article: The crackdown has targeted those who take on cases involving free speech, human rights and abuses of power, presenting many of them as motivated by greed and a reckless disregard for social order. A statement from the Ministry of Public Security said suspects included lawyers, social media celebrities and petitioners but that lawyers were the core. It accused a group led by the Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm, of illegally hiring protesters and swaying court decisions in the name of "defending justice and public interests." It went on to accuse the group of organising more than 40 controversial incidents and severely disrupting public order. It gave an example in which it had allegedly presented a legitimate police shooting at a railway station as a murder conspiracy. Since last Thursday at least six lawyers have been detained and more than 50 taken in for questioning by police in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. It is not clear how many are still in custody. Some of those questioned had signed a letter asking authorities to release Wang Yu, a human rights lawyer who vanished from her home last week and is now believed to be in detention. Ms Wang worked for the Fengrui law firm. Another Fengrui lawyer, Zhou Shifeng, disappeared the day after one of his clients was released last week. State media have confirmed that six people including Wang Yu and Zhou Shifeng are in criminal detention for "seriously violating the law". The People's Daily said Mr Zhou was suspected of serious crimes. It also attacked another employee of the firm, online activist Wu Gan, saying he had exploited his fame and exaggerated sensitive incidents for profit. Mr Wu has been in detention since May and earlier this month was charged with "inciting subversion". The People's Daily denounced what it called a "major criminal organisation" which "seriously disturbed social order". Last year saw reforms designed to make courts less corrupt and less embedded in local politics. There were promises to exclude tainted evidence, torture and coercion. But at the same time, President Xi said the rule of law would be "a knife whose handle was in the hands of the party and the people". Any campaign to promote the rule of law which thinks lawyers are part of the problem rather the solution is in trouble. But this is the direction of travel in China. Groups that cannot be co-opted become pariahs. And lawyers who assert a set of values outside the narrowing space allotted to them by the state are no exception. There would be no constitutionalism, judicial independence or separation of powers. And clearly no lawyers or law firms who put their client's interests ahead of those of the party. "Such an unprecedented nationwide crackdown can only have been sanctioned from within the central government," said William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International. "This coordinated attack on lawyers makes a mockery of President Xi Jinping's claims to promote the rule of law." Xi Jinping came to power nearly three years ago vowing to tackle
summary: Dozens of Chinese lawyers have been detained or interrogated over recent days in what seems to be a co-ordinated roundup.