Meet China's Swaggering, 'Diehard' Criminal

Lawyers
They don't scare easily, and they will take any client -- not
just dissidents. The Communist Party has noticed.
BY ALEXA OLESEN-MAY 16, 2014
If there were a checklist for China's "diehard lawyers faction" it would
probably read something like this: Must be combative, dramatic, and have a flair for
social media; must not be intimidated by authority; and must be willing to spend time
under house arrest or in ail!
"hile there is no official group by this name, the term has evolved over the last few
years to describe a particular type of criminal defense lawyer: brash, and determined
to take on defendants whose rights, the attorneys believe, have been violated! #he
phenomenon came into sharp relief after the arrest of prominent $eiing lawyer %u
&hi'iang (pictured above) on May * for allegedly "picking quarrels" by
commemorating the victims of the +une ,, -./. crackdown on pro0democracy
demonstrators in #iananmen s'uare in central $eiing! %u remains in detention in
$eiing, awaiting a hearing!
! all s!ar!e" #i!$ a case g%ne a#r&' $eiing lawyer 1ang 2uelin, who i"en!i(ies
$i)sel( on social media website "eibo as a "diehard," !%l" Communist %arty
mouthpiece newspaper People's Daily that the term originated from a discussion with
another attorney in 3uiyang, the capital of 4outhern China's 3ui5hou province, in +uly
67-6! 1ang and a colleague named Chi 4usheng were part of a !ea) of lawyers from
around China who had come to the city to defend a former property tycoon accused of
gang0related crimes! 8ver lunch on the first day of the trial, the paper e*plaine", Chi
complained the trial was already not going well! It was riddled with procedural
problems, she said, and the team was going to have to "firmly fight to the bitter end,"
using the northern slang !er) sike 00 which roughly means to fight to the bitter end,
or to die hard! (#he tycoon was sen!ence" to -9 years in prison!)
4ince then, the term has been adopted by the lawyers themselves and become a
convenient shorthand widely used by media and even Chinese authorities! 8n May /,
reliably nationalist outlet Global Times +ran"e"%u as a member of this loosely
defined faction in an editorial that argue"%u had "crossed the line" by attending a
#iananmen commemoration! (%u, who took part in the -./. demonstrations, has in
factc%))e)%ra!e" them every year since!) #he article also e:coriated other so0
called diehards! "#hese activist lawyers, who have wild intentions to challenge and
change the law, have deviated" from what their obs are supposed to entail, the
editorial #r%!e! It leveled a warning at the group, who must "reali5e that they are not
commandos or the authoritative forces" behind improvements to rule of law in China!
#he commando metaphor is one both sides have embraced! ;n attorney from
2uchang, a small city in central China's <enan province, #r%!e on his blog that a
diehard lawyer was someone who "goes deep into the mountains knowing well that
there are tigers there!" #he tigers, he clarified, are officials, and not ust any officials! In
many of the cases championed by diehards, the corruption or abuse of power has been
at the police or court level! In some cases, that means the tigers are the udges!
Many crusading Chinese attorneys have landed behind bars or been disbarred
(or +%!$) for defending marginali5ed groups which include practitioners of the banned
spiritual group =alun 3ong, Chinese Christians, or political dissidents! $ut those in the
diehard faction do not necessarily focus their practice on dissidents! #hey take cases
where legal rights are being flouted, regardless of the client! #heir opponent is the
court establishment, namely the police and even the udge! #his adversarial stance has
caught the attention of China's second highest ustice! ""e are now seeing a very
strange phenomenon," #r%!e 4hen >eyong, the e:ecutive vice0president of the
4upreme %eople's Court, China's highest court, in a May 67-? essay published in the
Communist %arty0run People's Court Daily! "@>efenseA lawyers are not in a
confrontation with prosecutors, but instead are having confrontations with the
presiding udge in the case," he complained!
#hat combative attitude is part of what makes a diehard lawyer 00 so is showmanship!
In a +uly 67-- murder trial in prefecture0level southern city of $eihai 00 in which the
victim was allegedly stabbed, but the autopsy found no stab wounds 00 four of the
defense attorneys who worked on the case were detained! 8ne of them, 1ang &ai:in,
was ailed for nine months and then held under house arrest for si: months for alleged
witness tampering! (#he charges were later "r%ppe"!)
Yang,s -ei+% pr%(ile pic!ure s$%#s $i) p%sing %n !$e encl%se" +alc%n& %(
!$e apar!)en! #$ere $e #as kep! un"er $%use arres!, $is (is!s up in !$e air
like a #inning +%*er' Bater, during the 3uiyang trial, Chi, the lawyer who first coined
the diehard moniker, c%llapse" as the udge tried to eect her from the courtroom and
was taken to the hospital!
>iehard lawyers are also heavy users of social media, which allows them to stay in
touch with each other and to advocate for their clients! Most, including .$i and /u,
have blogs or social media accounts and post fre'uently (though %u's +l%g has been
shut down)! #he constant posting means that plenty of inter0faction
diehardsqua++ling, about what makes a diehard and whether membership should be
formali5ed, also ends up online! >isputes aside, this is part of what makes this group a
potential threat in the eyes of the Chinese government: #heir refusal to keep a low
profile and their potential influence on public opinion! ;n ;pril . article posted to the
website of the influential Communist %arty ournal Seeking Truth c%)plaine" that
diehard lawyers were "disrupting social order and undermining public safety," and
called them a "poisonous cancer" on society!
#he Chinese government is clearly worried about the so0called diehardsC impact, and is
moving to trim it! +erome Cohen, a professor of law at Dew 1ork Eniversity,
told 0%reign /%lic& that the government is responding with an Fincreasingly
repressive policyG that is trying to rein in the legal profession! %uCs detention, Cohen
said, is part of that movement! ;lthough %u is also considered part of the wei'uan or
"rights defense" school of lawyering and has represented dissidents like the activist
artist ;i "eiwei, %u straddles factions! ;nd the repression isn't faction0specific!
Cohen said Chinese authorities are clamping down because they Fwant lawyers to
behave like dentists!G In other words, the government thinks attorneys should be "good
technicians and not involve themselves in cases of political0legal inustice!G $ut Cohen
added that the crackdowns like that which ensnared %u are only growing the ranks of
Fangry lawyersG in China, causing more to take up rights0related cases!
#he %u!p%uring of support for %u on social media, from words of support to photos of
him, does suggest that instead of weakening lawyers of his type, it is emboldening
them! ;nother practitioner, 2u #ianming, #r%!eon "eibo that the "wanton arrest" of
%u would not work! #he government should "not think that saying it diligently serves
the people over and over" is enough! "In the Internet age," 2u concluded, "the people
are their own masters!"