Rachel E. Stern and Lawrence J. Liu. “State-Adjacent Professionals: How Chinese Lawyers Participate in Political Life.” The China Quarterly, vol. 247, (2021): 793–813.
This article challenges the common view that Chinese lawyers are either dissident activists or politically disengaged professionals by focusing on a third category: lawyers who work closely with the state while still engaging in governance. By analyzing recipients of the state-sanctioned Outstanding Lawyer Award, the article reveals how these lawyers play a political role by providing information to the state and promoting behaviors aligned with official priorities. These lawyers function as intermediaries between the state and society, helping the government maintain control while also pursuing their own visions of social improvement.
Although their proximity to political power grants them certain professional advantages, their participation is also shaped by personal motivations and structural inequalities that affect who can access such roles. The article highlights how lawyers can support authoritarian governance not only through repression or silence, but through active collaboration. This insight broadens our understanding of the legal profession’s role in backsliding democracies and invites comparative research on how other authoritarian regimes manage their relationships with professional classes.