Exclusive Interview with Ren Quanniu, the mainland Chinese lawyer representing the twelve Hong Kong youths inside the high wall, “My law license has received its well deserved honour.”

Ren Quanniu has been a civil rights lawyer for 7 years. His appointees include members of Falun Gong, Zhao Wei, a legal assistant arrested in the 709 crackdown and Zhen Jianghua, a human rights activist accused of inciting subversion of state power. Ren continued his work despite being arrested by police and his wife being beaten up. However, Ren never thought the case of the twelve Hong Kong youths would become the end of his career.

Last year, the day after verdict of the case was given, Ren was informed that the Henan Province judiciary planned to cancel his law license. Ren appealed and the hearing was supposed to be held on 19 Jan 2021 and it was postponed. He was not optimistic about the hearing after comparing his case with that of Lu Siwei, another human right lawyer also defending for the twelve Hong Kong youths and his license was also cancelled.

Ren was worried that his disqualification would would discourage civil rights lawyers in the future from taking up cases of Hongkongers being sent to mainland China for legal process. “I can’t say for sure. But my feeling is 80% of them could not appoint a defending lawyer. Even if they do manage to appoint one, the lawyer would be too scared to speak much, just like those official appointed lawyers. This might be the plan from the government that no lawyer would dare to take up cases in the future when the government use the National Security Law to arrest Hongkongers. 

From Ren’s perspective, the case of the twelve Hong Kong youths was supposed to be simply a case of illegal entry. However, the intervention from government was unexpectedly strong. “The case was managed by a local police station and detention centre. Superficially, it looks like a small case.” However, in the last few months, Ren received immense pressure and had multiple interviews from officials. Half of the lawyers withdrew. He speculated that “my disqualification might not come from the provincial government, but from Beijing. It might not be from the judiciary, but from higher up. They gave the orders to the judiciary to execute.” 

Regarding his disqualification, he responded calmly with a smile. Most cases for civil rights ended up biased towards those in power. Ren said he could not say he had helped much over the years. But he felt privileged to have walked with the disadvantaged in the society. “I think as a lawyer, under a ever worsening environment, I can only do my best. My law license has already received its well deserved honour. I will just change my way of living.”

Meeting the truth

Ren is 40 years old this year. He has a thick black beard, appearing like a tough guy.  When he talked about his cases and legal processes, he could go on and on. He could not help but to clarify unreasonable or false information. But he was humble and shy when he was asked about how he ended up fighting for civil rights for those suppressed by those in power. 

He never thought of choosing this career when he was young. After graduating from high school, Ren studied law for 2 years in a private university. He thought he would start practising after passing the licensing examination. But the change in regulation in 2002 meant that he needed to complete a university degree in order to take the examination. Ren studied part time and it took him almost 10 years to finally qualify.

In his 20s, Ren worked as a freelance salesman with a dream of being a lawyer so he could take more cases in order to improve his quality of life. “I didn’t know much about a lot of things at that time. I didn’t know what human rights or universal values were. I was just an ordinary person grew up under the established system.” At the beginning of his career, his cases were mainly commercial and civil.

The burden of HIV infection among poor farmers is heavy in Henan province, where Ren grew up and practised.

In 2013, he took up a case and represented a few aids patients who were arrested related to their medical reimbursement. This marked the beginning of his connection with the disadvantaged as lawyer. In the same year, the Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Team was established and they publicly recruited lawyers who were willing to take up cases to fight for basic civil rights. The team recruited over a hundred lawyers very quickly.  Upon the  invitation of his friend, Ren joined thinking “it should not be anything bad”.

In the next year, he represented Falun Gong members for their “religious case”. 

“Since then, my mind was opened. A lot of my pre-existing wrong understandings and concepts were corrected.” He witnessed that once people were found out to practise Falun Gong, they would be fired. Some even lost their pensions. Lives became struggles for them. People who dared to speak out the truth were arrested as well. “The actions of the bullies were on a different level with the usual con men.”

More and more victims of forced demolition and relocation and vaccine complication gradually came to him. They were helpless people who had lost their homes, health or families. “I can’t really comment on what I did over the years... But these people in the lower class of the society were real humans with flesh. Their moral values were high. I have a moral duty to help them as a lawyer.”

Short limited time to serve

To Ren personally, helping them was essential in the pursuit of the meaning of life. “Managing such cases has helped me find the value and feel the presence of a lawyer. In such dark times, I might not able to change much. People would still appreciate if someone try to pursue justice for them. When you manage commercial or civil cases, even if you do well, people do not give you high or positive regards. It is because it is all about benefits.”

In the old days, the Chinese government control on the civil society was lenient. Although the pioneers of civil rights, such as Gao Zhisheng, Li Heping, were persecuted or arrested, there was still room for NGOs and civil right movements. The number of civil right lawyers grew to 300. Ren described the atmosphere of the civil society in mainland China as “explosive”. “The courage was found and the fear disappeared.”

On 9 Jul 2015, the Chinese Communist Party carried out a major crackdown on civil rights lawyers and civil movement organisers. They arrested more than 300 people. Ren was the defence lawyer in the Zhao Wei case. 

Zhao was 24 when she was arrested in the 709 crackdown. She was the legal assistant for Li Heping. She disappeared for months and was charged for inciting subversion of state power. During the whole time Ren could not meet Zhao. Rumour had it that Zhao was sexual assaulted in the Tianjin detention centre. Ren would like to clarify this rumour by sharing this information at Weibo. He was then arrested for disturbing the peace.  His wife was beaten up and his family was forcedly relocated. Ren was released on bail only after writing a letter apology.

After the 709 crackdown, the judiciary revised the law firm management regulation and law license management regulation to strengthen their surveillance and control on lawyers. The rooms for civil rights lawyers and civil right movements were greatly reduced. “Although I persevered, the whole atmosphere cooled down.”

Suppression from senior officials

In early Sep 2020, a lawyer from Hong Kong contacted Ren to represent Wong Wai Yin, one of the defendants in the case of the twelve Hong Kong youths. Ren thought it was quite “new and interesting” to him as he seldom got involved in cases of illegal border crossing in mainland China. He also thought it should be “simple and straightforward”.  “A few Hongkongers attempted to leave Hong Kong illegally and went through the China maritime boundary and subsequently were arrested. Whatever crime they had committed in Hong Kong, It could only be a case of illegal border crossing in mainland China. It is a simple charge.”

At that point, the government had not yet related the matters to the independence of Hong Kong or national security. Although the other defendants of the case also appointed civil rights lawyers, Ren never thought it would become a highly politically sensitive case. “It is normal for people outside mainland China to come to us as they might know of us human rights lawyers through news. In contrast, it is normal for people in mainland China not to have heard of us because the media would not talk about us. Our circle has limited influence.”

On 7 Sep 2020, the visit to his appointee in Yantian detention centre was not allowed. When media exposed the case, the pressure came. “Our local lawyer association, the national security department and the lawyer management department of the judiciary called me. They were serious. They asked him to withdraw from the case. They said it was an order from high up, maybe Beijing. As soon as this pressure from high up came, he sensed that this is not a simple case of illegal border crossing.” This kind of pressure happened at least five times and among those two or three times were physical meetings. 

After failing the first time in meeting his client, Yantian detention centre asked the family appointed lawyers to go through a “public confirmation” process to prove that they were appointed by the families. In the past, cases involving Hongkongers did not have such requirement. But the officials insisted and the family was very keen to urgently know the condition of the defendant. So Ren went through the process and visited again on 18 September 2020. His visit was denied once again. The detention centre even told him that Wong had already appointed two lawyers. “Of course I did not believe it.” Ren said using official appointed lawyer to prevent the genuinely appointed lawyer from meeting his/ her client had happened for a few years in civil rights cases. “It is absurd. But they are the authority. If they don’t acknowledge you as the appointed lawyer, you just can’t get in.”

After this, he kept communicating with the Wong’s family on communication app. “Sometimes it was late and they still talked to me. They really trust me. I couldn’t help but to stay involved.”

Although he couldn’t really do much practically speaking, Ren thought he could at least provide some legal opinion and information on legal proceedings. He hoped he could support and comfort the family.

Digging out old issues

The notice regarding cancellation of his license was sent out on 31 December 2020 which was the day after the case of the twelve Hong Kong youths was closed. However, the notice was about a case in November 2018 in which he represented a Falun Gong. The notice stated that his behaviour on court breached the law license management regulation. “The details and the nature of his actions were terrible and seriously defame the profession. It had bad influence on the society.” 

He felt this case was just an excuse to disqualify him. There was no inappropriateness in his speech on the court. He did question the official definition of Falun Gong as cult from a legal point of view using legal provisions. However, he only put that argument in the document submitted after the court was heard. It had nothing to do with his “behaviour in the court”. In addition, similar cases in the past only resulted in suspension of license for 6 to 12 months. 

What obvious about this being an excuse was that two years on from the case, no punishment was mentioned and suddenly this notice came up. Ren recalled that when he was working on the case of the twelve Hong Kong youths, those who warned him to withdraw did mention if he continued, “your license might be cancelled.” “I didn’t think it was serious at the time. I thought it was just a bluff.” Then, once the case ended, he received the notice. And Lu Siwei also received the same notice a few days later.

When Ren was working on this case, he was also working on the case of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan who was accused of disturbing the peace for reporting on the Wuhan Pneumonia. The case was concluded on 28 December 2020 and Zhang was sentenced to a 4 year imprisonment. Ren believed this case was also contributing to his disqualification. But he was sure that it had nothing to do with the Falun Gong case 2 years ago. 

“Having no understanding and knowledge of truth is horrible.”

Ren had not given up on truth and reasoning. Last week he went to the Bazhou District People’s court in Bazhong, Sichuan, where the Falun Gong case was heard, to see Pu Shengyuan, the judge who heard the case. Pu confirmed in the meeting that Ren did not have any inappropriate behaviour in the court and needed no punishment. But the video recording of the court hearing could only be accessed by the hearing department and could not be accessed by Ren. Ren therefore made a request to the Henan provincial judiciary to postpone his hearing as well as obtaining the video footage and Pu’s testimony. 

Yesterday, the judiciary postponed his case with pandemic control as the reason. But Ren felt it was to do with his multiple and open appeals. “They want to use this case to punish me. From a factual point of view, it cannot make a case. Postponement allows them to collect more evidence and time against me. This might be the reason.”

But whether his disqualification case would take a turn or not Ren felt “it was difficult to judge”. It was because the judiciary wanted to use Lu and his case to warn the whole profession against representing Hongkongers in extradition case rather than the two of them really breaching any law. He said frankly speaking, the list of the civil rights lawyer was still long. But “not a lot of them continued to work on civil rights after the suppression and pressure over all these years. Not many of them dared to speak up or allowed interview.”

Hongkongers were deeply regret that Ren and Lu got suppressed for taking up the case of the twelve Hong Kong youths. Ren felt feeling angry would not help. It was more important to realise that “the officials would not easily change their incorrect beliefs and harmful policies and systems.”

He believed Hongkongers would face more and more difficulties in the future. In order to continue to do the right thing under authoritarianism, it was paramount importance to hold correct understanding of the truths. “If citizens in mainland China have half of the understanding of Hongkongers, the legal system, judiciary environment and society might be totally different. Having no understanding of facts and truths is terrible.” He saw that under the influence of the state propaganda, a lot of people in mainland believed that most Hongkongers are “rioters” who wanted session or independence of Hong Kong. Therefore, they supported the state to suppress fiercely. “False information and false understanding led to support of a wrong decision.”

Regarding his own future, Ren said he had not thought about it seriously yet. “I will think about it after the new year. I personally have no great pursuit financially. I have not bought a house either.” Over the years, he took up mostly civil rights cases and could not have made much money anyway. He believed even if he had to change his career, it would be difficult for him to earn less. “Many mainland lawyers were rid of their licenses. Aren’t they well off, right? My wife has an open mind so I am comforted.” He ended with a smile.

Source：Standnews #Jan19

#Interview #RenQuanniu #Lawyer #Honour #Save12 #Save12HKYouths

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