The All-China Lawyers Association (ACLA) issued new regulations for lawyers and law firms banning them from discussing cases in public in the latest move to tighten control over lawyers.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established the ACLA in July 1986 and placed it under China’s Ministry of Justice.  under the ACLA Charter Article 3. The ACLA follows Xi Jinping and the CCP’s leadership and practices law according to China’s socialist rule of law. All lawyers in China are members of the ACLA.

On October 20, 2021, the ACLA issued the “Rules on Prohibiting Violations and Speculation on Cases.” The Rules require that lawyers and law firms shall not “spread violations of the [CCP’s] party line, principles, and policies,” “oppose the leadership of the Communist Party of China,” or “incite complaints against the Party and the government.”

The new ACLA regulations also require that lawyers and law firms not hype up cases through joint signatures, open letters, and online gatherings to show solidarity. They also ban posting comments on cases on social media.

In addition, the ACLA stipulates that, for publicly heard cases, the undertaking lawyers shall not disclose or disseminate important information and evidence materials obtained through client interviews, file reviews, investigations, and evidence collection “that may affect the handling of the case.” For cases that are not heard publicly, lawyers cannot disclose or disseminate case information and materials.

However, some of these bans are causing grave concerns among rights lawyers in China.

Since July 9, 2015 (7-09), the police in over 20 provinces and cities throughout China have conducted a crackdown. They have arrested, summoned, criminally detained, taken away, disappeared, or interrogated hundreds of Chinese human rights lawyers, civil rights activists, petitioners, and their relatives. The charges against them have included: “inciting subversion,” “disturbing a court order,” “picking quarrels, provoking troubles,” and many other examples. At least 280 people were detained during the crackdown.  The authorities banned them from the practice of law and continued to monitor and harass them after their release.

The CCP touted the 7-09 crackdown on lawyers as its significant achievement in 2015. During the following year’s 3rd Plenary Session of the 5th Session of the 12th National People’s Congress on March 12, 2016. Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme Court, and Cao Jianming, President of the Supreme Procuratorate, made special mention of the crackdown.

Sources:

1. The All China Lawyer Association, October 20, 2021
http://www.acla.org.cn/article/page/detailById/32079

2. U.S. Department of State, July 8, 2021
https://www.state.gov/on-the-6th-anniversary-of-the-709-crackdown-in-china/

China’s Nanjing University (NJU) had previously made an agreement with Zizek, a well-known Slovenian left-wing scholar, to hold a “Colloquium on Zizek’s Philosophical Thought” from October 29 to 31, 2021. At the event, Zizek himself was scheduled to deliver a lecture online and conduct a dialogue with Chinese scholars. However, at the last minute, news came out from the NJU Department of Philosophy that Zizek would not be allowed to speak at the conference to discuss his philosophical ideas. The conference was later cancelled with the excuse of “epidemic prevention and control” and “adjustment of schedules of participating experts.” The incident sparked widespread concern and discussion among netizens in mainland China.

An anonymous source at NJU told a reporter that Zizek, a famous Marxist scholar, was “silenced” and the event was even cancelled because his speech involved politically sensitive contents and even “made presumptuous remarks about the leaders of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”

“The simple fact is that what he said in his speech was all about political issues, criticizing many social phenomena that do not fit the CCP’s intention of ‘positive energy’ and its ‘main theme.’” The source said, “What frightened the NJU leaders even more was that he actually made direct comments about the central leadership, mentioning Xi Jinping without naming him, saying that he was engaging in capitalism by cracking down on big companies and opening the Beijing Stock Exchange. He also directly named Wang Huning as a neoconservative. The event, if it were held, would have violated a political taboo. That’s why he was not allowed to speak. The fact that Zizek’s own seminar did not allow Zizek to speak would become a laughingstock. As the university leadership could not afford to lose face, they simply found an excuse to cancel the event.”

Wang Huning, who ranks no. 5 on the 7-member Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision making body, is in charge of the CCP’s propaganda.

Source: Boxun, October 30, 2021

左翼学者齐泽克发言稿妄议中共领导人，南大“齐泽克哲学思想研讨会”将其“禁言”后取消