Pu Zhinqiang, one of China's most prominent human rights lawyers, has been banned from practising law after being found guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".
Mr Pu had previously represented Ai Wei Wei and a number of dissidents, and had recently criticised the government for its violent crackdown on Uighurs. The government's reaction was to bang him up without trial for 19 months in the Beijing Number One Detention Centre. Which sounds like a pastiche of a movie with Maggie Smith and Judie Dench.
Mr Pu was given a three-year suspended sentence just before Christmas. For picking quarrels. Seriously. Has China gone back to the middle ages? Are they going to parade him round the street in a scold's bridle? Has Beijing ordered a consignment of ducking stools? Apparently the charge is used to silence anyone to whom the Communist Party takes a dislike. Last year this included a group of women who were protesting against being groped on public transport.
The conviction means that Mr Pu can no longer represent his clients. It sends a clear message that not only will the government go after dissidents, it will also go after their lawyers.
I'm not quite sure where this leaves the likes of Dentons and KWM, firms which employ thousands of Chinese lawyers, all of whom have to swear allegiance to the Communist Party. And in a week when trading was suspended because of the collapse in the Chinese stock market, and the country's chubby, boiler-suited neighbour announced he had tested an H-bomb, you'd think the government would have bigger problems on its hands than one principled lawyer.
Mr Pu had previously represented Ai Wei Wei and a number of dissidents, and had recently criticised the government for its violent crackdown on Uighurs. The government's reaction was to bang him up without trial for 19 months in the Beijing Number One Detention Centre. Which sounds like a pastiche of a movie with Maggie Smith and Judie Dench.
Mr Pu was given a three-year suspended sentence just before Christmas. For picking quarrels. Seriously. Has China gone back to the middle ages? Are they going to parade him round the street in a scold's bridle? Has Beijing ordered a consignment of ducking stools? Apparently the charge is used to silence anyone to whom the Communist Party takes a dislike. Last year this included a group of women who were protesting against being groped on public transport.
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The conviction means that Mr Pu can no longer represent his clients. It sends a clear message that not only will the government go after dissidents, it will also go after their lawyers.
I'm not quite sure where this leaves the likes of Dentons and KWM, firms which employ thousands of Chinese lawyers, all of whom have to swear allegiance to the Communist Party. And in a week when trading was suspended because of the collapse in the Chinese stock market, and the country's chubby, boiler-suited neighbour announced he had tested an H-bomb, you'd think the government would have bigger problems on its hands than one principled lawyer.
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