The reality of attempting to defend human rights in China

Zhu Shengwu. Credit: China Change

Zhu Shengwu. Credit: China Change

This sad tale reported by China Change (link here) offers vivid insight into the reality of attempting to defend human rights in China. The story of young lawyer Zhu Shengwu, who started as a commercial lawyer but whose exposure to injustice led him to professional suicide, is really the story of two other lawyers as well. It is good to know that the famous defender Pu Zhiqiang, despite disbarment and living under the coercion of a three-year suspended prison sentence, still manages to be heard from on occasion in his own clever way. And his recollection of Su Bo, the idealistic human rights firebrand of Peking University law students in the heady days before June 4 who is now an instrument of oppression as head of the local Lawyers Association, makes one want to cry and cry out.