China Cuts Off Access Of Lawyers to Leading Human Rights Advocate

The Chinese government has cut off access of lawyers to leading human rights advocate, Liu Xianbin, 42. He was charged in June for subversion for “incitement to subvert state power” for his articles that included his reflections on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the arrest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

China jailed Liu Xiaobo for 11 years as part of its longstanding crackdown on free speech and dissent.

Of course, the United States once had the moral high ground to denounce such abuses until the Bush Administration denied detainees access to lawyers and held them indefinitely without trial.
Former Bush officials like Georgetown Professor Viet Dinh and California law professor John Yoo insisted that detainees could be denied access to the courts and counsel. After returning to academic, Dinh suggested that a few more rights might be acceptable.

The Obama Administration has further diminished our ability to criticize China by announcing its support for indefinite detention and its cover up of the Bush torture program.

Source: Reuters