China slams human rights lawyers as rabble-rousers

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BEIJING — China’s state media on Tuesday accused more than two dozen human rights attorneys rounded up in recent days of being troublemakers intent on illegal activism as foreign governments and rights groups expressed growing concern over the arrests.

In its latest tally late Monday, the human rights watchdog Amnesty International said 25 human rights lawyers and civil activists had been detained or were missing in the crackdown since last Thursday.

Dozens more have been warned not to speak up or act on behalf of those detained.

The crackdown appears to target lawyers who have criticized China’s Communist Party-controlled legal system and used social media to voice their opinions.

The U.S. state department condemned the detentions and in a statement called for the release of what it called lawyers “seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens.”

China’s nationalist newspaper Global Times responded Tuesday by calling the U.S. criticism uncomfortable but inconsequential – like having “chewing gum stuck to your shoe” – and said it was up to Chinese courts to decide whether the lawyers acted illegally.

Other state media reports depicted the lawyers as a group of self-promoters intent on spreading rumors and arranging protests outside court venues. The official state Xinhua news agency said lawyers should uphold the law, not engage in “rabble-rousing” and “mob rule.”

Many of the detained lawyers belong to Beijing law firm Fengrui, which has defended many human rights activists and practitioners of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong.

Other detainees have defended dissident artist Ai Weiwei and Uighur (WEE-gur) scholar Ilham Tohti.

Uighers are a Muslim minority community in China’s for western region of Xinjiang.

The Public Security Ministry accused the lawyers of disrupting public order, seeking illegal profits, illegally hiring protesters and trying to unfairly influence the courts, Xinhua said, saying there have been more than 40 such controversial incidents since July 2012.

It was unclear what prompted last week’s crackdown, however, because some of the incidents cited in state media have long been publicly known.