Viewpoint
04.23.21![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-1232333092.jpeg?itok=F2yRwHzE)
‘I Stand the Law’s Good Servant, but the People’s First’
Former legislator and prominent lawyer Margaret Ng was given a suspended sentence of 12 months. In her sentencing statement, which she read out in open court, Ng recounted her career in law and politics, interweaving her own story with the decades-...
Postcard
10.17.19![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/lawyerfamily-sys.jpg?itok=hzQurQY5)
‘If We Give up on Our Husbands Today, Tomorrow Our Children Will Be Ashamed of Us’
This is a story about fear and the attempt to conquer fear. The wives of some of the lawyers who disappeared in China’s “709” crackdown have suffered house arrest, threats, and suppression. In their search to find their husbands, they hope no longer...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.17China Jails yet Another Human Rights Lawyer in Ongoing Crackdown on Dissent
Washington Post
Jiang Tianyong, 46, is the latest lawyer known for defending government critics to be jailed. More than 200 have been detained over the last two years in the ongoing crackdown on criticism in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.14.17China Blocks Son of Human Rights Lawyer from Leaving Country
New York Times
The travel ban against Bao Zhuoxuan, 18, was seen by his family and human rights groups as retaliation against his mother, Wang Yu. Ms. Wang was a commercial lawyer who became involved in politically delicate cases, and was the first person targeted...
The NYRB China Archive
08.17.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/xu_zhiyong-sm.jpg?itok=qK1BfMa2)
When the Law Meets the Party
Like an army defeated but undestroyed, China’s decades-long human rights movement keeps reassembling its lines after each disastrous loss, miraculously fielding new forces in the battle against an illiberal state. Each time, foot soldiers and...
Viewpoint
08.03.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/justice-sm.jpg?itok=FeMD4WQp)
China’s ‘New Achievements’ in Legal Reform Exist More in Policy than in Practice
It is no coincidence that two days after Liu Xiaobo’s death, Xinhua published an article praising China’s “new achievements in judicial protection of human rights.” The judicial reforms the article mentions have not yet been fully implemented and...
Books
04.21.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/cynthia-estlund-systemphoto.jpg?itok=mk5pQOZp)
![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/books/covers/a_new_deal_for_chinas_workers-cover.jpg)
A New Deal for China’s Workers?
China’s labor landscape is changing, and it is transforming the global economy in ways that we cannot afford to ignore. Once-silent workers have found their voice, organizing momentous protests, such as the 2010 Honda strikes, and demanding a better deal. China’s leaders have responded not only with repression but with reforms. Are China’s workers on the verge of a breakthrough in industrial relations and labor law reminiscent of the American New Deal?In A New Deal for China’s Workers? Cynthia Estlund views this changing landscape through the comparative lens of America’s twentieth-century experience with industrial unrest. China’s leaders hope to replicate the widely shared prosperity, political legitimacy, and stability that flowed from America’s New Deal, but they are irrevocably opposed to the independent trade unions and mass mobilization that were central to bringing it about. Estlund argues that the specter of an independent labor movement, seen as an existential threat to China’s one-party regime, is both driving and constraining every facet of its response to restless workers.China’s leaders draw on an increasingly sophisticated toolkit in their effort to contain worker activism. The result is a surprising mix of repression and concession, confrontation and cooptation, flaws and functionality, rigidity and pragmatism. If China’s laborers achieve a New Deal, it will be a New Deal with Chinese characteristics, very unlike what workers in the West achieved in the last century. Estlund’s sharp observations and crisp comparative analysis make China’s labor unrest and reform legible to Western readers. —Harvard University Press{chop}
Viewpoint
04.20.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/36441_sm.jpg?itok=kDLeepbr)
A Taiwanese Man’s Detention in Guangdong Threatens a Key Pillar of Cross-Straits Relations
Update: On March 26, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced that Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che had been formally arrested on charges of “subverting state power.” Jerome Cohen has added a new comment to this essay. To skip to that...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.29.17China Says It Has Detained Rights Activist from Taiwan
New York Times
The detention adds to signs of an intensified clampdown on outsiders working with China’s beleaguered rights lawyers and groups.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.16.16China Police Confirm Detention of Human Rights Lawyer Jiang Tianyong
Guardian
The activist’s family are still waiting to hear from him despite officials saying he was released more than two weeks ago
ChinaFile Recommends
09.30.16China Plans to Teach Developing Countries and the UN About Protecting Human Rights
Quartz
Like many of Beijing’s edicts, it is being criticized as a blatant piece of propaganda
ChinaFile Recommends
09.22.16Viewpoint
09.01.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-590014942.jpg?itok=3dYtMioS)
How to Deal With China’s Human Rights Abuses
When world leaders touch down in early September in the city of Hangzhou for this year’s G20 leaders’ summit, which China will they see? The one of glossy skylines, enviable growth statistics, and perfectly choreographed diplomatic exchanges? Or the...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.02.16Chinese Activist Zhai Yasmin Found Guilty of Subversion
BBC
Hundreds are detained since last year as a part of a crackdown on ‘legal activism’.....
ChinaFile Recommends
06.14.16Incendiary Memoir by Chinese Rights Lawyer Reaches Bookshelves Abroad
New York Times
An account of government critique, life in prison, and life under surveillance....
ChinaFile Recommends
06.14.16This Man Was Sectioned For Being Gay. Now He’s Fighting Back
Time
Man files suit for homophobic maltreatment within a mental institution....
Viewpoint
02.25.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/forbidden_city_23916_sm.jpg?itok=_XTLxR6y)
A Looming Crisis for China’s Legal System
In China, politics continues to control law. The current leadership has rejected many of the universal legal values that China accepted—at least in principle—under communist rule in some earlier eras. Today, for example, to talk freely about...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.16.16U.N. Rights Official Urges China to Release Detained Lawyers
New York Times
The UN’s top human rights official called on China to immediately release a group of lawyers, expressing concern over a “very worrying pattern.”
Viewpoint
12.30.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-132724932.jpg?itok=8xrb3OW0)
No, Pu Zhiqiang’s Release Is Not A Victory
Pu Zhiqiang is a well-known Chinese human rights lawyer and outspoken intellectual who has taken on many precedent-setting cases defending freedom and protecting civil liberties. But his outstanding contributions in the judicial realm and his...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.14.15The Hard Reality Behind China’s Soft Power
Time
Even as China burnishes its image overseas, the Communist Party conducts brutal suppression of civil liberties at home.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.18.15China Faces Sharp Questioning by U.N. Panel on Torture
New York Times
“China has made further progress in its legal development and human rights protection.”
ChinaFile Recommends
11.13.15Lawyer's Rights in China
Amnesty International
China’s criminal justice system is still heavily reliant on forced confessions obtained through torture and ill-treatment.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.12.15Rights Lawyers in China Routinely Face Abuse, Report Says
New York Times
Legal activists and those suspected of crimes in China are routinely abused and mistreated at the hands of law enforcement officials.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.13.15How A 16-Year-Old Found Himself Caught Up in China’s Latest Crackdown
Washington Post
He is not a lawyer, or a dissident. He is a 16-year-old with a bowl-cut fringe.
Caixin Media
10.06.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/supremepeoplescourt.jpg?itok=BiGWJZTw)
Authorities Should Do More to Protect China’s Lawyers
A Communist Party group led by General Secretary Xi Jinping that was established to spearhead reform efforts finished a document on September 15 addressing the plight of lawyers. A day later, top judicial authorities, including the Supreme People...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.24.15China Dissident's Wife Rejects Invite to State Department
Associated Press
The United States has warned that the toughest crackdown in years on Chinese activists threatens to cloud the high-profile visit by Xi.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.23.15Leading China Lawyer Says He Was Tortured
Associated Press
In his first interview in five years, leading Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng said 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.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.14.15UN Rights Chief Airs Worry About Lawyers Detained in China
Associated Press
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern about the detention and interrogation of more than 100 lawyers in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.27.15China Uses ‘Picking Quarrels’ Charge to Cast a Wider Net Online
New York Times
Artists, essayists, lawyers, bloggers and others deemed to be online troublemakers have been hauled into police stations and investigated or imprisoned for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge that was once confined to physical...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.23.15China Targeting Rights Lawyers in a Crackdown
New York Times
Beijing is mounting a broad crackdown on human rights lawyers, contending that they have exploited contentious cases to enrich themselves and attack the party.
Conversation
07.14.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-464927456.jpg?itok=TalaVF3k)
China’s ‘Rule by Law’ Takes an Ugly Turn
Yet another crackdown has begun under Chinese President Xi Jinping. This time, the target is so-called “rights lawyers,” loosely defined as those who defend unpopular or dissident clients, or bring cases against the state that rest on claims of...
Reports
07.14.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/epsacrop_160x200/public/assets/images/whitepaper/image/amnesty-international_logo_9.jpg?itok=JaKIle-_)
Lawyers and Activists Detained or Questioned by Police Since 9 July 2015
Amnesty International
Amnesty International has compiled this list of Lawyers and Activists in China who have been detained or questioned by police since July 9, 2015. The list was collated based on various sources. Amnesty International attempted to confirm all...
The NYRB China Archive
02.09.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/148789401.jpg?itok=KDcN3Nua)
China: Inventing a Crime
from New York Review of Books
In late January, Chinese authorities announced that they are considering formal charges against Pu Zhiqiang, one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers, who has been in detention since last May. Pu’s friends fear that even a life sentence is...
Viewpoint
01.16.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/132724900.jpg?itok=qX-FnwMP)
The Plight of China’s Rights Lawyers
As the year came to a close, at least seven prominent Chinese human rights lawyers rang in the New Year from a jail cell. Under President Xi Jinping, 2014 was one of the worst years in recent memory for China’s embattled civil society. Bookending...
Viewpoint
01.15.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/20150116_zaf_x99_034.jpg?itok=o0zvElys)
Chinese Lawyers to Chinese Lawmakers: Let Us Defend Our Clients
Legal Opinion on Article 35 of the Ninth (Draft) Amendment to the Criminal Law: "We are a group of legal professionals who care about the rights of lawyers and reform of the judicial system and who have taken note of the draft for the Ninth...
Reporting & Opinion
12.23.14![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/humanrights.jpg?itok=nhJIl5J1)
China in 2014 Through the Eyes of a Human Rights Advocate
from China Change
This time last year, volunteers and I were busy writing and translating articles to prepare for the New Citizens Movement trials. Many Chinese voices were speaking out forcefully against these trials: law professors, rights lawyers, liberal...
The NYRB China Archive
10.19.14![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/20071207_zaf_d20_001.jpg?itok=_4zhPugJ)
China’s Unstoppable Lawyers: An Interview with Teng Biao
from New York Review of Books
Teng Biao is one of China’s best-known civil-rights lawyers, and a prominent member of the weiquan, or “rights defenders,” movement, a loosely knit coalition of Chinese lawyers and activists who tackle cases related to the environment, religious...
Media
06.24.14![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/the_attorney_sm.png?itok=PRVnblEL)
The President China Never Had
An activist lawyer heroically risks everything for his beliefs. Although he fails, his brave stand against authoritarianism wins him lasting admiration and changes the fate of his East Asian nation forever. The plot may sound seditious in mainland...
Media
10.11.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/zhang_jing.jpg?itok=kyFIqSYb)
How Social Media Complicates the Role of China’s Rights Lawyers
Xia Junfeng was once unknown, but his 2009 arrest for the murder of security officers—who, he alleged, had savagely beaten him—made him a symbolic figure in a national debate about human rights and reform in China. Yet many wonder whether this...