09-11-03 9:46 AM Far Eastern Economic Review | China's Assault on the Rule of Law Page 1 of 3 http://www.feer.com/politics/2009/september53/Chinas-Assault-on-the-Rule-of-Law Archives HOME » POLITICS » 2009 » CHINA'S ASSAULT ON THE RULE OF LAWSeptember 2009 China's Assault on the Rule of Lawby Sophie Richardson Posted September 9, 2009 In a year that’s seen the arbitrary detentions of Chinese legal activists and government critics like Gao Zhisheng and Liu Xiaobo, the Aug. 23 release ofXu Zhiyong, th e head of the Open Constitution Initiative (Gongmeng), should be cause for celebration. There is of cours e profound relief that Mr. Xu has emerged from custody physically unscathed and after only a few weeks in detention—unlike Mr. Gao, whom we believe, based on his writings about his past detentions, has probably been tortured, or Mr. Liu, who is now in his second decad e of being politically persecuted for his activism. But there are few other reasons to celebrate. Even after the release of Mr. Xu, the larger picture is one of Chinese government assault on the rule oflaw and civil society. Mr. Xu founded Gongmeng to provide legal research and aid to a host ofpeople and causes, believing that his skills were best put to use in the existing legal system, helping with under-represented and controversial cases. That spectrum has ranged from representing petitioners in cases against local officials to attempting to defend Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer persecuted for exposing government corruption. As law professor at Beijing’s Post and Telecommunications University and as a member of the Haidian People’s Congress, Mr. Xu hardly embodied radical antigovernment sentiment. But apparently a devotion to justice is perceived by the government as just that—a threa t to its power. On July 29, Mr. Xu and Zhuang Lu, Gongmeng’s financial manager, were arrested for allegedly evading tax payments on a grant from Yale University, while Gongmeng itself was fined 1.4 million yuan ($206,000). Gongmeng had in fact attempted to pay some of the fine and expected to be represented at a court hearing on the matter, but Mr. Xu was arrested before having that chance. The charges themselves are symptomatic of the challenges facing China’s proliferating civil society groups. Despite considerable obstacles, many groups do in fact try to comply with Chinese laws on registration. The rub? Only groups that have prior approv al from a government agency can register as nonprofits, and groups created to remedy government shortcomings—be they in the areas of health care, corruption, environmental damage, or garden-variety physical abuse by local officials— have no hope of getting such permission. They instead register as “enterprises.” For years the government has opted not to enforce all of the “enterprise” requirements on groups like Gongmeng, and so its sudden zeal for doing so—and doing so to a particular group—is ominous for the entire ESSAYS read more DOW JONES LINKS asia.WSJ.com WSJA.com Chinese WSJ.com Dow Jones ADVERTISE ON FEER.COM AND IN FEERSearch here... Advanced Search | Search Tips SUBSCRIBER LOGIN User name Password Forgot your password RegisterABOUT FEER.COM Introduction to FEERHistoryWho we are Summer Internships Introduction Incentive Plan & Rates Technical Specifications Publication Schedule
