Weiquan movement
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, and written appeal letters, despite opposition from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
[1][2] 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.
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 and establish a modern court system.
[1] The movement is informal, and can be understood as including lawyers and legal activists who advocate for civil rights 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.
[1] Notable Weiquan Lawyers include He Weifang, Xu Zhiyong, Teng Biao, Guo Feixiong and Chen Guangcheng, Gao Zhisheng, Zheng Enchong, and Li Heping.
[3] 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.
Chengdu activist Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years for inciting subversion for publishing writings on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, advocating for the families of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims, and accepting interviews from the Falun Gong-affiliated Sound of Hope radio.
[20] 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.
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 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 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.
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.
[36] Falun Gong, a spiritual practice 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.
[40][41] In November 1999, the Supreme People's Court offered a judicial interpretation of article 300 of the criminal code, stating that Falun Gong should be regarded as a "xie jiao," or cult.
Lawyers who have defended Falun Gong include Guo Guoting, Zhang Kai and Li Chunfu,[43] Wang Yonghang,[44] Tang Jitian and Liu Wei,[23] among others.
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.
[46] Authorities continue to suppress information about the epidemic, which is particularly sensitive in light of the involvement of Li Changchun, 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.
[49][50] 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.
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.
A number of Weiquan lawyers, including Tan Zuoren, were involved in advocating for the rights of parents, and in investigating allegations that corrupt officials were responsible for the poor construction.
[59] In 2003, a group of legal scholars, including Teng Biao and Xu Zhiyong, formed the Open Constitution Initiative (Chinese: 公盟) to advocate for greater rule of law.
[66] 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.
"[67] Weiquan lawyers have faced various challenges to their work from the Chinese government, including disbarment or suspension, violence, threats, surveillance, arbitrary detention, and prosecution.
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."
A selection of notable instances of suppression are listed here: 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.
[91] 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.
