Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, September 25, 2012

The success of the iPhone and similar products means competition among companies like Apple and Samsung, both of which rely heavily on Chinese factory supply chains, is likely to increase. This increase in competition, in turn, will crank up pressures in factories whose workers are already struggling under harsh conditions.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2012

Public debate is growing in China over the country’s decades-old practice of sending alleged troublemakers to labor camps for years at a time without formal arrest or trial. The fact that the system, known as “re-education through labor” (laojiao, or RETL), is being debated openly in China has been portrayed in some quarters as evidence of the increasing power of public opinion to bolster rule of law in the country. But is there any evidence of substantive reform?

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, August 24, 2012

Counterfeit goods and scams are used to defraud millions of Chinese daily. This week alone, the country’s state media have reported the arrests of two men for fraud: one a high-profile real estate financier suspected of manipulating bids, the other a sales manager at milk producer Mengniu who reportedly tampered with production dates on milk and yogurt labels.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2012

On July 23rd in Guizhou province, lawyers obtained a partial victory for some of the defendants accused of involvement in organized crime. Not all the accused were as fortunate…. This case shows Chinese criminal procedure at its worst. It exposes extensive cooperation between police and court officials in violating Chinese procedural law to obtain convictions in a case brought during a nation-wide campaign with strong political overtones.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2012

The Shifang protests…. may augur both a growing public anger over environmental degradation and a rise of political activism among China’s younger generation—trends that could lead in turn to an increase in legal challenges to the arbitrary behavior of local governments.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2012

Two recent incidents involving officials’ violence against women call attention to the violation of citizens’ rights by local governments and the weakness of remedies for citizens under Chinese law. Both cases also dramatize the harshness of the one-child policy and the abortions that are often ordered by local governments.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2012

In theory, CCP members who commit crimes will be turned over to the procuracy or police and the courts for criminal prosecution after initially being punished internally by the party’s own Commissions for Discipline Inspection. In practice, this happens in only a small minority of cases, and Party officials have the final say over the courts’ dispositions of those cases—a stark illustration of the Party’s influence over the criminal justice system.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Realtime Report, May 14, 2012

The illegal harassment of Chen Guangcheng and the reign of Bo Xilai in Chongqing each in their own way signal the fundamental weakness of Chinese law and the extent to which it serves as a tool to maintain the Party’s control of Chinese society.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Realtime Report, April 26, 2012

While the Wukan rebellion was seen by some as an encouraging symbol of protest, it may ultimately be remembered as a failure…. several hundred villagers in Zhejiang province protested uncompensated land seizures for a month, leading to three arrests. Earlier this month, rural residents in south-western Yunnan province were arrested after protesting land grabs.

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, China Realtime Report, April 12, 2012

The problems largely stem from Bo’s “smash the black” campaign, a furious effort to crackdown on corruption and organized crime carried about by former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun that, by all accounts, involved misuse of both the courts and the police.