Many Laws, Little Justice in China
Since 1978, China has recreated its legal system from scratch, with the authorities hailing recently enacted protections for private property as a major step forward in enshrining the rule of law. Behind the rhetoric, however, ordinary Chinese remain at the mercy of arbitrary local governments, while lawyers who attempt to help them gain access to justice face professional retaliation and sometimes physical assault.
The image on the computer screen is shocking: a man, lying on a hospital bed, his head bandaged, with long trickles of blood running from the top of his scalp. The man, now sitting next to me, explains with a bit of understatement, “Of course I must continue to have faith in the Chinese legal system, although I must admit that this incident has somewhat dampened my optimism.”