Chinese Lawyers Debated on Whether the Xiaohe Case Demonstrated that “Positive Force Exists within the Legal System”

• Author: China Law Digest

The Guiyang “Xiaohe Case” finally reached a verdict on July 23 after tens of lawyers from around the country “defended to death” for defendants and after a 33-day trial at the lower court with direct broadcasts in micro-blog and blogs. After learning that the second defendant Li Chonggang was found not guilty and released, Chen Youxi, a lawyer from Zhejiang who defended the former, published an article on the same day suggesting that through the Xiaohe case, one should discover and have more understanding on the “positive force that exists within the system”.

He said that, throughout the trial, the highest level of the Chinese Internet control authority had never intervened but had instead left the case as it was. They even allowed the trial to be broadcasted in the Internet. Besides, lawyers who were previously expelled out of Guizhou Province were summoned back for the case. All of these proved that some kind of positive and healthy force does exist in the legal system.

To the contrary, Si Weijiang, a lawyer from Shanghai who represented the third...