If You Really Want Control Lock up Their Lawyers The Story of Guo Guoting
   
   
   Nothing exemplifies the Chinese Communist Party's quintissential attitude toward justice more than how they treated China's first human rights attorney, Guo Guoting. He defended political dissidents and prisoners of conscience and criticized the CCP's crimes against the Tiananmen Democracy Movement and Falun Gong. As a result the CCP sought revenge against him, eventually forcing him to escape to Canada. This is his story in his own words.
   

   
   After I graduated from Jilin University in 1984, I practiced as a maritime lawyer for 20 years. I learned that so many young, talented people had been arrested and sentenced to prison only for being outspoken; so in January 2003, I started to draft and publish essays on the Internet, expressing my personal viewpoint on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) policies, judicial system and the rule of law. In June 2003, when I was defending Mr. Zheng Enchong, I became a Chinese human rights lawyer.
   
   
   I defended political dissidents, cyber writers and journalists and have been the defense lawyer of political prisoners of conscience, such as Mr. Huang Junqiu, Mr. Yang Tianshui, Mr. Shi Tao, and Mr. Zhang Lin; residents who were forcefully evicted from their homes, such as Ms. Ma Yalian and Ms. Wang Shuizheng; and Falun Gong practitioners, such as Mr. Qi Yanlai, Mr. Chen Guanghui, and Mr. Lei Jiangtao.
   
   
   As a result, the Chinese government harassed me and sought revenge against me. On February 23, 2005, the Shanghai Judicial Bureau suspended my license to practice law and took away my computer. Even worse, the Chinese police searched my home and my office again on March 6, 2005; they detained me and seized all files regarding political cases, Falun gong, forced eviction victims and other matters. They released me on bail, and put me under house arrest under extremely strict surveillance until May 20, 2005, when I was on board an airline headed for Canada. They seized my mobile phone, cut off my home phone and constantly harassed my family. This is the real story of the first declared Chinese Human Right lawyer in China. This is my story:
   
   
   
   My speech and action mainly focused on fighting for freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of the press; fighting against the party’s extreme dictatorship; calling for a genuine judicial system; accusing the Communist Party of its crimes committed at the Tiananmen Square Student Democracy Movement, as well the crimes committed against the Falun Gong’s spiritual movement.
   
   
   I wrote in my book, My 20 Year Career as a Lawyer, that freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of press are very crucial to any country, and expressed my determination to fright for freedom of speech in China for the rest of my life.
   
   
   I came out openly against one party rule and the party’s and Hu Jintao’s extreme power. I openly expressed that I had no love for the party, that its end would come soon, that it is the worst political system in history and the biggest enemy of the Chinese people. The corruption within the party is utterly out of control. It is the party’s job to rectify its own mistakes.
   I appealed to other human rights lawyers. I published a defense statement on the Internet and I requested that judges avoid even the appearance of suspicion. I intended to represent people’s consciences.
   
   
   I criticized the policy at the Tiananmen student’s massacre. The students only wanted freedom of speech and democracy, and fought against government corruption. The CCP, in turn, quashed the movement with tanks and guns. I believe that those leaders who delivered the massacre order should make a public apology. Freedom of relligion is protected by the Chinese Constitution, so the CCP's oppression of Falun Gong has not legal basis. Instead, the CCP has actually boken the law, which should be stopped immediately.