The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts, and intellectuals in the People's Republic of China who seek to protect and defend the civil rights 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, and written appeal letters, despite opposition from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Among the issues adopted by Weiquan lawyers are property and housing rights, protection for AIDS victims, environmental damage, religious freedom, freedom of speech and the press, 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, which entrenches the supremacy of the CCP in the judicial process.
According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Xi Jinping has "started a broad and sustained offensive on human rights" since he became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012. Since taking power, Xi has cracked down on grassroots activism, with hundreds being detained. He presided over the 709 crackdown on 9 July 2015, which saw more than 200 lawyers, legal assistants and human rights activists being detained. The HRW also said that repression in China is "at its worst level since the Tiananmen Square massacre."
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 and establish a modern court system. 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, 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.Cai Yongshun, "Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail" (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010) 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 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 China 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.Teng Biao, 'Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Under Assault', The Washington Post, 25 July 2009. Weiquan Lawyers face considerable personal, financial and professional risks. Weiquan lawyers represent many cases regarding labour rights, land rights, official corruption, victims of torture, migrants' rights. Since the 1980s, as the PRC's leadership became cognizant of the importance of the legal system and legal profession to advance economic development, training for lawyers dramatically increased. From 1986 to 1992, the number of lawyers in the country more than doubled from 21,500 to 45,000, and by 2008 had reached 143,000. The proportion of Weiquan lawyers is very small relative to the number of legal professionals in China. The number of lawyers actively focusing on civil rights issues has been estimated by legal scholar Teng Biao to number "only a few dozen".Teng Biao, "Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Under Assault", The Washington Post, 25 July 2009. The lawyers face considerable personal and professional obstacles, and Weiquan lawyering demands substantial commitment to their cause. According to Fu Hualing and Richard Cullen, "Weiquan lawyers act principally out of commitment, not because of any financial concerns. They accept Weiquan cases to pursue their cause, and typically charge no legal fees." The lawyers often face threats, harassment, and even detention when taking on cases, and they find themselves targets of repression ahead of sensitive events.Jonathan Kaiman, "China cracks down on dissent ahead of Tiananmen anniversary", The Guardian, 13 May 2014.
Notable Weiquan Lawyers include He Weifang, Xu Zhiyong, Teng Biao, Guo Feixiong and Chen Guangcheng, Gao Zhisheng, Zheng Enchong, 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.
Types of Weiquan lawyers Weiquan activists include law professors with university teaching positions—including He Weifang, Teng Biao, and Xu Zhiyong—professional lawyers, and "barefoot lawyers", who are self-taught and often lack any formal legal education. Several of China's more high-profile Weiquan lawyers fall into the latter category, including Guo Feixiong and Chen Guangcheng. Many barefoot lawyers are peasants who teach themselves enough law to file civil complaints, engage in litigation, and educate fellow citizens about their rights.
Because corporate law firms are generally not hospitable to Weiquan lawyers and legal aid workers operate within the government system, Weiquan lawyers in large cities tend to work as solo practitioners in partnership firms with other like-minded lawyers. The Beijing Global Law Firm and Yitong Law Firm are examples of such organizations.
Rana Siu Inboden and William Inboden note that a disproportionate number of influential Weiquan lawyers identify with the Christian faith, including Gao Zhisheng, Chen Guangcheng, Zheng Enchong, and Li Heping, among others.
Different approaches There are at least two distinctive (and sometimes competing) approaches to Weiquan activism. Among Weiquan lawyers, the pragmatists (or consequentialists) are more deferential to the existing legal systems and institutions, and only pursue courses of actions that are likely to produce incremental improvements and reforms. These activists may reject approaches that are liable to be met with official reprisals. By contrast, the "radical" Weiquan activists (those adopting a deontological approach) view rights defending as a moral obligation that is to be pursued regardless of potential consequences. Radical lawyers such as Gao Zhisheng are more inclined to take on the most "sensitive" cases—such as those of Falun Gong adherents—simply because it is the "right thing to do", even though the prospects of success are minimal. A pragmatist may become radicalized once they encounter the limits of possible reform.
Major fields
Freedom of expression
Although freedom of speech is enshrined in Article 35 of the Constitution of China, Chinese authorities enforce restrictions on political and religious expression.Congressional Executive Commission on China, 'Human rights and rule of law in China' 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". Weiquan lawyers, along with international human rights organizations, have argued that the provisions against subversion are inconsistent both with China's own constitution and with international human rights standards, particularly in light of the lack of transparency and clear guidelines used in applying the laws.
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, a prominent Beijing intellectual sentenced to 11 years in prison for inciting subversion in December 2009. 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. 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 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