a lawyer who has never won any cases

[Randy W]

A fascinating little piece of recent Chinese history from the Global Times

 

Always on the losing side

 

Some call him a lawyer who has never won any cases. In his pursuit of justice from the late 1970s, he primarily handled cases involving those who were accused of leaking State secrets or attempting to overthrow the government and major government-sanctioned cases in which the defendants were almost already considered "State enemies."

 

. . .

 

Zhang was 53 during the trial of the top counter-revolutionaries, his first case after the Cultural Revolution. It was just after he had returned to the legal scene, following a 15-year stint at a labor camp and seven years as a high school teacher.

 

. . .

 

Although Zhang was "always on the losing side," he earned the respect of many people in the legal arena as "a lawyer for human rights," who praised him for encouraging fellow lawyers not to fear taking on "politically sensitive" defendants.

But that doesn't mean everyone has been on his side. Beijing-based political commentator Yi Chen told the Global Times that Zhang grew too comfortable relying on his past glory days, which has led him to an overly pessimistic view on the influence of politics within China's judicial system.

But Zhang says that despite what others think, he only wants the country to be the legally best that it can.

"I'm not saying that rule of law is not making progress in China," he said. "But our lawyers, and especially our young ones, need to push forward even more and take every case seriously by following the law regardless of the politics involved."

 

This from a country whose lawyers major in 'Politics and Law'.