Chinese media slam rights lawyers as rabble-rousers

AP, BEIJING

Chinese state media yesterday accused more than two dozen human rights attorneys rounded up in recent days of being troublemakers intent on illegal activism, as foreign governments and rights groups expressed growing concern over the crackdown.

In its latest tally yesterday, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said 21 human rights lawyers and civil activists had been detained or have disappeared since Thursday last week.

Another 125 people — mostly lawyers and activists — have been warned not to speak up or act on behalf of those detained. Many of those who were warned had been detained briefly themselves.

The crackdown targets Chinese lawyers who have joined with civil activists in publicizing alleged unlawful practices by police and courts, drawing public attention to wrongful cases, disputing official narrations of controversial events and challenging authorities to follow the letter of the law.

Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang (王瑪雅) said the human rights lawyers had helped build a civil society in China over the past decade to hold authorities accountable, and that the crackdown was part of a “methodological dismantling” of that civil society since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) came to power.

The US Department of State condemned the detentions earlier this week and called for the release of the lawyers, who it said were “seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens.”

China’s state-run newspaper Global Times yesterday responded by calling the US criticism uncomfortable, but inconsequential — like having “chewing gum stuck to your shoe” — and said it was up to Chinese courts to decide whether the lawyers acted illegally.

State media reports have depicted the lawyers as self-promoters intent on spreading half-truths and arranging illegal protests outside court venues. Xinhua news agency said that lawyers should uphold the law, not engage in “rabble-rousing” and “mob rule.”

Many of the detained lawyers belong to Beijing law firm Fengrui, which has defended human rights activists and practitioners of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong. Its office was raided by police on Friday.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security accused the lawyers of disrupting public order, seeking illicit profits, illegally hiring protesters and trying to unfairly influence the courts, Xinhua said, saying more than 40 such incidents had occurred since July 2012.

The group of human rights lawyers and civil activists has been labeled a major crime gang, which the ministry claimed to have destroyed through a coordinated operation, Xinhua said.