https://www.scmp.com/rss/269419/feed Jerome A. Cohen is a law professor at New York University, faculty director of its US-Asia Law Institute and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com More than a month after an American military plane shot down an intruding Chinese balloon, much about this now notorious incident remains a mystery, and conflicting statements from the United States and China have led many observers to doubt the accuracy of claims voiced by one or both of the contending governments. Was the Chinese balloon merely engaged in civilian weather information gathering? Had the US honestly denied the allegation that it recently sent more than 10 balloons to secretly... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3213079/inside-story-us-spy-chinas-release-50-years-ago-and-its-lessons-amid-spy-balloon-row?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3213079/inside-story-us-spy-chinas-release-50-years-ago-and-its-lessons-amid-spy-balloon-row?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Mar 2023 23:15:08 +0000 No two legal systems could be more different than Hong Kong’s common law system, inherited from British colonialism, and China’s Leninist communist system, imported from Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. Hong Kong’s courts, despite more than 20 years of Chinese rule, are still desperately clinging to their inherited commitment to the rule of law and their role in assuring government under law and protection of individual rights against arbitrary state action. Mainland courts, while operating under a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3118776/how-long-can-hong-kong-courts-resist-pressure-act-more-those?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3118776/how-long-can-hong-kong-courts-resist-pressure-act-more-those?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Jan 2021 01:15:18 +0000 We should not allow holiday distractions, public health concerns or compassion fatigue to induce us to overlook yet another harsh prison sentence on a human-rights activist in China. Indeed, the continuing controversy over the origins and consequences of Covid-19 that has plagued us this past year should enhance our interest in last Monday’s trial and conviction of former Shanghai lawyer-turned-citizen-journalist Zhang Zhan for recording and revealing many aspects of the tragedies in Wuhan last... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3115898/why-covid-19-citizen-journalist-zhang-zhans-fate-deserves-greater?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3115898/why-covid-19-citizen-journalist-zhang-zhans-fate-deserves-greater?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:15:16 +0000 When his licence to practise law was revoked 10 years ago, Tang Jitian was embattled, but far from defeated. The human rights lawyer movement in China, in which he played a central part, presented one of the most meaningful challenges to the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarianism. That is why the government has gone all-out to crush it over the past decade.  Tang, a gifted and dedicated person, started as a successful prosecutor from a rural background in China’s northeastern province of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081651/decade-after-chinese-human-rights-lawyers-tang-jitian-and-liu-wei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081651/decade-after-chinese-human-rights-lawyers-tang-jitian-and-liu-wei?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Apr 2020 23:00:18 +0000 Chinese and Americans have the same saying, “turn a vice into a virtue”. That’s exactly what China’s Communist Party is up to, seeking to conceal its repression of the country’s human rights lawyers. With rights advocate Wang Quanzhang due to be released from prison on April 5 after serving 4½ years for “subversion of state power”, Beijing faced a worrisome prospect and a problem. How would it rationalise for propaganda purposes the embarrassing measures it was contemplating to ensure the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3079793/china-should-not-use-coronavirus-excuse-silence-human-rights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3079793/china-should-not-use-coronavirus-excuse-silence-human-rights?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Apr 2020 19:00:12 +0000 On March 19, 2017, Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che vanished after entering mainland China. Ten days later, after repeated calls from Taiwan concerning Lee’s whereabouts, the Chinese government admitted that Lee had been detained on suspicion of “endangering national security”. Since then, three similar cases have been confirmed. Lee Meng-chu, a volunteer organiser in a small Taiwan township, disappeared in Shenzhen last August, allegedly after distributing photos of Chinese military... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3076793/beijing-must-come-clean-arbitrary-detention-taiwanese-or-risk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3076793/beijing-must-come-clean-arbitrary-detention-taiwanese-or-risk?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Mar 2020 17:00:12 +0000 Hong Kong and Macau have never been twins. Yet, despite the huge differences between the two former European colonies, China has long sought to treat them like peas in a pod. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Macau to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Portugal’s handover of the territory to China is an occasion to consider why the “one country, two systems” formula that has been applied so smoothly to Macau has led to a depressing disaster in Hong Kong. This occasion also highlights the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3042815/macau-and-hong-kong-are-too-different-beijing-treat-them-peas-pod?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3042815/macau-and-hong-kong-are-too-different-beijing-treat-them-peas-pod?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Dec 2019 06:00:08 +0000 Were Mark Twain with us, he might say about citizen action to save Hong Kong what he said about the weather: everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. To be sure this, like many pithy observations, would be an exaggeration. Months ago, when the current crisis emerged, Hong Kong’s many able and experienced community leaders, as well as the Hong Kong government officials and their Beijing superiors who precipitated the crisis, seemed paralysed. Since then, efforts of various... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037701/independent-inquiry-still-only-way-end-protests-and-keep-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037701/independent-inquiry-still-only-way-end-protests-and-keep-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Nov 2019 09:00:40 +0000 For many decades, every democratic government in the common law world has successfully resisted efforts by the People’s Republic of China to conclude an extradition treaty. These democracies have refused to commit to forcibly delivering, for trial in China, people whom Beijing claims have violated Chinese criminal law. Australia signed an extradition treaty with Beijing, only to have its parliament reject it in 2017. The UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and other common law democracies have never... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3011117/if-beijing-wants-extradition-law-hong-kong-and-elsewhere-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3011117/if-beijing-wants-extradition-law-hong-kong-and-elsewhere-it?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 May 2019 23:00:06 +0000 Canada has finally begun its judicial processing of the US request to extradite on fraud charges Meng Wanzhou, the prominent Huawei executive arrested last December. In response, China’s Communist Party Political-Legal Commission announced that the government would prosecute two Canadian citizens – researcher and former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, whom state security police detained a few days after Meng’s detention – for “stealing and probing state secrets and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2189513/meng-wanzhous-case-beijings-response-and-two-legal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2189513/meng-wanzhous-case-beijings-response-and-two-legal?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Mar 2019 17:00:30 +0000 Over three weeks have passed since the highly publicised, carefully rehearsed trial of Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese NGO activist long ­detained in mainland China for his peaceful criticism of the Chinese regime. We are still awaiting the verdict that will not only determine Lee’s fate but also have broader implications for China-Taiwan relations. Obviously, in China, guilt is ­assumed in such political cases, and Lee’s punishment is not being ­decided by the court that tried him and his... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2113665/how-chinas-trial-lee-ming-che-warning-taiwanese-activists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2113665/how-chinas-trial-lee-ming-che-warning-taiwanese-activists?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Oct 2017 09:20:52 +0000 For the past month, there has been a tense stand-off between China and India in the tri-border Himalayan region that ­includes Bhutan. Troubles began when China resumed building a road on the Doklam Plateau, which is disputed between Bhutan and China. India, because of its own security interests and as Bhutan’s security guarantor, stepped in to defend the position of the kingdom. China now claims India has invaded “its” territory. Tensions are high, and more than a few commentators have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2103432/how-india-border-stand-gives-china-chance-burnish-its-global?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2103432/how-india-border-stand-gives-china-chance-burnish-its-global?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jul 2017 06:24:35 +0000 The decision of Taiwan’s constitutional court last week, invalidating a civil code provision prohibiting same-sex marriage, will have profound implications. Domestically, it will spur the executive and legislative branches to break the political stalemate over the legislative action necessary to amend the code, so as to conform to the constitution’s guarantee of social equality for all. They must now fulfil this constitutional responsibility within two years. The constitutional court has taken... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2096077/taiwans-landmark-ruling-same-sex-marriage-highlights-gulf?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2096077/taiwans-landmark-ruling-same-sex-marriage-highlights-gulf?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 May 2017 07:14:43 +0000 Statistics summarise the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly appalling repression of its country’s human rights lawyers and activists, and daily media reports record their criminal detentions, televised “confessions” and unfair trials. We learn less of the informal punishments inflicted on this gallant group and their families – kidnapping, torture, threats against children, loss of employment, denial of housing and application of psychiatric drugs. Yet only knowledge of these individual,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2092027/activists-china-pay-heavy-price-fighting-everyday-injustices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2092027/activists-china-pay-heavy-price-fighting-everyday-injustices?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 May 2017 04:45:52 +0000 In his New Year’s Day message, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spoke proudly of the strides his country had made in its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. He said he would continue to bolster the programmes as long as the United States remained hostile and continued its joint military exercises with South Korea. Perhaps most importantly, he said: “We have reached the final stage in preparations to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic rocket.” In response, then US... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2068470/why-trump-should-give-nuclear-armed-north-korea-shot-peace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2068470/why-trump-should-give-nuclear-armed-north-korea-shot-peace?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Feb 2017 09:46:57 +0000 Over Taiwan’s protests, China has since April persuaded several countries that do not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan – including Kenya, Malaysia and Cambodia – to send Taiwanese nationals suspected of telecommunications fraud to China rather than Taiwan for prosecution. This is one of Beijing’s many recent tactics designed to press Taiwan’s new president, Tsai Ing-wen, to continue the policy of her predecessor by adopting the so-called “1992 consensus”, a term that in Beijing’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2023276/beijing-and-taipei-should-end-their-tug-war-over?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2023276/beijing-and-taipei-should-end-their-tug-war-over?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Sep 2016 10:12:24 +0000 International tensions are rising rapidly as D-Day approaches in the Philippines arbitration case against China. Increasingly anxious, Beijing is resorting to a full-court press in the propaganda realm, seeking to justify its refusal to parti­cipate in the proceedings, and it has rejected in advance the forthcoming decision of the distinguished arbitration panel of five independent maritime experts. Both the Chinese Society of International Law and the All China Lawyers Association have just... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1975070/there-way-beijing-save-face-after-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1975070/there-way-beijing-save-face-after-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Jun 2016 09:18:09 +0000 When North Korea wants to be heard, it sets off a nuclear bomb or launches a missile. All Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s president, did was to announce that he and about 20 staff and law of the sea experts would fly 1,600km, without media on board, to wish Republic of China personnel on Taiping Island a happy Year of the Monkey. READ MORE: Taiwanese president’s trip to South China Sea island unhelpful, US says Yet the US government seemed to believe that Ma was making a monkey of its belated efforts to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1913904/can-taiwan-show-beijing-and-world-how-disputed-islands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1913904/can-taiwan-show-beijing-and-world-how-disputed-islands?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Feb 2016 05:00:00 +0000 The anticipated turnout for Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan will be relatively modest compared with its great importance in so many respects. A major question, of course, is whether – if the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate Tsai Ing-wen wins – her administration can manage a smooth transition to the next stage of Taiwan’s relations with mainland China. Taiwan’s quickly evolving identity has yet to be adequately reflected in cross-strait relations, and it is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1901300/why-elections-taiwan-matter-so-much-beijing-region-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1901300/why-elections-taiwan-matter-so-much-beijing-region-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Jan 2016 04:30:45 +0000 The recent criminal conviction and sentencing of China’s well-known civil liberties lawyer Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强) was widely reported abroad, if not at home. Yet much remains to be said about its significance. Those of us who know Mr Pu, of course, breathed a sigh of relief at news of his suspended three-year prison sentence. This was as mild an outcome as could have been expected. Pu was ably defended by veteran human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping (莫少平) and his colleagues to the extent that China’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1896018/chinas-courts-continue-silence-critics-party-policies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1896018/chinas-courts-continue-silence-critics-party-policies?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Dec 2015 08:34:28 +0000 It is dismaying to learn of the pressures now faced by Hong Kong academics who are perceived to be critical of certain Chinese central government policies. Recent developments at the University of Hong Kong have been particularly disturbing. The controversy over the appointment of former dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, as pro-vice-chancellor for academic staffing and resources, is a visible litmus test of the preservation of academic freedom. Despite an independent... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1861280/delay-hku-appointment-johannes-chan-makes-mockery-beijings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1861280/delay-hku-appointment-johannes-chan-makes-mockery-beijings?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Sep 2015 04:16:30 +0000 Over the past several years, the United States and China have had conversations – at the highest levels of government – about  cybersecurity concerns. These dialogues have focused on possibilities for developing norms to improve relations. Thus far, discussions have yielded little progress. China’s new National Security Law and its draft Cybersecurity Law make clear one reason for the stalemate. China and the US both talk about “cybersecurity”, but mean different things. In Washington,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1846146/differing-outlooks-impede-sino-us-cooperation-enhance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1846146/differing-outlooks-impede-sino-us-cooperation-enhance?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:30:45 +0000 I did not shed a tear when, on June 11, China's official press agency announced that former security tsar Zhou Yongkang had been sentenced to life in prison. Until late 2012, Zhou had been a member of the Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee and one of the most feared people in China. Many expected that, according to law, Zhou's long-awaited trial for bribery and abuse of authority would be open to the public, with only a charge of leaking state secrets examined privately.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1833353/why-was-zhou-yongkang-denied-public-trial-bo-xilais?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1833353/why-was-zhou-yongkang-denied-public-trial-bo-xilais?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Jul 2015 08:45:45 +0000 Although China's increasingly "assertive" international conduct has naturally stirred widespread concern in both Asia and the US, especially regarding the South China Sea, an overview of Beijing's foreign policy suggests a less alarming perspective. In some major subjects, such as environmental pollution and climate change, there are good prospects for Beijing's cooperation with the United States and other nations. Next week's annual Sino-American Strategic and Economic Dialogue should... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1823740/mutual-respect-international-laws-can-keep-peace-between?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1823740/mutual-respect-international-laws-can-keep-peace-between?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jun 2015 13:00:45 +0000 Although a veteran observer of Chinese efforts to secure a just and stable legal system, I was surprised when Chinese police formally detained five women opponents of sexual harassment ahead of International Women's Day. They are being investigated for alleged "provocation and causing a disturbance", in violation of one of the vaguest and most abused provisions of the Chinese criminal code. It is difficult to determine how these women could have caused a disturbance. They were detained before... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1747586/detention-women-activists-makes-mockery-chinas-rule-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1747586/detention-women-activists-makes-mockery-chinas-rule-law?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Mar 2015 04:00:00 +0000 The Barefoot Lawyer Chen Guangcheng Macmillan   Activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng's long-awaited and highly readable autobiography offers many insights into contemporary China as well as the thrilling story of his 2012 escape from police custody to freedom via the American embassy in Beijing. Its main subject, identified in the subtitle as A Blind Man's Fight for Justice and Freedom in China, is the political repression and growing sense of injustice that accompany the mainland's phenomenal... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1742719/blind-activist-chen-guangcheng-recounts-thrilling-escape-china-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1742719/blind-activist-chen-guangcheng-recounts-thrilling-escape-china-new?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2015 22:45:45 +0000 President Barack Obama's recent agreement to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba proved a double surprise. He gave little warning that, after so many false starts, this overdue, highly desirable achievement was about to occur and, within hours, this earthquake in international relations produced an unexpected aftershock. Many of Cuba's long-suffering human rights activists protested against the US decision to "normalise" relations without first extracting guarantees that the Castro... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1674956/normalisation-sino-us-ties-was-right-move-todays-china-shows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1674956/normalisation-sino-us-ties-was-right-move-todays-china-shows?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Jan 2015 07:28:45 +0000 Over 50 years ago, when I began to study the roles of law in Chinese life, some American China specialists thought I had chosen the one subject that the "central realm" had never regarded as important. I wonder what they would make of the just-concluded Central Committee plenary session that, for the first time in its long series of annual meetings, focused the attention of the Communist Party, the people and the world on "ruling the country according to law" and "the rule of law". For the past... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1631895/chinas-socialist-rule-law-still-offers-real-hope?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1631895/chinas-socialist-rule-law-still-offers-real-hope?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Nov 2014 10:45:15 +0000 For decades, China's communist leaders have admonished their cadres to "combine theory and practice". This is sound advice for any society. Yet, it is easier said than done. This perennial challenge now confronts the party's Central Committee as it prepares to convene the highly anticipated fourth plenary session in October. Party propaganda organs are trumpeting the fact that, for the first time in the party's long history, issues relating to the rule of law will be the main topic of a major... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1574300/zhou-yongkang-case-shows-chinas-rule-law-still-good-only?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1574300/zhou-yongkang-case-shows-chinas-rule-law-still-good-only?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Aug 2014 20:30:18 +0000 We are entitled, 25 years later, to ask about the enduring legacy of June 4. Its immediate impact on China's legal system and civil and political rights was, of course, disastrous. For several years, savage repression decimated a system that, only a decade earlier, had begun its post-Cultural Revolution reconstruction. The mid-1990s, however, spurred by Deng Xiaoping's 1992 "southern tour" and the Communist Party's effort to attract foreign direct investment, marked a return to the cautious but... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1523305/after-june-4-china-still-fumbling-towards-respect-rights-all?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1523305/after-june-4-china-still-fumbling-towards-respect-rights-all?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Jun 2014 19:25:41 +0000 Although the death penalty continues to be popular in Taiwan, the government's April 29 execution of two of its citizens, brothers Tu Ming-lang and Tu Ming-hsiung, for allegedly committing five murders in Guangdong in 2001 has understandably aroused public concern. Despite a decade of judicial rulings, many informed observers question whether the convictions were consistent with the island's impressive progress in bringing due process of law to its criminal justice system. The case also revealed... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1509864/taiwans-handling-murder-case-raises-question-cross-strait-co?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1509864/taiwans-handling-murder-case-raises-question-cross-strait-co?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 May 2014 19:08:30 +0000 Dear Prime Minister Abe, the Fukushima crisis is getting worse. Yet you have an option at your disposal to resolve it. But first you must begin by challenging a chain of untested and dangerous assumptions that have lulled you and your administration into apparent complacency. The key assumption, the root of all the others, is that you still have a safe window of time, at least two or three more years, and possibly longer, to deal with Fukushima's four damaged nuclear reactors. Indeed, you have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1464566/abe-must-act-now-seal-fukushima-reactors-its-too-late?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1464566/abe-must-act-now-seal-fukushima-reactors-its-too-late?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:15:15 +0000 Whenever asked about China's latest criminal prosecution of a human rights advocate, the foreign ministry says it is being handled "in accordance with law". This sounds assuring, but what does it mean? Last week's trial of Xu Zhiyong , which the ministry termed "a common criminal case", provides an occasion for inquiry. Apparently, the ministry was referring to the fact that Xu was being charged with a mundane offence under the Criminal Law - "gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1416497/xu-zhiyongs-trial-makes-mockery-beijings-pledge-enforce-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1416497/xu-zhiyongs-trial-makes-mockery-beijings-pledge-enforce-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jan 2014 04:15:30 +0000 Last week's decisions of the Communist Party's Central Committee promise significant changes to many aspects of China's legal system. None may be more important and immediate than its announcement that the party is terminating "re-education through labour", the notorious administrative punishment to which the police alone can sentence anyone for as much as three years of detention in a labour camp, with a possible one-year extension. Police don't need the approval of any court or even the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1360264/plenum-pledge-wont-make-scrapping-chinas-labour-camps-any?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1360264/plenum-pledge-wont-make-scrapping-chinas-labour-camps-any?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Nov 2013 11:30:30 +0000 Will Bo Xilai's appeal against his recent criminal conviction and life sentence make another contribution to the legal education of the Chinese people? Bo's trial offered hundreds of millions of his countrymen their first vivid glimpse of how an accused criminal might actively defend himself in court, instead of meekly complying with the usual ritual of confession and apology in an effort to obtain a lenient sentence. Although the legal systems of all countries often treat compliant defendants... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1321411/chinas-leaders-bo-xilai-problem-has-not-gone-away?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1321411/chinas-leaders-bo-xilai-problem-has-not-gone-away?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 In order to establish a rule of law worthy of the country, China will require leaders endowed with vision, wisdom and boldness. Several decades of economic, social and legal development have increased popular demand for a legal system that is fair, impartial and reasonably free of politics and corruption. What has been lacking is leadership. I once thought that Bo Xilai, because of the intelligence, openness to the world and charisma that marked his pre-Chongqing career, might become such a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1299512/bo-xilais-trial-underlines-need-cross-examination-court?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1299512/bo-xilais-trial-underlines-need-cross-examination-court?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Remember Bo Xilai ? He is, of course, the former Politburo member and Chongqing party chief who last year was at the heart of China's biggest political scandal since the 1976 arrest of the Gang of Four. For months, party leaders have been quietly stewing about how to handle his case in a way that will be consistent with their ideological preferences and claims to respect the rule of law. Now, an "internal report" suggests that Bo may finally be put on trial next month. On March 15 last year,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1289898/can-chinese-leaders-all-agree-how-try-bo-xilai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1289898/can-chinese-leaders-all-agree-how-try-bo-xilai?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Twenty-four years after the June 4 massacre, China is finally releasing from prison the last of the Tiananmen protesters who were convicted of "counter-revolutionary" offences, but spared execution. They are a tragic lot - seriously ill, often mentally as well as physically. Yet their release hardly writes finis to one of the saddest chapters of modern Chinese history. The influence of June 4 lives on in many ways, especially the muzzling of any discussion concerning it and the continuing... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1252678/24-years-after-june-4-party-must-loosen-grip-chinas-court?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1252678/24-years-after-june-4-party-must-loosen-grip-chinas-court?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 For over four decades after the Allied victors in the second world war allowed Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese government to reclaim Taiwan from Japan, the generalissimo's Kuomintang maintained a ruthless Leninist-style dictatorship over the island. Yet KMT propaganda hoodwinked many outside the island to believe that it, unlike the Maoist regime that chased it from mainland China in 1949, was the defender of democracy, the rule of law and human rights for Chinese people. During the past generation,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1202004/taiwan-quietly-forging-ahead-human-rights-protection?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1202004/taiwan-quietly-forging-ahead-human-rights-protection?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Much ink has been spilled during the past week over the informal announcement that China's police-imposed long-term punishment of "re-education through labour" would, by the end of the year, "cease to be used". The newly appointed head of the Communist Party's all-powerful political-legal commission, Meng Jianzhu , made this announcement at a national judicial conference. Understandably, since nothing less than the constitutional protection of 1.3 billion people against arbitrary imprisonment is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1128734/really-end-re-education-through-labour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1128734/really-end-re-education-through-labour?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Beijing's pending prosecution of deposed Politburo member Bo Xilai and the recent murder conviction of his wife, Gu Kailai , have again brought China's criminal justice system to world attention. Having detained Bo in March, not until October did the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection turn him over to the state prosecutors for indictment. No indictment has yet been issued, perhaps because Bo's prosecution presents the party with its thorniest legal challenge since the 1980-81 trial of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1119183/bo-xilai-case-biggest-test-chinas-legal-progress-gang-four?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1119183/bo-xilai-case-biggest-test-chinas-legal-progress-gang-four?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 International Human Rights Day is always a good time to take China's temperature. This year, the country is especially feverish. Amazingly, 63 years after the People's Republic was established, populous and powerful China still has no effective means of enforcing the rights enshrined in its constitution. Yet, once again, new Communist Party leaders reignite hopes for bringing government and the party under the rule of law. On January 1, a newly revised Criminal Procedure Law goes into effect,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1101460/will-2013-see-progress-chinas-rights-protection?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1101460/will-2013-see-progress-chinas-rights-protection?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Despite next week's 18th Communist Party congress, attention inside and outside China is increasingly riveted on the forthcoming criminal prosecution of Bo Xilai , the deposed leader whose case has already done so much to upset the party's carefully scripted plans for an orderly transfer of national power. Virtually out of sight, by contrast, is another political prosecution - that of an ordinary farmer named Chen Kegui. He led an uncontroversial life until his uncle, the blind "barefoot lawyer"... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1073348/politics-justice-bo-xilai-chen-kegui?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1073348/politics-justice-bo-xilai-chen-kegui?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 By April 1972, as the United States prepared to return to Japanese administration the eight uninhabited islets known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China, the Sino-Japanese dispute over their ownership had reached fever pitch. Nationalism was in full flight not only in Japan, but also in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. When the Harvard Club of Japan invited me to lecture on the controversy, mine was the only voice in the country, other than that of a Kyoto University... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1053936/how-asia-can-defuse-island-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1053936/how-asia-can-defuse-island-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Going to the Chinese mainland can be dangerous. First-time visitors are often surprised at their freedom, and seasoned travellers may feel comfortable, but foreigners do get detained by police for many reasons. When commercial dealings sour, businesspeople of Chinese descent, including those from Taiwan and Hong Kong, are especially at risk. To be sure, China has enacted laws to better protect the rights of criminal suspects. On January 1, a newly amended Criminal Procedure Law will go into... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1029515/taiwanese-mainland-remains-dangerous-place?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1029515/taiwanese-mainland-remains-dangerous-place?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 In 1998, Gu Kailai, already a successful lawyer married to then rising political star Bo Xilai, published a book about the American legal system. She praised the mainland's swift and certain death-penalty prosecutions of alleged murderers, in contrast to the lengthy, exhaustive scrutiny that capital prosecutions are subjected to in American courts. Gu undoubtedly never thought that she might become a world symbol for the failings of the country's criminal justice. Yet, her forthcoming trial in... https://www.scmp.com/article/1008214/rough-justice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1008214/rough-justice?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 In a global effort to attain 'soft power' matching its growing economic and military prowess, China spends huge sums operating Confucius Institutes at hundreds of foreign universities and internationalising its media outlets. The goal is to promote respect for its contemporary civilisation and thereby enhance the government's political influence and image. Yet the effects of these programmes - unlike similar efforts by democratic countries - are undermined by daily reports of not only the... https://www.scmp.com/article/1006006/scales-injustice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1006006/scales-injustice?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 As China's Communist Party elite prepare to select the country's leadership for the coming decade, to what extent does concern for the rule of law affect their deliberations? Will the successor to Zhou Yongkang , the Politburo Standing Committee member who controls the legal system, favour continuing lawless repression or seek to subject both party and government to the law on the books that is often ignored in practice? When the Bo Xilai scandal erupted, party leaders immediately promised the... https://www.scmp.com/article/1003121/crunch-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1003121/crunch-time?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Sino-American relations have long been plagued by unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that undermine needed efforts to develop mutual trust between the world's two most important countries. Yet events continue to spawn intriguing speculative possibilities, and who can resist spinning out seductive hypotheses to explain apparent riddles in the behaviour of either or both governments, especially when China's oppressive censorship exaggerates the role of rumours? The ongoing saga of the 'barefoot... https://www.scmp.com/article/1000475/flights-fancy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1000475/flights-fancy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 In China, as elsewhere, famous cases enhance popular understanding of the legal system. Just a year ago, when Beijing police detained noted Chinese artist Ai Weiwei incommunicado for 81 days, they exposed national and foreign audiences to their unlawful abuse of 'residential surveillance'. Now the Communist Party has subjected Bo Xilai, Chongqing's deposed party secretary, to the party disciplinary procedure of shuanggui (literally 'double designation'), bringing public attention to another... https://www.scmp.com/article/998513/big-squeeze?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/998513/big-squeeze?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000