Effectively disbarred

Li Subin is a lawyer from Henan who first ran afoul of authorities by suing Henan officials for arbitrarily collecting lawyer registration fees. His license was retaliatorily suspended; although he sued and won the right for reinstatement, he has been unable to force reissuance of his licence. As a result, Mr. Li now works as a legal administrator.

Li Subin, born in 1956, first practiced law in Luoyang, Henan Province. In 2001, Mr. Li brought suit against the local authorities for violating the law by arbitrarily collecting lawyer registration fees. In retaliation, his license to practice law was suspended; although he successfully sued the Luoyang and Henan Judicial departments, he was unable to force them to reissue his license.

In 2005, Mr. Li relocated to Beijing and joined the Yitong Law Firm as an administrator. While employed there, Mr. Li was involved with the defense of the blind, self-educated legal activist Chen Guangcheng. Mr. Chen, who exposed large-scale abuses by the family planning authorities in Linyi, Shangdong Provence, was charged under articles 275 and 291 of the Criminal Law, of “damaging public property” and “gathering people to block public traffic.”

On Oct. 4, 2005, Li Subin, lawyer Li Fangpin, and law lecturer Xu Zhiyong attempted to visit Mr. Chen, who was under house arrest. Over a dozen unidentified men attacked and seized the visitors, who were then taken to the Shuanghou police station. They were interrogated until the following morning, and then escorted back to Beijing.

On June 27, 2006, as Mr. Li Subin and lawyer Li Jinsong attempted to return to Shandong, a group of 20 men overturned their car and Li Jinsong was detained and interrogated overnight.

In March 2009, the Beijing Haidian District Judicial Bureau ordered the Yitong Law Firm shut down for six months on the grounds that it had violated the law in allowing Mr. Li Subin to practice without a license, although the founder of the firm protested that Mr. Li had never engaged in the practice of law.

In the wake of the announcement of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, Mr. Li has had his freedom to travel curtailed. On Oct. 30, 2010, Mr. Li was prevented from flying out of the Beijing Airport to spend two weeks in the United States, where he had been invited to observe the midterm elections and meet with congressmen, U.S. district court judges, and legal scholars, on the grounds that if he left China he could endanger state security. In late January and early February of 2011, Mr. Li was twice prevented from crossing from Shenzhen into Hong Kong, from where he hoped to fly to Washington D.C. to attend a human right conference, on grounds that he was a suspected criminal.

Last updated Feb. 28, 2011

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, Addendum, Situations in specific countries or territories, ¶78, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/11/41/Add.1 (May 19, 2009), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/11session/reports.htm.

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the on the situation of
human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, Addendum, Summary of cases transmitted to Governments and replies received, ¶656-60, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/10/12/Add.1 (March 4, 2009), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/10session/reports.htm.