Rivals walk legal tightrope to expand freedoms in China
By Joseph Kahn
February 25, 2007

BEIJING: Li Jinsong and Li Jianqiang are Chinese trial lawyers who take on difficult political cases, tangle with the police and seek solace in the same religion, Christianity.

But like many who devote themselves to expanding freedoms and the rule of law in China, the two of them spend as much time clashing over tactics and principles as they do challenging the ruling Communist Party.

The two lawyers are part of a momentous struggle over the rule of law in China. Young, well-educated and idealistic, they and other members of the so-called weiquan, or rights defense, movement, aim to use the laws and courts that the Communist Party has put in place as part of its modernization drive to constrain its own power.

The informal network of rights defenders may be the only visible force for political openness and change in China at a time when the surging economy and the country's rapidly expanding global influence have otherwise strengthened party leaders. The authorities have refrained from suppressing it entirely, at least partly because it operates carefully within the law and uses China's judicial system, as well as the news media, to advance its aims. the rest