{"id":85528,"date":"2018-08-19T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=85528 "},"modified":"2018-08-19T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T15:00:00","slug":"85528-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=85528","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Human Rights Lawyer Cheng Hai Disbarred"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">August 13, 2018<\/span><\/div>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2018\/33\/2018818cheng-hai.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Cheng Hai<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On August 9, the Beijing Justice Bureau issued a decision to cancel lawyer Cheng Hai<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8217;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">s&nbsp; (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u7a0b\u6d77<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">) license. Six months ago in February, the bureau cancelled the registration of his small Beijing Wutian Law Firm, claiming that the firm had not accepted the annual review on schedule. According to China<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8217;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">s Administrative Measures for the Practice of Law by Lawyers (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u300a\u5f8b\u5e08\u6267\u4e1a\u7ba1\u7406\u529e\u6cd5\u300b<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), a lawyer<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8217;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">s license is revoked if they<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8217;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">re not hired by a firm for six months.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On August 10, lawyer Cheng Hai filed an Application for Administrative Review, which shows that the authorities were committed to having him disbarred, and refused to view contrary evidence. The application shows that Cheng Hai signed an employment contract with the Beijing Liangzhi Law Firm on July 30, and delivered his proof of new employment to the Justice Bureau of Beijing Mentougou District, which oversees the new firm. On August 5, he again mailed the same proof of employment to the Beijing Justice Bureau via EMS. His mail was returned. The authorities, by returning his documents, claim that they received no proof, and thus acted to disbar him.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The disbarment of Cheng Hai is part of the Chinese government&#8217;s broad, systematic effort to take human rights lawyers off the field. Those implicated in the 709 Crackdown, whether the detained lawyers or lawyers who signed up to defend their detained colleagues, have been the primary targets. Cheng Hai has represented lawyer Wang Quanzhang (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u738b\u5168\u748b<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), who has been held well over 1,000 days now without trial.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The Beijing Justice Bureau is using the same method to keep lawyer Wang Yu (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u738b\u5b87<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">) and her husband Bao Longjun (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u5305\u9f99\u519b<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), both 709 detainees, from returning to practice: their previous firm, the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, is no more, and new firms intent on hiring them were pressured not to accept them. Once the six-month period expires, they will also lose their licenses.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Since January 2018, at least 20 human rights lawyers have been disbarred <\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8212;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> including Sui Muqing (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u968b\u7267\u9752<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), Xie Yanyi (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u8c22\u71d5\u76ca<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), Li Heping (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u674e\u548c\u5e73<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), Wen Donghai (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u6587\u4e1c\u6d77<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), and Yu Wensheng (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u4f59\u6587\u751f<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">) <\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8212;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> or caught in limbo and unable to practice, such as lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u5218\u6653\u539f<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">).<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The 64-year-old Cheng Hai is known for his dogged pursuit of the law as written, and he holds the authorities to it. He will exhaust all options provided by the law to defend his right to practice and to expose the unscrupulous behaviors of the government.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Cheng Hai was originally trained as an economist and later began practicing law in Beijing in 2000. In 2008 he was one of the five lawyers who called for direct elections at the Beijing Lawyers Association, and over the years has taken part in elections of district-level people&#8217;s representatives as an independent candidate. He has defended clients in many religious freedom cases, and has challenged rulings of reeducation-through-labor cases. During the New Citizens Movement trials in 2013-2014, he represented Ding Jiaxi (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt;\">\u4e01\u5bb6\u559c<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">), a lawyer-turned-activist.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">One lawyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, commented on the wave of disbarments that has been striking against and eroding the community of human rights lawyers in China: &#8220;If there is no fundamental progress toward the rule of law, these brave lawyers who dare to defend human rights will inevitably be eliminated. The newer regulations on the management of lawyers are meant to remove those who seek change, and keep only those who submit to the authorities. You can&#8217;t really call them lawyers.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>  <p><a href=\"https:\/\/chinachange.org\/2018\/08\/13\/veteran-human-rights-lawyer-cheng-hai-disbarred\/\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <div>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;On August 10, lawyer Cheng Hai filed an Application for Administrative Review, which shows that the authorities were committed to having him disbarred, and refused to view contrary evidence. The application shows that Cheng Hai signed an employment contract with the Beijing Liangzhi Law Firm on July 30, and delivered his proof of new employment to the Justice Bureau of Beijing Mentougou District, which oversees the new firm. On August 5, he again mailed the same proof of employment to the Beijing Justice Bureau via EMS. His mail was returned. The authorities, by returning his documents, claim that they received no proof, and thus acted to disbar him.&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}