China's Campaign Against Lawyers

Zhou Shifeng at his trial in No. 2 Tianjin Intermediate People's Court

Rule of law is when the prosecution and defense each have access to legal representation and the judge is impartial until he or she hears the arguments for both sides.

But in China, or apparently in President Xi Jinping's version of rule of law, lawyers who try to launch class action lawsuits, particularly against the state are considered subversive.

That was the case of Zhou Shifeng, the former director of a Beijing law firm who was convicted of subversion and sentenced to seven years in jail. He pleaded guilty and even pledged not to appeal after a hearing that lasted less than three hours in Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court yesterday.

Fengrui law firm represented Chen Guangcheng

Fengrui law firm was headed by Zhou and employed nearly 100 lawyers at its peak, handling mostly sensitive cases.

It represented victims of the melamine-contaminated milk formula scandal in 2008, dissident artist Ai Weiwei, blind legal rights activist Chen Guangcheng, rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, and Uygur academic Ilham Tohti.

It's an impressive line-up of clients from a western point of view, but in China it's only a matter of time before the state goes after you for representing these "troublemakers".

But every defendant needs legal representation, so who will give them a fighting chance? And for the melamine milk scandal, surely those families are entitled to fight for compensation and jail for those who sickened or killed their babies?

A baby receiving hospital care after drinking melamine milk

However this is China, and during the hearing, two witnesses claimed Zhou tried to use sensitive cases to foster public resentment of the Party and the government.

Prosecutors accused Zhou of "being influenced for a long time by the infiltration of anti-China forces and gradually developing the idea of overturning the country's current political system".

A prosecutor read out a written statement by Zhou in court that apparently said: "I have attracted the interest of foreign consulates and NGOs... Their ultimate goal is to overturn the leadership of the Communist Party."

Amnesty International said Zhou's conviction and that of rights advocate Zhai Yanmin an attempt by the central government to "silence anyone who raises legitimate questions about human rights and uses the legal system to seek redress".

Fengrui has also represented dissident artist Ai Weiwei

"This wave of trials against lawyers and activists is a political charade. Their fate was sealed before they stepped into the courtroom," said Roseann Rife, East Asia Research Director for Amnesty International.

Civil society is crumbling, making it harder for anyone to have any kind of disagreement or ability to question what the government does.

Zhou has accepted his fate, but others cannot. How can China realize its dream of having a harmonious society when lawyers can't defend rule of law?

Gao Zhisheng Predicts the End of the CPC

A photo of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng taken in April this year

Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is still alive, but under house arrest and has been denied medical care since his release two years ago.

This was the latest news from his 23-year-old daughter, Grace Geng Ge. She was in Hong Kong to represent her father at the release of his book, Stand Up China 2017 -- China's Hope: What I Learned during Five Years as a Political Prisoner.

Geng introduced the book at the Legislative Council building where she met with Hong Kong lawmakers and the media.

Gao, 52, currently lives with his brother in a remove village in Shaanxi province, and can't even go beyond the courtyard of the home. And because the condition if his teeth are so bad, he can only eat liquid foods and has been denied access to a dentist.

His daughter Grace Geng Ge presents his book in Hong Kong

Geng, her mother and younger brother have lived in the United States, and she says she hasn't seen her father for seven years. Trying to communicate with him is difficult, and she said their last conversation was six weeks ago, when guards happened to stray from their post.

In 2011, Gao was jailed for "instigating subversion of the state" until 2014, and was in solitary confinement for three years, according to his manuscript that was smuggled out of the mainland.

He told AP he wrote the book, "to expose the truth and crimes of this regime".

"This book is my way of posing resistance," he said. "I wrote it secretly because I had to hide from the minders who watch me around the clock."

It details the physical torture he experienced, from having an electric baton held to his face, having to wear a blindfold when he went to the toilet, and one time when he was deprived of sleep and forced to stand; if his knees faltered they would be struck. When he showered, no less than six guards watched him, and he was not allowed to speak.

When Gao was finally released, his wife Geng He said he lost 23kg and could barely eat and talk.

Gao talks about his torture and predicts the end of the CPC

His book also talks about 2017, he says he received a message from God saying it will be the year the Communist Party's rule over China will end. The book also outlines a plan to build a democratic China after the party's collapse.

When he was released two years ago, Gao chose not to be reunited with his family, believing that China needed him.

"At the very beginning, I did not totally understand. I wondered why our father couldn't be with us," Grace Geng Ge said as she sobbed with emotion.

"But... after some time, I came to think of his decision as truly great. He loves the Chinese people so much that he put his family in second place. I think that what he thinks is very, very great, so I am very proud of it."

She added her father was prepared for possible retaliation after the publication of his book.

"He is ready physically and mentally," his daughter said. "And he told us: 'I hope you can be ready'."

His book is being published in Taiwan, but as of yet hasn't found a distributor in Hong Kong, following the incident of the five missing booksellers and concerns of self-censorship.

We shall see if Gao is right about his prediction of the CPC. Many, like Gordon Chang, have been predicting the demise of the party for the past 10 years.

Will next year be the one?

In the meantime, Gao's selflessness shows that everything he does is for the good of the country. He was upholding rule of law when he defended the likes of the Falun Gong and fought for farmers' land rights.

And now he remains in China, waiting patiently for a democratic China to blossom. We hope he is right.

Gao Zhisheng Missing Again

Where is Gao Zhisheng again? He has gone missing since Sunday

We are dismayed to find that rights lawyer and political dissident Gao Zhisheng has been out of contact with his wife in the last few days after he voiced support for a fellow activist who was sentenced to prison last week.

Gao's wife Geng He, who lives in the United States, said yesterday that her daily contact with her husband was abruptly cut off on Sunday, and when she called his number there was a message saying the number no longer existed.

On Saturday Gao had praised Yang Maodong in an online article.

And now with Gao being incommunicado, there are fears he is being punished for speaking out again.

This is not the first time this has happened, though it is troubling each time he is punished.

His last interview after his release in August 2014 detailed the torture and mistreatment he faced in, and that at the time of his release he could barely speak or walk.

"Every time we emerge from the prison alive, it is a defeat for our opponents," he said.

"I thought about giving up and giving my time to my family, but it's the mission God has given me," to stay in China, Gao said.

He has said that during his years of detention, he managed to build a mental barrier to deal with the physical perception of pain.

"This is a special ability I have acquired to allow me to survive difficult times," he said.

If Gao really has been detained again -- and it really looks like he has been -- this just shows how much the Chinese government is terrified of this man and his convictions.

Despite the unspeakable physical and mental torture, Gao still continues to speak out, which is beyond admirable -- it is superhuman.

He is a true moral force to be reckoned with and we hope he will resurface soon.

Finally Gao Appears and Speaks

Gao spoke to AP sometime earlier this year about what happened to him

We were so relieved to read Associated Press had an exclusive face-to-face interview with leading Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

He dropped out of sight in April 2010 and although he was released over a year ago, we wondered what had happened to him in that time.

Turns out he told AP he was tortured with an electric baton to his face and spent three years in solitary confinement during his latest period of detention since 2010.

Despite the harsh treatment, Gao refuses to leave China even though he is separated from his wife and two children who are living in the United States.

When he was released from prison in 2014, the formerly outspoken lawyer could barely walk or speak full, intelligible sentences, which raised concerns that Gao had been permanently broken physically and mentally.

But a year later he seems to be himself...

His wife Geng He is living in exile in the US with the children

"Every time we emerge from the prison alive, it is a defeat for our opponents," he told AP.

Gao now lives in a dug-out cave on a cliff in Shaanxi province with his older brother, though he is constantly under surveillance. He apparently managed to finish manuscripts for two books that were secretly sent out of China for publication.

In the interview and in one of his books, Gao said he spent three years in solitary confinement that he survived thanks to his faith in God and his unwavering hope for China.

"I thought about giving up and giving my time to my family, but it's the mission God has given me" to stay in China, Gao, a Christian, said.

His wife Geng He said from Cupertino, California, that she didn't understand why her husband was imprisoned and why he continued to be under house arrest.

"I don't understand why the government has to imprison him. He is just a lawyer. His legal profession requires him to help and serve others. Why is he being treated like this? He is standing up for greater freedom in China."

She later posted on her Twitter account a letter from her husband urging her to decline an invitation to meet a US deputy secretary of state before the summit between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He told her such a meeting would be futile. Since the administration of President Bill Clinton, "the American political class has disregarded the basic humanitarian principles and muddied itself by getting close to the sinister Communist Party," Gao wrote, according to his wife.

In one of Gao's books -- that has yet to be published -- he predicts the authoritarian rule under China's Communist Party will end in 2017 -- a revelation he says he received from God. He also outlines a plan to build up a democratic, modern China after the party's collapse. The book also details his inhumane treatment in prison.

The other book is addressed to his son and tells of his family's story.

Jerome Cohen, a New York University law professor and expert on China's legal system, says Gao has become a symbol of the repression of rights lawyers in the country, and that it was heartening to hear he had given an interview.

"I had worried that Gao had become a forgotten man," Cohen said. "He was the leading human rights lawyer in China. He was a bold, courageous, outspoken person, and they broke him, they broke him in the cruelest way."

In Gao's book, he said he endured more torture, including with an electric baton to his face -- a moment he remembers as a near out-of-body experience when he heard his own voice.

"Undoubtedly, it was from me. I don't know how to describe it," Gao wrote. "That sound was almost like a dog howling when its tail is forcibly stepped on by its master. Sometimes it sounded like what a puppy makes when it's hung upside by its tail."

During these years of detention, Gao says he was able to build a mental barrier against the physical perception of pain. "This is a special ability I have acquired to allow me to survive difficult times," he said in the interview.

He says he was secretly tried in December 2011, and it was only then that the government acknowledged it was holding him by sending him to prison.

This was the first time he was taken outside -- albeit hooded -- for the first time in 21 months. "It was the first time I heard a dog bark and that I could breathe fresh air," he said.

Then he was moved to a prison in Xinjiang and while he was no longer beaten, he had to stay in a room of 8 square metres (86 sq ft) without windows or ventilation for three years.

As a result he could not cope with being in large spaces after his release. "I found I could not walk at the airport, but i could walk inside the locked-up room," he said.

Gao said at one point during his three-year period in prison, the authorities installed a loudspeaker in his cell that spouted propaganda on socialist values for 68 weeks straight. "You cannot imagine the mental harassment they inflicted on me," he said.

Now out of prison (but constantly being watched), Gao is able to speak to his wife and children daily, but feels he cannot leave China to be reunited with them.

"My wife is suffering, but I can do nothing," he said. "I understand those persecuted souls who have left China and I am glad for them, but I cannot be among them. I cannot go," Gao said.

If what Gao says is true, the Chinese authorities have no shame in torturing a human being to the point of physical and mental breakdown. A government that prides itself on being on a "peaceful rise" is far from the truth.

Does China think we on the outside cannot see this? We understand that people like Gao and Liu Xiaobo need to do their work from the inside, but we need them to know we are on their side cheering them on, to tell them they are not alone.

China's Entertaining White Paper

China likes to think its human rights record is improving every year

Every year China comes out with its white paper on the human rights situation in the country. And of course it's painted in a positive light.

This time, the paper contains some 21,000 Chinese characters and explains how economic and social development has helped improve China's human rights, particularly in entertainment.

In the report's first section, titled, "Right to Development", it says the people's cultural rights were better protected thanks to the country's burgeoning television, cartoon and film production.

Dissident Liu Xiaobo continues to languish in prison

Uh huh.

It says in 2014, China produced 429 television series, which equals to 15,983 episodes, while cartoon programming amounted to 138,496 minutes. [The accuracy of the minutes is impressive].

The report adds growth on the big screen, with China making 618 feature films, 36 of which earned more than 100 million yuan each, racking up a total of 26.9 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) last year. This, the white paper says, is a 36 percent increase from 2013.

But how is the production of TV shows, movies and cartoons related to human rights, let alone the improvement of human rights in China?

Maya Wong, Hong Kong-based China researcher for Human Rights Watch wasn't impressed by this year's report.

Ai Weiwei was detained for a period before being released

"The white paper has departed so much from reality that it claims that the government has made 'great achievements' on human rights are absurd," she said, noting that in 2013, the State Council's white paper cited car ownership in defense of its human rights record. "The government could have counted the number of pandas as a sign of rights progress," she said.

Ouch.

So what are we to make of this year's white paper on China's human rights?

Sounds like a lot of creative writing, and whoever wrote it should be commended for trying to paint a warm fuzzy picture of the country's human rights situation when in fact anyone who speaks out against the state is put through a sham trial and then locked up, like Liu Xiaobo, journalist Gao Yu, lawyers Xu Zhiyong and Gao Zhisheng, academic Ilham Tohti, and for a period of time Ai Weiwei.

Journalist Gao Yu was recently jailed for seven years

The recent sinking of the cruise ship in the Yangtze has led to state media being instructed to use Xinhua-approved stories, and barring everyone else from the site. The families are demanding an open investigation with the number of deaths climbing past 430, but so far their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Citing increased entertainment as a form of improved human rights seems such a bizarre connection, but then any way to frame China in a better light was the aim of the white paper.

What will they think of next?

A Shadow of Himself

One can only imagine what it was like for Gao to live in inhumane conditions

It's devastating to read a news story in which recently released human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been so affected by his prison term that he cannot speak coherent sentences and his health is poor due to malnutrition.

Gao's international lawyer Jared Gensher described the former prisoner as "emotionless", "basically unintelligible" and had lost his teeth. He was only allowed to eat a daily ration of a piece of cabbage and a slice of bread which caused him to lose 20kg, according to US-based advocacy group Freedom Now.

The group added he was confined in his small cell, with very little light and was deprived of human contact until his release. It is believed he was regularly tortured.

Freedom Now said Gao's wife, Geng He, had spoken to her husband and was "completely devastated" by what had happened to him.

"The only thing I feared more than him being killed was his suffering relentless and horrific torture and being kept alive," she was quoted as saying.

Seems her worst fears did come true.

She is now trying to urge the Chinese government to allow Gao to go to the United States to receive treatment there and be reunited with his children.

But the chances of Beijing listening to her and conceding to her demands are probably impossible.

Gensher says Gao has been "in an incredibly bad way".

"He is able to say a few words here and there and answering questions in a few words, describing what he went through. But he is not capable of holding any conversation and there are many occasions where he's just literally just muttering to himself."

After three years, the Chinese government has reduced an intelligent, determined, pragmatic man into a completely broken one.

Beijing has destroyed a productive human being because he did not serve its interests.

Can the government be charged with killing a human spirit?

At this point one also wonders how Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo is faring. Is he being destroyed as we speak?

Cautious Freedom

Free at last -- but how much freedom with Gao Zhisheng really have?

We are thrilled to hear activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng was released earlier today after three years in jail in Shaya, in remote northwest China.

His brother went to pick him up and then travel to Urumqi with minders following them. They went to Gao's sister-in-law's home and it was there that the lawyer was able to call his wife in San Francisco and speak to her for the first time in four years.

"I spoke to Gao Zhisheng, I spoke to him," his wife Geng He said, her voice filled with emotion. "I ask him how his health was, and all he was able to say was, 'My teeth are in bad shape,'" she said.

Geng could hear unfamiliar voices in the room, and deduced they were minders. Her sister told her that half a dozen of Gao's teeth were loose and he had to tear his prison servings of steamed buns into tiny pieces in order to eat.

"Can you imagine the kind of ill treatment he was facing in there?" she asked.

His release was a stark change from the two visits from relatives he was allowed in three years, while his wife and two children fled China in 2009 and were accepted as refugees in the US.

What did Gao do to deserve this horrific treatment?

Previously he was a leading human rights lawyer, self-taught and praised by the Chinese government. But then he began defending the rights of Falun Gong members and farmers with land disputes which Beijing frowned upon. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

This isn't the first time Gao was jailed. He was convicted of subversion in 2006 and sentenced to three years in prison. Three years later he was released on probation, and then disappeared a few times.

The last time he was released he recounted in graphic detail to the media how he was physically tortured, kept awake, beaten, his genitals prodded and violated. Soon afterwards he was disappeared again... and then it was later revealed he was in this remote prison for violating the terms of his probation, according to Xinhua.

"Among all the rights lawyers, he has endured the most suffering and we are happy that he was able to come out today," said Beijing rights lawyer Li Fangping. "But we feel very pessimistic about the days ahead. In the past, he was always in either illegal detention or being tortured. We are very worried about whether he will be able to regain full freedom."

We worry too about what will happen to Gao. But more importantly what is his mental state after all he has been through? Has he completely given up the fight to preserve his sanity or is he still the fiery advocate? Will Gao be able to see his family again?

There are too many questions and hopefully they will be answered with time.

Nevertheless, the constant stream on Twitter about his release proves Gao has not been forgotten. We hope he is feeling our love and support from around the world.