BEIJING — Li Dunyong, one of several lawyers involved in the defense of Uyghur house church Christian Alimjan Yimit, was effectively disbarred at the end of May when Chinese authorities turned down an annual application to renew his law license. Zhang Kai, another Beijing lawyer who had defended Alimjan, suffered the same fate.
Authorities failed to renew licenses for at least 15 other lawyers who had defended civil rights cases, religious and ethnic minorities and political dissidents, according to watch group Human Rights in China (HRIC). Officials harassed and physically abused several of the affected lawyers in the months prior to the loss of their licenses.
“The process of building a country ruled by law has suffered a serious setback,” HRIC said in a statement June 4.
The rejection of applications followed the Feb. 4 disappearance of Gao Zhisheng, a high-profile Christian human rights activist who once said that every human rights lawyer would eventually become a human rights case. Gao’s whereabouts remained unknown at press time.
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