Chinese courts will reject ‘Western pressure’ in rights lawyer’s trial, says state-run tabloid

The Chinese judiciary will reject pressure from the West in the forthcoming trial of detained rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and resist the imposition of Western values on China, the state newspaper the Global Times said on Wednesday.

Pu, a high profile lawyer who has represented many dissidents and activists, has been charged with “inciting ethnic hatred” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for posting microblog messages online that were critical of the government’s handling of an ethnic conflict in Kunming in Yunnan province last year, as well as his sarcastic comments about two officials.

READ MORE: Chinese prosecutors drop some ‘evidence’ against detained human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang

Pu, who faces up to eight years in jail, insists on his innocence and his supporters say the charges were trumped up to punish him for his outspokenness.

A pre-trial meeting took place on Tuesday where some of the evidence previously held against him was dismissed, according to his lawyers.

The Global Times’ commentary on Wednesday said the Western media was applying pressure in Pu’s case to try to impose its “universal values”. “And behind the Western point of view is its political interest,” the newspaper linked to the Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily said.

“But Pu’s case is happening in China and the Chinese judiciary system must absolutely be the driver in the judgement of this case,” it said.

The paper called on judges to reject pressure from the West, ignore “political correctness” and make their own judgement according to law.

“Judges can by all means become a bit ‘willful’, so long as we stick to the law and evidence. If we think a certain sentence should be handed down, we don’t care what you say, whether you think it’s light or heavy,” said the commentary.

READ MORE: In the case of human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, China must ensure justice is fair and swift

“Chinese courts must be very firm in these kind of sentences ... if the West wants to look into it , that’s its own business.

“China’s judiciary will not accept the West setting the tone for Pu’s case. It has not done so for Liu Xiaobo, either,” it said.

Liu, a dissident writer, was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2009 on subversion charges.

His 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was criticised by the Chinese government as a ploy to impose Western values on China.