Lawyers should not break law by stirring up trouble
Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Attorneys should not use cases to violate country's laws, or will be penalized in any country, a leading China studies expert said on Friday.
"Lawyers have lost their status by stirring up social activism," Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, told China Daily, adding that when these activities violate the country's laws, the government will act against them, regardless of their status, he said.
Zheng's comments come after Zhou Shifeng, a lawyer formerly managing the Fengrui Law Firm, was convicted of subverting state power and sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday.
According to a statement from Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People's Court, Zhou, 52, had long been influenced by anti-China forces and was plotting to overturn the country's political system, especially after 2011, when he met Hu Shigen, the leader of an illegal organization.
Zhou used his law firm as a platform to manipulate public opinion by encouraging like-minded attorneys and residents to make noise over sensitive issues, the verdict said.
"Lawyers could take part in political activities, as they do in the US or elsewhere, but they should not change the cases to political affairs, especially those affairs that violate laws," Zheng said.
Zheng said these lawyers were not carrying out activities for the country and the society, but were doing them out of private interests.
Zhou said activities such as disrupting judicial orders caught the interests of some overseas forces.
"They've been actively wooing me, and want to use us to challenge court hearings and China's entire judicial system, making trouble for the Chinese government," he confessed, adding that these outside forces want to overturn the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
When foreign influences were behind the activities attacking a country's political and judicial system, causing chaos and social instability, any country would not sit idly, Zheng said. “The US and Singapore will not do so either.”
Foreign media and governments have double standards on Zhou's case, Zheng said. They do not allow these kinds of activities to happen in their countries, but they support such ones to overturn the ruling of Communist Party of China.
Zheng warned those who want to change China's political s
