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The conditions for China’s rights defenders is getting worse—that’s according to experts at a hearing before the European Parliament’s Human Rights Subcommittee on Monday. They say the Chinese regime is breaking its own laws to suppress rights lawyers. Some believe the lawlessness stems from the Falun Gong persecution which began 12 years ago.
Members of the European Parliament are concerned about the situation of China’s human rights defenders.
Experts told the Parliament’s Human Rights Subcommittee on Monday that China’s rights lawyers are finding it increasingly difficult to do their jobs.
This is because the Chinese regime is restricting their practices, often doing so illegally.
[Graham Watson, European Parliament Member]:
“Certainly seems to us that targeting lawyers in particular, people who are after all only doing their job, is particularly despicable, and is deeply damaging to the health of a society because of its impact in undermining the rule of law.”
Pan Jiawei from the Hong Kong based China Human Rights Lawyer Concern Group spoke at the hearing on Monday.
He says aside from subjecting lawyers to forced disappearances and house arrests, the Chinese regime is using other methods to stop their work.
One case is that of the lawyer of artist Ai Weiwei.
[Pan Jiawei, Human Rights Lawyer]:
“His Beijing lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, is now facing a very difficult situation in renewing his legal practice license. It’s a very typical case of lawyers having trouble to renew their license when they take up too many human rights cases. It’s a concern that we think the Chinese government is now using this as a tool to crack down at human rights lawyers.”
Xia Yiyang is from the U.S.-based Human Rights Law Foundation.
He believes the current situation in China has to do with the Communist regime...
