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Global Times: U.S. Support for China’s Rights Lawyers Has No Real Effect

In its July 14 editorial, Global Times shrugged off a statement that the U.S. State Department issued condemning China for having "systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of peacefully defending the rights of others." It claimed that this latest U.S. statement would have no real effect except to make the Chinese people feel slightly uncomfortable.

Global Times insisted in its editorial that the detentions are China’s internal affair. Specifically, taking lawyers away from the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm should serve to increase understanding among Chinese lawyers and promote China’s rule of law as much as possible. This carries more significance than mulling over a response to the U.S. rebuke. 

Apparently some lawyers have doubts about the recent detentions. This may stem in part from the sympathy they have for their peers and, at the same time, from long-standing disputes about the boundaries of democracy and the rule of law. Western values have infiltrated intensely in this respect and have damaged some important basic consensuses. 

Besides the U.S. State Department, opposing voices also came from radical groups in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Chinese mainland public has found those voices rather repellent. Actually, many in the mainland hold the view that if people receive support from external forces, it means they are not really decent. How the government proceeds with the case must strictly follow legal procedures and must not be subject to external disruption. Global Times concluded that the crackdown on this criminal gang involving several rights lawyers is a step toward realizing China’s social stability, through which Chinese should acquire more confidence in the ideological contention between China and the West. 

Source: Global Times, July 14, 2015 
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/931941.shtml