BEIJING 14 Nov (ANA) - Once a staunch defender of rights activists in court, Liu Zhengqing has sunk into a depression since being barred by Chinese authorities in January.

 

"I have been unemployed at home," the 55-year-old told AFP, adding that it is especially hard to find work given his age.

 

"I am totally dependent on savings."

 

Liu is one of at least a dozen Chinese rights lawyers to have their licenses cancelled or revoked since 2018 in what activists say is an effective way for authorities to silence them without attracting as much attention as an arrest.

 

"The ongoing disbarment continues to serve as an effective tactic by the Chinese government to further diminish the space for human rights advocacy," said Yaqiu Wang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.

 

"Disbarment is to deprive the livelihood of human rights lawyers and their families," she told AFP.

 

In China, authorities can revoke a lawyer's license to punish behaviour such as bribing judges, but also ambiguous offenses such as "seriously disrupting court order".

 

A license can also be cancelled if they do not practise in a six month period -- which is not uncommon for rights lawyers who have been detained or arrested.

 

The growing number of disbarred rights lawyers follows one of the largest clampdowns on China's legal profession in the country's recent history.

 

A police sweep launched on July 9, 2015 saw more than 200 Chinese human rights lawyers and activists detained or questioned in a huge operation -- later dubbed the "709 crackdown" -- that rights groups called "unprecedented."

 

But Chinese authorities have changed their approach since then, noted Xie Yang, a human rights lawyer who says he was tortured in police custody during his detention in that crackdown.

 

Instead of detaining lawyers, "they will just revoke your license", he told AFP.

 

It's an effective method, he added. "A lot of people do not dare speak up."

 

Widespread disbarment over the past two years has been "an even better deterrent than arresting lawyers", agreed Sui Muqing, another Chinese lawyer who was detained during the "709 crackdown".

 

While most lawyers do not see themselves at risk of arrest, he said, disbarment is something that every lawyer could face.(ANA)

FA/ANA/14 November 2019-------