Hualing Fu. “The July 9th (709) Crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers: Legal Advocacy in an Authoritarian State.” Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 27, no. 112 (2018): 554-568.
This article examines the 2015 crackdown on human rights lawyers in China, situating it within the broader political context of increasing authoritarian control. It analyzes the emergence and development of three distinct groups of human rights lawyers since 2011: the weiquan (rights protection) lawyers, the sike (die-hard) lawyers, and the gongyi (public interest) lawyers. The study explores how these groups interact and collectively challenge authoritarian governance despite severe repression. Finally, the article outlines three possible future trajectories for human rights lawyering in China, highlighting the precarious and evolving role of legal professionals in resisting political constraints within backsliding democracies.