The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts, and intellectuals in China who seek to protect and defend the

civil right Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

s of the citizenry through litigation and legal activism. The movement, which began in the early 2000s, has organized demonstrations, sought reform via the legal system and media, defended victims of

human rights abuses Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of h ...

, and written appeal letters, despite opposition from the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

(CCP). Among the issues adopted by Weiquan lawyers are property and housing rights, protection for

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

victims,

environmental damage Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defin ...

religious freedom Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedo ...

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

and

the press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...

, and defending the rights of other lawyers facing disbarment or imprisonment. Individuals involved in the Weiquan movement have met with occasionally harsh reprisals from Chinese government officials, including disbarment, detention, harassment, and, in extreme instances, torture. Authorities have also responded to the movement with the launch of an education campaign on the "socialist concept of rule of law," which reasserts the role of the CCP and the primacy of political considerations in the legal profession, and with the

Three Supremes The Three Supremes () is a doctrine first articulated by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao in December 2007, which requires the judiciary to subordinate the written law to the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP ...

, which entrenches the supremacy of the CCP in the judicial process.

Background

Since the legal reforms of the late 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has moved to embrace the language of the

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannic ...

and establish a modern

court system A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accorda ...

. In the process, it has enacted thousands of new laws and regulations, and begun training more legal professionals. The concept of "rule of law" was enshrined in the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

, and the CCP embarked on campaigns to publicize the idea that citizens have protection under the law. At the same time, however, a fundamental contradiction exists in the implementation of rule of law wherein the CCP insists that its authority supersedes that of the law; the constitution enshrines rule of law, but also emphasizes the principle of the "leadership of the Communist Party." The judiciary is not independent, and is therefore subject to politicization and control by the CCP. This has produced a system that is often described as "rule by law," rather than rule of law. Because judicial decisions are subject to the sometimes arbitrary assessments of the CCP, citizens who attempt to make use of the legal system to pursue grievances find that, if their cause is determined to have the potential to undermine the authority of the CCP, they may be suppressed. Defendants who find themselves facing criminal charges, such as for conducting activism or for their religious beliefs, often have few means of pursuing an effective defense. The Weiquan movement coalesced in the early 2000s in response to these inherent contradictions and the arbitrary exercise of legal authority in China, though its roots could be traced to the consumer protection movement that began in the 1990s. The movement is informal, and can be understood as including lawyers and legal activists who advocate for

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

and defend the interests of citizens against corporations, government or CCP organs. Fu Hualing and Richard Cullen note that Weiquan lawyers "are generally always on the side of the weaker party: (migrant) workers v. employers in labor disputes; peasants in cases involving taxation, persons contesting environmental pollution, land appropriation, and village committee elections; journalists facing government censorship; defendants subject to criminal prosecution; and ordinary citizens who are discriminated against by government policies and actions." The emergence of the Weiquan movement was made possible by a confluence of factors, including a market for their services, and an emerging rights consciousness. It was also facilitated by the 1996 "Lawyers Law," which changed the definition of lawyers from "state legal workers" to professionals holding a legal certificate who perform legal services. The law effectively delinked lawyers from the state, and gave lawyers greater (though still limited) autonomy within the profession.Elizabeth Lynch
Rule of Law Mirage
George Washington International Law Review, 26 April 2011. Weiquan lawyers tend to be especially critical of the lack of judicial independence in China. Rather than challenging particular laws, they frame their work as being in keeping with Chinese laws, and describe their activities as a means of defending and upholding the

Constitution of the People's Republic of China The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the supreme law of the People's Republic of China. It was adopted by the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982, with further revisions about every five years. It is the fou ...

against abuses. As such, Weiquan lawyering has been described as a form of rightful resistance.

Weiquan lawyers

Weiquan Lawyers (), or "rights protection" lawyers, refer to a small but influential movement of lawyers, legal practitioners, scholars and activists who help Chinese citizens to assert their constitutional, civil rights and/or public interest through litigation and legal activism. In the context of a rising number of lawyers in China, the proportion of Weiquan lawyers is very small. Weiquan Lawyers face considerable personal, financial and professional risks. Notable Weiquan Lawyers include He Weifang,

Xu Zhiyong Xu Zhiyong (; born March 2, 1973) is a Chinese civil rights activist and formerly a lecturer at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. He was one of the founders of the NGO Open Constitution Initiative and an active rights lawyer ...

, Teng Biao,

Guo Feixiong Guo Feixiong (; born 2 August 1966) is the pen name of Yang Maodong (杨茂东), a Chinese human rights legal activist from Guangdong province who is often identified with the Weiquan movement. Guo is known as a dissident writer and "barefoot ...

and

Chen Guangcheng Chen Guangcheng (born November 12, 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently descr ...

, Gao Zhisheng,

Zheng Enchong Zheng Enchong (born 2 September 1950) is a Shanghai-based '' Weiquan'' (rights defending) lawyer. Zheng was sentenced in 2003 to three years in prison for his advocacy on behalf of citizens who had been forcibly evicted from their homes. The cha ...

, and Li Heping. Many barefoot lawyers are peasants who teach themselves enough law to file civil complaints, engage in litigation, and educate fellow citizens about their rights. Some Weiquan lawyers are the pragmatists and some are more radical.

Major fields

Freedom of expression

Although freedom of speech is enshrined in Article 35 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Chinese authorities enforce restrictions on political and religious expression. Such restrictions are sometimes in accordance with Article 105 of the criminal code, which contains vague and broadly defined provisions against "

inciting subversion of state power Inciting subversion of state power () is a crime under the law of the People's Republic of China. It is article 105, paragraph 2 of the 1997 revision of the People's Republic of China's Penal Code. Several Weiquan lawyers have been involved in litigation and other forms of advocacy to defend the rights to free expression for individuals charged with the crime of subversion. Notable cases include that of

Liu Xiaobo Liu Xiaobo (; 28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese writer, literary critic, human rights activist, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and was involved in campaigns to end communist one- ...

, a prominent Beijing intellectual sentenced to 11 years in prison for inciting subversion in December 2009.

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese provin ...

activist

Tan Zuoren Tan Zuoren (born 15 May 1954), from Chengdu, Sichuan province, People's Republic of China, is an environmentalist, writer and former editor of ''Literati'' magazine (文化人).Chinadigitaltimes.com.Chinadigitaltimes.com" ''Cui Weiping (崔卫平 ...

was sentenced to five years for inciting subversion for publishing writings on the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Four ...

, advocating for the families of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims, and accepting interviews from the

Falun Gong Falun Gong (, ) or Falun Dafa (; literally, "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a new religious movement.Junker, Andrew. 2019. ''Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora'', pp. 23–24, 33, 119 ...

-affiliated

Sound of Hope Sound of Hope (SOH) is an international Chinese-language radio network. Along with New Tang Dynasty Television and '' The Epoch Times'', it is part of a network of media organizations established by practitioners of the Falun Gong new religiou ...

radio. His lawyers were reportedly barred from entering the courtroom. In October 2009, intellectual Guo Quan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for publishing "reactionary" articles online. Weiquan lawyers have also challenged the application of state secret laws, which are sometimes used to prosecute individuals who disseminate information on politically sensitive issues. In November 2009, for instance, lawyers were involved in arguing for Huang Qi, a

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...

activist who had advocated online for the parents of Sichuan earthquake victims. Huang was sentenced to three years in prison for possession of state secrets.

Judicial independence

The Chinese Constitution enshrines rule of law, but simultaneously emphasizes the principle of the "leadership of the Communist Party." The legal profession itself is subordinate to the authority of the CCP; the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...

, not the

bar associations A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence. The word bar is derived from the old English/European custom of using a physical railing to separ ...

, is responsible for issuing and renewing lawyers' licenses. Weiquan lawyers have argued that this structure precludes the emergence of genuine rule of law, and in some cases have advocated for reforms to advance judicial independence and the protection of legal professionals. In late August 2008, a collection of several dozen Beijing lawyers signed a petition stating that the Beijing Bar Association leaders should be elected by the organization's members, rather than being appointed. The petition letter stated that selection process in place for the Association's directors is inconsistent with official guidelines and the Chinese constitution, and should be replaced with a democratic voting process. The Beijing Bar Association responded to the campaign by asserting that "Any individual who uses text messages, the web or other media to privately promote and disseminate the concept of direct elections, express controversial opinions, thereby spreading rumors within the Beijing Bar Association, confuse and poison people's minds, and convince people of circumstances that do not exist regarding the so-called 'Call For Direct Elections For the Beijing Bar Association' is illegal." The following year, the Beijing Bureau of Justice refused to renew the licenses of 53 Beijing Weiquan lawyers, all of whom had signed the petition for elections to the Bar Association.

Land rights

Shanghai Tower construction, April 12, 2011

Under Chinese property law, there is no privately held land; "urban land" is owned by the state, which grants land rights for a set number of years. Rural, or "collectively owned land," is leased by the state for periods of 30 years, and is theoretically reserved for agricultural purposes, housing and services for farmers. Forced evictions are forbidden under

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (GA) on 16 December 1966 through GA. Resolution 2200A (XXI), and came in force from 3 January 197 ...

, which China has ratified. Under China's constitution and other property laws, expropriation of urban land is permitted only if it is for the purpose of supporting the "public interest," and those being evicted are supposed to receive compensation, resettlement, and protection of one's living conditions. The "public interest" is not defined, however, and abuses are common in the expropriation process, with many citizens complaining of receiving little or no compensation.Congressional Executive Commission on China
2010 Annual Report
10 October 2010, pp 41–42 Forced evictions with little or no compensation occur frequently in both urban and rural China, with even fewer legal protections for rural citizens. Collectively owned rural land may be "reallocated" at the discretion of authorities, and in many regions local governments collude with private developers to reclassify rural land as urban land, which can then be sold. from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, an estimated 40 million Chinese peasants were affected by land requisitions. Citizens who resist or protest the evictions have reportedly been subjected to harassment, beatings, or detention, and land-related grievances occasionally escalate into large-scale protests or riots. Several Weiquan lawyers have advocated for the rights of individual citizens whose land and homes were taken with inadequate compensation, including Shanghai lawyer Zheng Enchong. Ni Yulan, a Beijing lawyer, was herself left homeless by forced eviction, and became an outspoken advocate for victims before being sentenced to two years in prison. In 2007, a 54-year-old farmer in Heilongjiang Yang Chunlin published numerous articles on human rights and land rights, and helped to organise a petition entitled: "We want human rights, not the Olympics." The petition reportedly collected over ten thousand signatures. Yang was put to trial, and sentenced to five years in prison, where he has allegedly been tortured. Li Fangping was hired to defend him, but was denied access to his client.

Defense of ethnic minorities

Several Weiquan lawyers, including Teng Biao, Jiang Tianyong, and Li Fangping, offered legal aid to

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...

in the wake of the March 2008 Tibetan protests. The protests resulted in the imprisonment of at least 670 Tibetans, and the execution of at least four individuals. Chinese government sources asserted that the unrest and violence in Tibet had been masterminded by the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

and executed by his followers for the purpose of fomenting unrest and disrupting the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

in Beijing. The Open Constitution Initiative (OCI), operated by several Weiquan lawyers and intellectuals, issued a paper in May 2009 challenging the official narrative, and suggesting that the protests were instead a response to economic inequities,

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

migration, and religious sentiments. The OCI recommended that Chinese authorities better respect and protect the rights and interests of the Tibetan people, including religious freedom, and pursue the reduction of economic inequality and official corruption. Tibetan Filmmaker Dhondup Wangcheng was sentenced to six years in prison for making a documentary on

human rights in Tibet Human rights in Tibet are a contentious issue. Although the United States advocates and provided funds to Dalai Lama's independence movement, the United States does not recognize Tibet as a country.US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rig ...

in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. Two lawyers who sought to represent him, Chang Boyang and Li Dunyong, faced threats and harassment for their advocacy. In July 2010, a group of Chinese activists including Teng Biao co-signed a letter to the Chinese leadership to protest the 15-year prison sentence that had been meted out to Uighur journalist Halaite Niyaze. Niyaze was not permitted to have a lawyer at his trial, where he was charged with "endangering state security." According to reports, Niyaze was being charged because he had criticized the Chinese government in an interview with a Hong Kong news agency for not doing enough to prevent the

July 2009 Ürümqi riots The July 2009 Ürümqi riots were a series of violent riots over several days that broke out on 5 July 2009 in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), in northwestern China. The first day's rioting, which ...

Falun Gong

Falun Gong, a spiritual qigong discipline that once claimed tens of million adherents in China, was banned in July 1999 under the leadership of the CCP, and a campaign was launched to suppress the group. In an attempt to have Falun Gong adherents renounce their belief in the practice, they are subject to state-sanctioned, systematic violence in custody, sometimes resulting in death. Some sources indicate hundreds of thousands may have been detained in reeducation-through-labor camps for practicing Falun Gong and/or resisting persecution. In November 1999, the

Supreme People's Court The Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC; ) is the highest court of the People's Republic of China. It hears appeals of cases from the high people's courts and is the trial court for cases about matters of nation ...

offered a judicial interpretation of article 300 of the criminal code, stating that Falun Gong should be regarded as a ''"xie jiao''," or cult. Large numbers were subsequently sentenced to long prison terms, often under article 300, in what are typically very short trials without the presence of a lawyer.Congressional Executive Commission on China
' Annual Report 2010
10 October 2010. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, note that the application of the law to persecute Falun Gong adherents contravenes both China's own constitution and international standards. Several Weiquan lawyers have argued similarly while defending Falun Gong adherents who face criminal or administrative sentencing for their beliefs. Lawyers who have defended Falun Gong include

Guo Guoting Guo Guoting (), is a former Chinese lawyer, and chief partner of the Shanghai Tian Yi Law Firm. He was one of few lawyers who would defend dissidents and Falun Gong practitioners. He represented the imprisoned lawyer Zheng Enchong and journalis ...

, Zhang Kai and Li Chunfu, Wang Yonghang, Tang Jitian and Liu Wei, among others. In addition to litigation work, Weiquan lawyers like Gao Zhisheng have also advocated publicly and in the media for human rights for Falun Gong. In 2004 and 2005, Gao wrote a series of letters to China's top leadership detailing accounts of torture and sexual abuse against Falun Gong practitioners, and calling for an end to the persecution of the group. In response, Gao lost his legal license, was put under house arrest, detained, and was reportedly tortured.

HIV/AIDS

Some Weiquan lawyers have advocated for the rights of HIV/AIDS victims who contracted the virus as a result of state-sponsored blood drives. In the 1990s, government officials in central China, and especially in

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is a ...

, encouraged rural citizens to sell blood plasma in order to supplement their incomes. Gross mismanagement of the process resulted in hundreds of thousands of individuals being infected with HIV. According to activists, victims have not been compensated, and no government officials were held accountable. Authorities continue to suppress information about the epidemic, which is particularly sensitive in light of the involvement of

Li Changchun Li Changchun (born February 1, 1944) is a retired Chinese politician and a former senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party. He served on the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party's top leadership council, and as the top official ...

, the CCP Central Propaganda Department head and formerly Party chief in Henan. Hu Jia is arguably the most well known advocate for HIV/AIDS victims, having served as the executive director of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education and as one of the founders of the non-governmental organization Loving Source.

Women's rights

, a blind self-taught Weiquan lawyer, rose to prominence for defending victims of China's

one-child policy The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much bro ...

. First implemented in 1979, the one-child policy mandates that couples may have only one child, though there are exceptions for some rural citizens, ethnic minorities, and couples who were themselves only children. Though Chinese laws condemn harsh enforcement measures, Chinese authorities and family planning staff have been accused of carrying out coercive, late-term forced abortions, sterilization, incarceration and torture to enforce the policy. In 2005, Chen Guangcheng filed a class-action case against family planning officials in Linyi, Shandong, who were accused of subjecting thousands of women to sterilization or forced abortions.

Underground Christians

China's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, yet also provides a caveat specifying that only "normal" religious activities are permitted. In practice, religious freedom is granted only within the strictly prescribed parameters of the five officially sanctioned "patriotic" religious associations of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

Protestantism Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

and

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Groups falling outside the state-administered religions, including "underground" or "house church" Christians, are subject to varying degrees of repression and persecution.U.S. Department of State
July–December, 2010 International Religious Freedom Report: China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau)
13 September 2011. Although there are no definitive figures on the number of underground Christians in China, some estimates have put their total number in excess of 70 million. At least 40 Catholic bishops operate independently of official sanction, and some are under surveillance, house arrest, detention, or have disappeared. Several leaders and members of underground

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

churches have also been detained and sentenced to reeducation through labor or prison terms. Violent raids and demolitions have been carried out on underground churches, sometimes resulting in injury to congregants inside. Chinese officials have labelled several underground Protestant churches as a ''xie jiao'' (translated literally as "evil religion"), or cult, thus providing a pretext for harsher punishment of members. Several prominent Weiquan lawyers themselves identify with the underground Protestant movement, and have sought to defend church members and leaders facing imprisonment. These include Zhang Kai, Li Heping, and Gao Zhisheng. Former house church leader

Bob Fu Bob Fu () is a Chinese American pastor. In 2002, he founded China Aid, which provides legal aid to Christians in China, and has been its president since then. Bob Fu was born in Shandong in 1968 and studied English literature at Liaocheng Univ ...

's US-based organization "ChinaAid" has sponsored legal cases, and provided "rule-of-law training" and legal help for distressed clients in China.

Other initiatives

A number of specific events have attracted the help and attention of Weiquan activists. In the March 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province, shoddy school construction resulted in the collapse of several schools full of students. A number of Weiquan lawyers, including

, were involved in advocating for the rights of parents, and in investigating allegations that corrupt officials were responsible for the poor construction. Parents and lawyers met with reprisals from Chinese officials for their activism. Later the same year, it was revealed that large quantities of infant formula had been tainted with melamine, causing 300,000 infants to fall ill and resulting in several deaths. A group of parents of the victims were reportedly detained for attempting to draw media attention to their plight. Dozens of lawyers—particularly from the provinces of Hebei, Henan and Shandong—offered pro-bono legal services to victims, but their efforts were obstructed by authorities. Individual human rights cases, such as the

Deng Yujiao incident The Deng Yujiao incident () occurred on 10 May 2009 at a hotel in Badong County, Hubei. Deng Yujiao, a 21-year-old pedicure worker, tried to rebuff the advances of Deng Guida (; no relation), director of the local township business promotions off ...

and the death of Qian Yunhui, have also drawn help from rights defenders such as Wu Gan. In 2003, a group of legal scholars, including Teng Biao and

, formed the Open Constitution Initiative () to advocate for greater rule of law. The organization was involved in the

Sun Zhigang Sun Zhigang (; born 30 May 1954) is a Chinese politician who was the former Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou. He was formerly mayor of Yichang, the secretary-general of the Hubei party committee under Yu Zhengsheng, the Vice-Governor of An ...

case, and has advocated for petitioners, labor rights, freedom of expression, HIV/AIDS victims, Tibetans, land rights, and protection of public health, among other issues.

Government response

Retrenchment on rule of law

In response to the emergence of the Weiquan movement, which often makes use of the official language about "rule of law" to justify its work, in April 2006 a political campaign was launched to solidify the CCP's leadership over judicial work, combat the idea of greater independence for judges and lawyers, and educate people and judicial authorities about the "socialist concept of rule of law." The campaign was announced by

Luo Gan Luo Gan (; born July 18, 1935) is a retired Chinese politician. Between 2002 and 2007, Luo was one of China's top leaders, serving as a member of the nine-man Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and as the Secretary of ...

, then the head of the CCP Central Committee's Political and Legislative Affairs Committee. Luo urged that in order to protect political stability, "forceful measures" be adopted "against those who, under the pretext of rights-protection (weiquan), carry out sabotage." The launch of the campaign coincided with a crackdown on Weiquan lawyers. Shortly after the campaign's launch, CCP Committees provided instruction to judges reminding them of the political goals that their work must uphold. According to one document issued to judges in

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

and quoted by

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

, "Recently, some judges have started to believe that to be a judge you just have to strictly apply the law in a case. In fact, this kind of concept is erroneous ..all the legal formulations have a clear political background and direction ..We must stamp out the kind of narrow viewpoint that thinks that you can also do court work by having judicial independence." During a December 2007 conference on political-legal work, CCP general secretary

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, and ...

articulated the theory of the "

," which emphasized again that legal work should regard as supreme the concerns and interests of the CCP. In March 2008,

Wang Shengjun Wang Shengjun (; born October 15, 1946 in Suzhou, Anhui) is a retired Chinese politician who was the President of the Supreme People's Court of China from March 2008 to March 2013. Biography He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1972. ...

was confirmed as the new head of the

. Wang, who has no formal legal training himself, abandoned the efforts of his predecessors to improve judicial competence, training, and autonomy, and instead placed primary importance on the ideological implications of the "Three Supremes" theory and upholding the leadership of the CCP. In 2010, China's Ministry of Justice issued two new regulations intended to "strengthen the supervision and management of lawyers and law firms". According to the Associated Press, the new regulations would serve to "allow authorities to punish lawyers ... for actions such as talking to the media or even causing 'traffic troubles.'" In March 2012, China's Ministry of Justice issued a new directive requiring lawyers first obtaining their license or renewing an existing license to swear an oath of loyalty to the CCP. According to the Ministry's website, a section of oath includes the following: “I swear to faithfully fulfill the sacred mission of legal workers in socialism with Chinese characteristics. I swear my loyalty to the motherland, to the people, to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, and to protect the dignity of the Constitution and laws."

Suppression of lawyers and coercive measures

Weiquan lawyers have faced various challenges to their work from the Chinese government, including disbarment or suspension, violence, threats, surveillance, arbitrary detention, and prosecution. This is particularly true for lawyers who take up politically sensitive cases. Reports of harassment, intimidation, and violence against Weiquan lawyers increased in 2006 following the launch of the campaign to promote the "socialist concept of the rule of law." Authorities have refused to renew the licenses of several dozen Weiquan lawyers, and several have effectively been banned for life from the legal profession. In 2009, for instance, at least 17 Weiquan lawyers were not permitted to renew their legal licenses after taking on politically sensitive cases. Several Weiquan lawyers have themselves been sentenced to prison in response to their activism. A selection of notable instances of suppression are listed here: * Gao Zhisheng, once recognized as one of China's ten most promising lawyers, was an advocate for a range of disenfranchised individuals and minorities. In 2006, after he wrote a series of letters to the Chinese leadership concerning the torture of Falun Gong adherents, Gao had his legal license revoked and his law firm was shut down. His family was placed under house arrest, and he was detained for six months. Gao was sentenced, with a five-year reprieve, to four years in prison. He has been the subject of several prolonged disappearances into custody, during which he has reportedly been tortured. * On 27 December 2007, AIDS and pro-democracy activist Hu Jia was detained as part of a crackdown on dissents during the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A well known rights advocate who had advocated on behalf of AIDS victims, peasants, victims of land requisitions, Hu had also been critical of the lack of human rights progress that had been made ahead of the Olympic games. Hu pleaded not guilty at his trial in March 2008. On 3 April 2008, he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power." He had previously been under house arrest, and has reportedly been beaten by police. * In response to his work to bring a class action lawsuit against family planning authorities in Linyi, Shandong Province in 2005,

was put under house arrest, threatened, detained, and beaten. Three other Weiquan activists – Li Fangping, Li Subin, and

— visited him to offer support, but were themselves beaten and interrogated. On 24 August 2006, he was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for "damaging property and gathering crowds to disturb transport order." Following his release, he remains under house arrest. * On 22 April 2010, Beijing lawyers Liu Wei and Tang Jitian were permanently disbarred for defending Falun Gong practitioners. * On 13 May 2009, lawyers Zhang Kai and Li Chunfu are violently beaten and detained in

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...

for investigating the death of Jiang Xiqing, a 66-year-old Falun Gong practitioner killed in a labor camp. One month earlier, Beijing lawyer Cheng Hai was similarly beaten by police in Sichuan province for seeking to defend a Falun Gong adherent. * Yang Chunlin was arrested in July 2007 and charged with "inciting subversion of state power". His trial began in February 2008 in the city of

Jiamusi Jiamusi (Manchu: ; formerly Kiamusze) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China. Located along the middle and lower reaches of the Songhua River, it faces Russia's Khabarovsk Krai across the Ussuri R ...

. Yang was sentenced to five years in prison on 24 March 2008. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial. During and after the hearing at which he was sentenced, Yang was reportedly beaten with an electric rod on at least two occasions. * On 4 July 2009, around 20 security agents broke into the home of Wang Yonghang. Wang, a Weiquan lawyer from

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on ...

City, had defended Falun Gong adherents. He was taken into custody for interrogation and was reportedly beaten severely. Wang's lawyers were not permitted to contact him. In November 2009, Wang was sentenced in a closed court to seven years in prison for his advocacy on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners. When his lawyers were permitted to see him in January 2010, they reported that he had been tortured. * On 17 July 2009, authorities in Beijing raided and shuttered the Open Constitution Initiative, an NGO established by legal scholars Teng Biao and Xu Zhiyong. * On 20 February 2011, several Weiquan activists were detained following online calls for pro-democracy protests in China, including Chen Wei, Jiang Tianyong, Tang Jitian, and Teng Biao. * In May 2014, as multiple Chinese activists began preparing for the 25th anniversary of the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, a number of lawyers were arrested for planning or being suspected of planning demonstrations. Among those arrested was

Pu Zhiqiang Pu Zhiqiang (born 17 January 1965) is a Chinese civil rights lawyer who specialises in press freedom, defamation, and product safety, and other issues. Based in Beijing, he is an executive partner of the Huayi Law Firm. Pu is known for being a ...

, a lawyer who was involved in organising the demonstrations in 1989.Jonathan Kaiman
China cracks down on dissent ahead of Tiananmen anniversary
''The Guardian'', 13 May 2014.

International response

Although there is relatively little awareness of the Weiquan phenomenon as a movement outside of China, Western governments and human rights organizations have consistently expressed concern over the treatment of individual Weiquan lawyers in China, some of whom have faced disbarment, imprisonment, prolonged disappearance, sentencing and alleged torture for their work in promoting civil rights and speaking out against the CCP's

one-party rule A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

. In October 2010, a bipartisan group of 29 members of the U.S. House of Representatives pressed President Obama to raise the cases of Liu Xiaobo and Gao Zhisheng with the Chinese leadership, writing of Gao Zhizheng's prolonged detention: "If lawyers are hauled away for the "crime" of defending their clients, then even the pretense of rule of law in China has failed." The U.S. State Department claims to have raised the cases of these two individuals with their Chinese counterparts. In 2008, Hu Jia was awarded the

Sakharov Prize The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scientis ...

by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

recognizing his human rights advocacy. The same year, Hu and Gao Zhisheng received nominations for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

, and were considered to be favorites for the award. Two years later, seven members of the U.S. House of Representatives nominated imprisoned lawyers Gao Zhisheng and Chen Guangcheng, along with fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo for the prize. The letter noted that these individuals have sought to "raise the Chinese people's awareness of their dignity and rights, and to call their government to govern within its constitution, its laws, and the international human rights agreements it has signed," and thereby made a significant contribution to peace. The Nobel Prize Committee awarded the honor to Liu in absentia in December 2010.

References

External links

The emergence of the weiquan movement

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiquan Movement Political movements Human rights in China Chinese law Civil rights activists