The End of the Road for Guo Jianmei's Zhongze Women's Legal Counseling and Service Center?

The New York Times (see the text below) has reported that Guo Jianmei's Zhongze Women's Legal Counseling and Service Center (formerly the Beijing University Women's Law Studies and Legal Aid Center), has been ordered to close. It's not clear whether the law firm she established in 2009, Qianqian, will also close.

In March 2010, the center lost its Beijing University affiliation that it had enjoyed for more than 10 years. At that time, many people thought that her center was being closed down, but Jianmei just moved her office to a new location and re-registered the center under its current name, taking out any reference to Beijing University. It's unclear whether the center will have a life beyond Zhongze, and where Jianmei and her staff will go from here.

Here's the blog post I wrote back in 2010 that includes a long public statement by Jianmei and her staff about the center's work and accomplishments. They are worth reading again to understand why the closing of this center will be a loss for advocates of women's rights in China.

China Is Said to Force Closing of Women’s Legal Aid Center

Sinosphere

By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW JAN. 29, 2016

 

BEIJING — The Chinese authorities have ordered a leading women’s legal aid center in Beijing to shut down operations, the center’s founder said on Friday, another sign of a continuing crackdown on civil society.

As word spread of the closing of the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center, many women’s rights advocates expressed shock. The center was highly symbolic for having been born of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, a moment when China, struggling to be accepted internationally after the 1989 military suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square, loosened controls on civil society activities.

Employees at the center, which is led by Guo Jianmei, a charismatic lawyer, were huddled on Friday afternoon to discuss the order. “We have a lot of things to deal with,” Ms. Guo said.

No reason was given for the order. A notice on the center’s website read: “Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling Service Center (formerly the Center for Women’s Law Studies and Legal Services of Peking University) will take a rest from Feb. 1, 2016. Thank you everyone for your attention and constant support for the center in the past!”

Ms. Guo’s center was first set up in late 1995 at Peking University, her alma mater. Its name changed after the university shut it down in 2010 and Ms. Guo moved it to an apartment in north Beijing.

“It looks like they are trying to crush all people with any influence,” said a longtime women’s rights campaigner who requested anonymity while discussing a politically sensitive matter. “As far as well-known people go today, it’s ‘kill one and scare 100’ to make sure no one else tries to do anything. Controls on thought and speech are intensifying. The repression of lawyers and NGOs is growing.”

The move comes just four months after China showcased its achievements on women’s rights at festivities at the United Nations in New York honoring the 20th anniversary of the Beijing conference that were opened by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. His wife, Peng Liyuan, also attended the event, delivering a speech in English on women’s rights that attracted considerable attention.

 

Gender equality is official Chinese government policy. In September, the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued a white paper titled “Gender Equality and Women’s Development in China,” which highlighted the importance of “effectively mobilizing social resources” as part of “China’s national mechanism for promoting the status of women.”

The closing of the center signifies a tightening of the restrictions on civil society because its work helping women in domestic violence, child custody, land rights and employment disputes had long been tolerated by the government, said Maya Wang, a researcher on China with the advocacy group Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.

“That it is possible for her to be a target for closure is a significant indication of the government’s crackdown on civil society,” Ms. Wang said.

“She’s not a lawyer in a law firm that was taking very sensitive cases,” Ms. Wang said, referring to a crackdown on the legal profession that has led to the detention of about 250 lawyers, legal workers and activists since last summer.