Court move undermines commitment to rule of law in China

By Mure Dickie in Beijing

Published: June 1 2005 03:00 | Last updated: June 1 2005 03:00

Since 1990, China's citizens have been able to defend their interests by suing the government, a right that is a centrepiece of efforts to ensure the country is ruled by law and not bureaucratic fiat.

More than a decade after implementation of the Administrative Litigation Law, however, challenging even the lower arms of the state can still be a perilous business, both for litigators and their lawyers.

The refusal of the top court in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi to hear lawsuits brought by hundreds of oil entrepreneurs was itself a big enough setback to their efforts to contest the government's seizure of wells worth Rmb7bn ($850m, €679m, £465m).

But the entrepreneurs have suffered an even heavier blow in the detention of at least five of their representatives and of Zhu Jiuhu, the respected lawyer leading their campaign.

The action against Mr Zhu, who won widespread attention for his surprisingly successful defence of a celebrated rural entrepreneur, Sun Dawu, in a 2003 trial, could also have a chilling effect on the willingness of other lawyers to take on politically difficult cases.

"Zhu is a fine lawyer and a brave person," said one associate yesterday. "If he is locked up, it will be a great loss for the cause of promoting the protection of people's rights in China."

For some Chinese scholars the attempts by the Shaanxi investors to challenge local and provincial authorities in court had become an important test of the state's commitment to the rule of law.

If so, it is a test the government appears to be failing. Officials yesterday declined to give details of why Mr Zhu was detained, saying only that he was accused of "illegal assembly and disturbing the social order".

But investor activists say local authorities have frequently used detention and sometimes violence over the past two years.

The government had initially enthusiastically approved private wells in northern Shaanxi, seeing entrepreneurial investment as vital to tap the oil resources of an area that was the heartland of China's communist revolution but which remains mired in poverty.

However, the government later seized the wells as part of a clean-up of the industry. Officials later agreed to pay Rmb1.3bn in compensation - far less than the Rmb7bn investors say the wells were worth.

The refusal of the provincial higher people's court to hear lawsuits from the investors means such claims will remain untested.

Court officials yesterday declined to give details of why it refused to accept the claims, which were filed shortly before Mr Zhu's detention. However, people familiar with the case said the court had offered two reasons: that the government was already dealing with the case and that the claims referred to "abstract administrative actions".

Zhang Shuyi, an expert on administrative law at the China University of Political Science and Law, said any claim that the conduct was too abstract was extremely far-fetched.

Some people involved in the case say the investors remain determined to win a legal hearing and are likely to push their case to China's Supreme People's Court. For now, however, their focus of attention is on the fate of Mr Zhu and the detained investor representatives.

Some observers hope Mr Zhu will be released soon, but other lawyers seen to challenge the state's authority have not fared well.

Chinese media have said that at least 500 lawyers were detained, accused or punished between 1997 and 2002, many merely for being too active in the defence of their clients.

Zheng Enchong, a lawyer who helped Shanghai residents sue a prominent real estate developer, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2003 on charges of violating the state secrets law.

And in March, the lawyer who defended Mr Zheng in court was banned from practising law for a year for acting and speaking in a way judged by city officials to have "violated our country's constitution".

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008