CPC to strengthen lead over lawyers
Industry must unite on ideology and stand by Party: Minister of Justice
The Communist Party of China (CPC) will strengthen its lead on Chinese lawyers as it plans to oversee the entire legal industry by the end of the year in a move that aims to better safeguard social stability, said Chinese law experts.
Chinese Minister of Justice Fu Zhenghua said at a national legal industry Party building meeting held on Monday in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province that the industry must unite on ideology and stand firm by the leadership of the CPC, according to a Tuesday report by the Beijing-based newspaper Legal Daily.
The CPC should lead the development of all of society and all professions, Zhu Wei, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday, noting that legal professionals should not be an exception.
“As an elite group in society, lawyers should play a leading role in advocating the leadership of the Party,” Zhu said.
China’s Constitution states that the socialist system is the fundamental system of the country, and the leadership of the CPC is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Zhu noted.
Zhao Hua, a Beijing-based lawyer, told the Global Times on Wednesday that lawyers must go in the direction of the Party, as there have been past cases in which some lawyers have harmed the country.
For instance, Jiang Tianyong, a former Chinese lawyer, pleaded guilty in August 2017 in Changsha in Central China’s Hunan Province for inciting subversion.
Jiang admitted to having gone overseas five times to attend legal workshops, which made him develop ideas about overthrowing China’s [socialist] system and implementing a Western system in China. He criticized the Chinese government and its judicial organs.
Lawyer Zhou Shifeng from the Fengrui Law Firm was sentenced to seven years in jail for subversion in August 2016. The court document said that since 2011, Zhou has attacked the socialist system and the “one country, two systems” policy and incited confrontations.
Some lawyers only pursue their own or their clients’ interests and have slandered the Party, Zhu said, noting that the Party’s leadership should play an educational role for lawyers.
Having the Party lead and oversee the legal industry can guide lawyers away from such problems, Zhu said.
Personal interest must remain in line with the leadership of the Party, and only in this way can the legal industry develop properly, Zhao said.
The CPC plans to oversee the legal industry nationwide by the end of the year by building Party organizations and undertaking Party activities. The industry will be fully covered, standardized and under the Party’s leadership by 2020, according to the report.
Not all lawyers are Party members, so it is necessary to take some time to unite them, Zhu noted.