Stanley Lubman responds to my post on "picking quarrels and provoking disturbances"

Yesterday I blogged about a column my friend and colleague Stanley Lubman had written on the charges against Pu Zhiqiang. Stanley has asked that I post his response, and I'm happy to do so. Here it is:

I appreciate Don Clarke’s comment on my recent column on “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble. ” He correctly points out that there is no such crime in the relevant Article 293 of the Chinese Criminal Code. But where, then, is the criminality of “picking quarrels” defined?

The language of Article 293 uses the term as a class of acts that are punishable and states four categories: attacking people, “chasing, intercepting, berating or intimidating others” under “heinous circumstances,” or causing disorder in a public place. Clearly a private discussion in a private apartment does not fall within any of those categories, and, as I noted, Daum refers to the interpretation by the SPC and SPP as having ”significantly clarified when this charge can be supported, [but] it doesn’t seem to have slowed police.”

In the context of other efforts under way to suppress publicly expressed views deemed by police or other authorities to threaten “social stability,” application in Pu’s case of “a very vaguely defined crime of ‘picking quarrels and provoking troubles” is what is occurring. Clarke and I agree that, as he stated, that the law is wildly stretched to apply to Pu, but, as he said, “the authorities are using it anyway.”

In sum, Clarke and I also agree that here we have “a problem of institutions, not of legislative drafting.” I thought that by discussing arbitrary use of power by the police that that was clear, and I thank Don for making that crystal-clear.