When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
China

In China, Where 'Attorney-At-Law' Is An Ever More Dangerous Occupation

China's modern legal system has thousands of laws governing every aspect of life. But instead of using this system to further democracy, Chinese officials increasingly use it to harass and intimidate the civil rights lawyers fighting for justice.

Chinese civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng (Channel 4)
Chinese civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng (Channel 4)
B. Pe

BEIJING - Xu Zhiyong is one of the most active civil rights lawyers in China. He established a nonprofit legal center called Gongmeng, which the government shut down, citing fallacious reasons. Xu confirmed our meeting using a friend's mobile phone, sign of the tense climate for attorneys in Beijing. He ended up cancelling a few minutes later, saying he had just been "stopped" by the political police.

In China, police harassment has always been unpredictable and irrational, but after Chen Guangcheng, a blind dissident and self-educated lawyer, was able to deceive his warders recently, it's blowing hot and cold. Even more so in the months preceding the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, to be held next Autumn.

In this Internet age, the struggle for human rights in China involves civil society as a whole: owners, intellectuals, Internet users, workers, artists and writers. More and more of them are fighting for their rights, on issues that affect them personally or by solidarity with victims.

Lawyers are at the core of this struggle. "Fighting for rights is what lawyers do. But there's a difference between those who take on sensitive cases and defend civil rights, on the one hand, and commercial lawyers, on the other," says Mo Shaoping, Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo's legal counsel. "The first category is finding it harder and harder to work. A rising number of lawyers are steering away from sensitive cases, because there are too many risks and not much money. This is sad."

Party controls, forced oaths, police harassment and wire taps

Lawyers are caught between two opposing systems: the one-party system and the rule of law. "Repression against civil rights lawyers in China is rising," Mo says. "They are prevented from becoming members of the Bar. And when they have to renew their law licenses, everything is done to prevent them from doing so. There are more and more controls from the Party, which is actually putting its people inside the law firms."

Mo goes on to say that lawyers are strongly encouraged to pledge an oath to the Communist Party, something that has become compulsory for new attorneys. "Big cases have to be registered with the relevant justice department and the Bar association, and authorization needs to be granted before they can be taken on. Policemen and security agents follow us on our business trips and monitor our phone calls," he explains.

Ironically, thanks to modernization and reform, the Chinese legal system has made great progress. "There are now hundreds of laws and more than 1,000 administrative by-laws, covering every single aspect of life. But the main problem is the failure of the government or state institutions to uphold the law," says Mo Shaoping.

Conservative ideologists from the Party defend "a legal system with Chinese characteristics," that voids the need for a separation of powers.

According to Xu Zhiyong, the result is a "continual repression that will probably force us to fight harder and harder for democracy." A few years ago, Xu and most of his colleagues would have never taken such a stand. But these days, there seems no other way of looking at things. "Only democracy can guarantee a future for China," he declares.

Read more from Le Monde in French

Photo - Channel 4

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Economy

Forced Labor, Forced Exile: The Cuban Professionals Sent Abroad To Work, Never To Return

Noel, a Cuban engineer who had to emigrate to the faraway island of Saint Lucia, tells about the Cuban government's systematic intimidation techniques and coercion of its professionals abroad. He now knows he can never go back to his native island — lest he should never be allowed to leave Cuba again.

Forced Labor, Forced Exile: The Cuban Professionals Sent Abroad To Work, Never To Return

Next stop, Saint Lucia

Laura Rique Valero

Daniela* was just one year old when she last played with her father. In a video her mother recorded, the two can be seen lying on the floor, making each other laugh.

Three years have passed since then. Daniela's sister, Dunia*, was born — but she has never met her father in person, only connecting through video calls. Indeed, between 2019 and 2023, the family changed more than the two little girls could understand.

"Dad, are you here yet? I'm crazy excited to talk to you."

"Dad, I want you to call today and I'm going to send you a kiss."

"Dad, I want you to come for a long time. I want you to call me; call me, dad."

Three voice messages which Daniela has left her father, one after the other, on WhatsApp this Saturday. His image appears on the phone screen, and the two both light up.

The girls can’t explain what their father looks like in real life: how tall or short or thin he is, how he smells or how his voice sounds — the real one, not what comes out of the speaker. Their version of their dad is limited to a rectangular, digital image. There is nothing else, only distance, and problems that their mother may never share with them.

In 2020, Noel*, the girls' father, was offered a two-to-three-year employment contract on a volcanic island in the Caribbean, some 2,000 kilometers from Cuba. The family needed the money. What came next was never in the plans.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest