I’ve just spent the bulk of the morning reading about Xu Zhiyong, about Public Interest and Human Rights Law in China and I must say that this case throws another ‘wrench’ into the analysis of current trends in China that I try to provide. As I wrote in the last blog post, I think that these cases give us more questions than answers in the Chinese governments attempt to maintain control in China.

For those of you not familiar with Xu, here’s a quote from the New York Times about Xu:

Xu Zhiyong, 36, a soft-spoken and politically shrewd legal scholar who has made a name representing migrant workers, death row inmates and the parents of babies poisoned by tainted milk, is accused of tax evasion. The

Public Interest Lawyer Xu Zhiyong

accusation is almost universally seen here as a cover for his true offense: angering the Communist Party leadership through his advocacy of the rule of law.

By every account, Xu is a good guy, a great lawyer, and a man who has tried deliberately not to make statements that would be deemed offensive to the Chinese government. His sole mission has been Public Interest Law and upholding the current Chinese Constitution. In fact, as the co-founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, has been to take the current Chinese constitution and use it to fight for the rights of those less represented and work within the current Chinese legal system. Apparently, he crossed a line that the Chinese government felt was too far. In late July, the Beijing tax bureau closed down the Open Constitution Initiative’s office for the charge of tax evasion. Xu was scheduled to meet with tax bureau officials on July 30, the day after he was detained.

My analysis of this situation goes in several different directions. Of course, if his law office did not pay its taxes, there are penalties for that anywhere around the world. In fact, a quick internet search told me that in the U.S., tax evasion is a felony and a conviction can carry a prison sentence of up to five years and/or fines up to $100,000. So it’s not like we have reason to get on the Chinese government’s case for upholding their own laws, if in fact they are guilty of the crimes charged. They have every right to uphold their own laws. I would though take a bit of umbrage as to their tactics. Even if they are guilty, going to the offenders’ home and essentially abducting them and then detaining them at an undisclosed location is an inappropriate method.

And then we get into answering the questions, “What if he isn’t guilty of tax evasion? What if he just pushed the wrong buttons in his recent work with secret ‘black jails’ in Beijing and the reduction of death penalty cases?” Of course, the answers to these questions are far more troubling. I sense that in taking our investigation down some of these roads, two things will end up happening. Regardless of whether they are guilty of tax evasion or not, there certainly is some truth that they just rubbed the wrong people in the wrong ways, which opens up one of the greatest weaknesses of the National Government in China. It’s like there’s this huge gaping wound that isn’t healing and when someone like Xu touches the wound, those with the wound react in a defensive manner, just to cover up the wound. From blocking internet sites, controlling foreign journalists to prohibiting the development of rule of law, there’s a lot of room for China to grow. It also leaves me asking the questions of ‘How is it that we in the West can help China in this situation? And if we can help, will they even be open to our help?’ I love China and the Chinese people and I don’t want to see them deal with these gaping wounds any more. I want to see it healed. Don’t you?

P.S. For a wonderful, first-hand account of Xu, click here.