Party Writing into Lawyer Law: The Death Certificate of Chinese Justice

On August 28, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the decision to amend the Law of the People's Republic of China on Lawyers, and wrote "lawyers adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China" and "establish the organization and activities of the Communist Party of China in law firms" into the legal text.Amendments to the People's Day DecisionIt is not only necessary to establish a party organization, but also to provide the necessary conditions for the activities of the party organization.

This is not an ordinary industry amendment, but the regime of the Communist Party of China proclaimed the system of the last professional independence of the lawyer system. Lawyers should stand between the parties and the state power, balance the public power, protect the right of defence, oversee the judicial process; now, the law clearly requires the work of lawyers to obey the leadership of the party, the organization of the party within the law institutions, the independence of China's justice is not weakened, but is publicly buried in the sense of the system.

Lawyers are transformed from “advocates” into “party people”

The most important sentence of this amendment is the addition of the new article.Lawyers work to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of ChinaIn the normal country of the rule of law, lawyers are first loyal to the law, facts and the interests of the parties; but in the rule of law narrative of the CPC, lawyers are first required to be loyal to the party.

More seriously, the amendment also requires the establishment of Communist Party organizations in the law firms in accordance with the Party Constitution and internal regulations, to carry out the activities of the Party, to strengthen the construction of the Party, to play the political leadership role of the Party organization and the role of party member lawyers pioneer model.

This means that China’s lawyer industry is no longer just “regulated”, but embedded within the party organization’s career. What cases lawyers take, how they defend, whether they challenge illegal evidence, whether they speak for religious persons, dissidents, rights defenders, respondents and political prisoners, can all be reviewed by the party organization and the judicial administration system from the perspective of political loyalty.

(2) The so-called “government of the country in accordance with the law” became “party-controlled law”

The basic prerequisite for the rule of law is that the state power is bound by the law; the real logic of the Chinese Communist Party called "rule of law" is that the law submits to the party's leadership.

In the real justice system, lawyers are not the lower levels of the courts, prosecutors, public security organs, nor the working team of the ruling party.The meaning of the existence of lawyers is that when the state machine accuses a person, someone can still defend them in accordance with the law, someone can still question the evidence, someone can still force the public power to accept procedural constraints.

But under the structure of the party's absolute leadership of the law, the public security, the prosecutor's house, the court, the judicial administrative organs and the law council are all put into the same political command chain. If lawyers are also included in the organizational system of "insisting on the leadership of the party", then the three parties in criminal litigation will lose the basic tension, so-called defense is only a decorative procedure that allows the party state machine to exist.

The death of China’s judiciary does not begin with a judgment, but begins with “the Party above the law” being written into every system link.When lawyers also have to put political loyalty above professional ethics, the court is no longer a place to seek facts and justice, but the stage of power to complete convictions, liquidation and deterrence.

The fate of the lawyer has long been answered.

After the 2015 “709” mass arrest, the Chinese Communist Party has continued to destroy the Chinese rights lawyer group by detaining, hanging up, shutting down, monitoring, restricting exit, forcibly relocating and affiliating families.The U.S. State Department said in a statement on the 709th anniversary:More than 300 lawyers and human rights defenders have been detained, interrogated and imprisoned by Chinese authorities.

Amnesty International said in JulyThe 709 crackdown not only led to the unfair prosecution and persecution of a group of human rights lawyers and legal activists in China, but also opened up a long-standing attack on human rights and the rule of law.

The encounters of Zhu Wen, Wang, Li, Peace, Jiang Tian, Lush, and others have proved that China's lawyers are facing not ordinary practice risks, but political risks.They are targeted for reasons not "not understanding the law", but too seriously using the law, trying to use the constitutional rights, criminal procedure and the principle of open trial in sensitive cases.

When a regime is punished not by a lawyer who violates the law, but by a lawyer who defends the law; when a regime is not afraid of violence but of defence, of the right to meet, of the right to read, and of the right to testify publicly; this regime has acknowledged that it cannot maintain its rule in the framework of a true rule of law.

The Wang Ruth case shows that the repression has extended to the court itself.

U.S. News on September 3Chinese lawyer Wang Ruth fled to Taiwan to seek resettlement in a third country after acting as a representative of the Beijing Zion Church. She said that her Beijing Widow law firm faced pressure to be dissolved or shut down, and lawyer licenses, transfer and continued agency cases were involved.

Wang Ruth’s case is important because it shows that China’s pressure on lawyers is no longer satisfied with dealing with individuals, but extends to the entire structure of the judiciary.

This is precisely the institutional background of the new Lawyer Law: When party organizations enter the law hall, when lawyer work is required to obey the line of the party and the state, the defense of rights is no longer just "sensitive", but may be identified as contrary to the political direction.

Fifth, the real goal of the party-based lawyer system is to make the victim innocent.

Why is the Communist Party so afraid of lawyers?Because lawyers are the ultimate gateway to the victim’s entry into the system. Whether it be forced dismantling victims, religious believers, workers, entrepreneurs, political dissidents, or those who are secretly detained, forced to confess, and trapped, as long as there are independent lawyers, the authority may still be forced to keep records, face questions, and pay costs.

The goal of the partyized lawyer system is to cut this entrance. It allows lawyers to think about the political consequences before accepting the commission, let the lawyer first consider the party-organized attitude before taking over the case, and let the parties face the cold effect of the entire industry when looking for a lawyer.

The system is equally dangerous for ordinary people.Today the political cases are devoured by the rights lawyers and the family church, and tomorrow any commercial disputes, land disputes, financial cases, speech cases, labor cases, as long as the interests of power are touched, may find that lawyers do not dare to take cases, courts do not dare to be independent, and prosecutors only listen to political signals.

China’s judiciary has completely lost its ability to correct its mistakes.

Whether a justice system is alive is not about whether the court building exists or whether the number of laws increases, but whether it can restrict power, protect the weak, correct wrongs, and allow lawyers to challenge state charges.

Under the reality of the CCP's absolute control of political law, public security is responsible for catching people, prosecution organs are responsible for prosecution, courts are responsible for confirming political conclusions, judicial administration is responsible for administering lawyers, the Association of Lawyers is responsible for professional punishment, and the law institutions within the party organizations are political leadership.

Therefore, China’s judiciary is not “still in need of reform,” but has been completely transformed by the Party State system into a tool for political rule. The new version of the Lawyer Law simply writes the long-standing black box controls in white paper black letters. It tells all Chinese people that under the rule of the Communist Party, lawyers are not used to protect you from the harm of the state, lawyers are required by the state to obey the Party first.

A country cannot have a real right of defence if not even its lawyers are independent; a court cannot tolerate the right of defence if not, the trial is merely a ceremony of political power; and a regime, if it has to insert the party’s organization into every courthouse, is precisely what it fears most, not the crime, but the true law.