On Tuesday, Chinese authorities in Beijing closed Zhongze Women's Legal Counseling and Service, surprising many of the country's legal right advocates. State media reported that the center was shut down because it took away money from foreign donors.
The Beijing officials closed the Zhongze Women's Legal Counseling and Service, which represented low-income Chinese free of charge from several services. According to Global Times, a lawyer residing in Beijing said that her legal aid center specializing in women's right was closed by police officers. She added that it might be due to suspected ties to overseas funds. Meanwhile, US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who attended the conference wrote on Twitter: "True in Beijing in 1995, true today: Women's rights are human rights. This center should remain-I stand with Guo."
In 1995, Zhongze was instituted and was formerly attached to the Peking University. The center had been receiving funds from the Ford Foundation since it was founded. In 2010, The Time Weekly reported that the Zhongze receives over 1 million yuan or $152,000 every year.
China's ruling Communist party has reaffirmed controls over the society under President Xi Jinping. Asian Times reported last month that a Swedish human right activist who helped Chinese lawyers was detained and expelled. There are currently 130 human right lawyers and legal staff detained in China in the past year. New York Times reported that the closing of the center signaled a tightening of the restrictions on civil society because its work in helping domestic violence against women, land rights, and employment disputes, and child custody had long been tolerated by the government.
Lawyer Guo Jianmei founded Zhongze Women's Legal Counseling and Service after a high-profile United Nations conference on women held in Beijing back in 1995. The Center posted on their website that they were thankful to the people who supported them and gave no further explanation.
