The New York-based nonprofit Friends of China Lawyers has just released its 2024 China Lawyers' Rights Report, revealing that the professional rights of Chinese lawyers have continued to erode significantly over the past year. The report notes that the practice of government-appointed lawyers occupying positions in criminal cases has become commonplace, dramatically shrinking the space for independent defense. In the face of this repression, a radical and unconventional "grave-digging defense" strategy has emerged among lawyers, a form of desperation and resistance.
The 2024 China Lawyers' Rights Report systematically documents the violations of Chinese lawyers' rights in civil, commercial, administrative, and criminal cases over the past year, and includes representative cases and civil society initiatives. The report, written by a team consisting of two detained human rights lawyers, three former Chinese lawyers working for international organizations, and two public interest law researchers, uses detailed case studies to expose the structural oppression faced by lawyers and proposes recommendations for reform.
Government-appointed lawyers take up space, while independent defense is excluded
The report pointed out that criminal cases have become the "hardest hit area" where lawyers' rights and interests are infringed. The most prominent problem is that the phenomenon of government-appointed lawyers "occupying positions" has spread to all types of cases, not only limited to politically sensitive cases, but also extended to cases involving gangs and evil, and cases dominated by discipline inspection and supervision.
Lu Miaoqing, a public interest lawyer from Guangdong, told Radio Free Asia in an interview on Tuesday (29th): "The original purpose of establishing the government-designated lawyer system was to provide basic legal protection for clients who cannot afford to hire their own lawyers. But now, it has been systematically abused by judicial authorities, becoming a tool to exclude outspoken lawyers, suppress independent defense, and manipulate litigation outcomes. Many officially designated lawyers occupy defense seats, but instead of providing effective defense, they cooperate with the prosecutor's demands and even persuade clients to give up their defense. This not only violates professional ethics but also seriously undermines the bottom line of judicial fairness."
The report points to so-called "robbing defense" practices, whereby officials quickly assign lawyers to clients through legal aid centers, effectively locking up the number of lawyers available, preventing independent lawyers hired by relatives from intervening. Clients are often deprived of their right to choose without knowing it and without having applied for legal aid. Cases like Wu Min and Zhang Zhan cited in the report demonstrate the institutionalization of "robbing" defense practices, with increasingly sophisticated tactics, including administrative harassment, communication disruptions, access restrictions, and even direct investigations or penalties against attorneys.
The rise of unconventional protests: “grave-digging defense”
Faced with conventional defense channels blocked, some lawyers are forced to adopt radical strategies. The report specifically mentions the high-profile emergence of "grave-digging defense" in 2024. These lawyers target judicial officials who abuse their power by exposing their personal misconduct, corruption, or academic fraud in an effort to force them to retreat or expose judicial injustice.
Li Fangping, a well-known human rights lawyer who has practiced in Beijing for a long time, told this station: "The emergence of grave-digging defense is a helpless move made by lawyers after conventional defense avenues have been blocked. Although this strategy breaks through the traditional legal defense model and has a fierce out-of-court confrontation, in the current judicial environment, it has become a non-mainstream defense model that exposes the abuse of power, manipulation of the judiciary, and tears off the judicial fig leaf."
Li Fangping also said that the above phenomenon faced by Chinese lawyers shows that China's legal environment is becoming increasingly compressed: "Its emergence precisely reflects the deterioration of the rule of law environment and the continued shrinking of lawyers' living space."
Six major reform proposals and future prospects
The report also puts forward six systematic reform suggestions, including cleaning up the abuse of charges in the Criminal Law, protecting lawyers' rights to meet with clients and review case files, abolishing the unspoken rule of government-appointed lawyers "occupying positions", reforming the "official-run" system of the Bar Association, establishing an independent arbitration platform, and encouraging lawyers to be open and organize defense groups to protect themselves.
The 2024 China Lawyers' Rights Report not only documents the dire situation, but also provides guidance for the Chinese legal profession to persevere and collectively resist. Against the backdrop of growing institutional repression, every voice and resistance from lawyers represents a last-ditch effort to safeguard the bottom line of the rule of law.
