China

Judicial reform in China is moving apace to make courts independent of the local government, The New York Times' Ian Johnson reports: "Currently, lower-level courts in China are overseen by the county government, whose party boss runs the courts as a wing of the government, like the police force or sanitation services." Under the reform effort, courts would be under provincial administration.

Dockets also are being made public for the first time, and there are pilot projects to establish circuit courts to have judges from one province to hear cases from another province.

But Johnson notes that the reforms are really more making the courts efficient, rather than independent. In a prior reform effort in the early 2000s, most of the people involved in the "Rights' Defenders" movement have since been arrested or silenced, Johnson reports. 

Robert Edward Precht, opining in The Washington Post, said that China is posing a moral dilemma for the American Bar Association because of its recent crackdown on human rights lawyers. He criticizes the ABA for not impugning a recent crackdown on lawyers in China and for its vote against making a statement at the annual meeting in August against the crackdown. Opponents argued that Beijing might close the ABA office in China if the organization officially criticized the treatment of human rights lawyers. Precht says the ABA can change course and call "on the authorities to immediately release the wrongfully arrested activists and to make clear that they are not at risk of torture and other ill treatment. China’s beleaguered civil rights lawyers deserve no less."

Robert Edward Precht, opining in The Washington Post, said that China is posing a moral dilemma for the American Bar Association because of its recent crackdown on human rights lawyers. He criticizes the ABA for not impugning a recent crackdown on lawyers in China and for its vote against making a statement at the annual meeting in August against the crackdown. Opponents argued that Beijing might close the ABA office in China if the organization officially criticized the treatment of human rights lawyers. Precht says the ABA can change course and call "on the authorities to immediately release the wrongfully arrested activists and to make clear that they are not at risk of torture and other ill treatment. China’s beleaguered civil rights lawyers deserve no less."

The New York Times' Andrew Jacobs had an unsettling feature on the Chinese criminal justice system, writing that many convictions in China depend on confessions that are obtained through coercion. Even though President Xi Jinping has made legal reform part of his effort to boost support for the Communist Party and China's highest court have ruled against using evidence obtained through abuse, "Chinese lawyers and human rights advocates say these measures have had limited impact on a police system that for decades has made obtaining a confession the centerpiece of its efforts."

Human Rights Watch found that judges excluded evidence in just 23 cases of 432 in which defendants said they have been abused.

Rebecca Liao, writing in Foreign Affairs, reports on how China has proposed several legal reforms to provide "a stronger, more independent, and more professionalized judiciary," including separation of the courts from party interference and ensuring judges are chosen from the legal profession. The reforms are needed because, even though many mechanisms have been created for citizens to seek redress with the government, corruption also has exploded, Liao says. However, the legal reforms are not being undertaken to expand democracy in China, but to provide an outlet for democratic desires in the country without undermining party control, Lia reports: "Unable to champion true judicial independence, the ruling party’s solution is to make sure that the courts are hyper-competent and have enough structural integrity to carry out the law. China’s legal reforms are really an expansion of the state to include an organ more responsive to the people but still sheltered from the destabilizing forces of democracy."

 

Even as China's economy continues to thrive, issues with consumer safety have arisen not only with products sold abroad in the United States but domestically. In a promising sign that the rule of law is catching up to China's economic growth, Chinese consumer safety rules have been tightened. The changes, Reuters reported, "increase consumer powers, add rules for the booming Internet shopping sector and stiffen punishments for businesses that mislead shoppers."

Reuters reports the "state-run New Express tabloid printed a front-page commentary begging police in the south-central city of Changsha to set reporter Chen Yongzhou free under the headline: 'Please release him."'

Chen was detained on defamation charges after "writing more than a dozen stories criticizing the finances of a major state-owned construction equipment maker," including that the company "engaged in sales fraud, exaggerated its profits and used public relations to defame its competitors," Reuters also reports.

Upshot? A reporter is arrested for alleged defamation after exposing alleged defamation and other alleged wrongdoings of a Chinese business.