous articles and commentaries reviewing the obstacles and problems lawyers face, calling for the amendments to strengthen protections for lawyers and their practice rights, or highlighting efforts to amend the Lawyers Law (for several examples of such articles, click on the following: 1, 2, 3, 4). By providing details not only on the detention of Zhu, but also the inability of his defense lawyers to meet with him, the authors of the letter provide a striking individual example of lawyer intimidation and put the sincerity of official rhetoric on the need to improve lawyer protections to the test.