The @WSJ has published an informative article by @ByChunHan on Xi's purge of security forces. Although staged generally as an anti-corruption campaign, the current purge goes beyond that, striving to assure that the police, the prosecutors...1/n https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-xi-jinping-tightens-grip-on-domestic-security-forces-in-first-broad-purge-11597773887

...and the courts are “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable”. Corruption has always marred the political-legal system, and the Baotou case offered as an example illustrates many of the obstacles to getting a fair criminal trial, ranging...2/n

...from arbitrary detention, reliance on fabricated evidence, wrongful denial of bail, pretrial coordination among police, prosecutors and judges to “reach consensus on how to handle some aspects of the case” (including guilt!), restriction of defense lawyer’s access...3/n

...to the accused, refusal to allow admission of defense evidence, refusal to allow defense lawyers to withdraw from the case to register protest against restrictions, and removal of the case for trial in a more “absolutely reliable” jurisdiction. 4/5

Actually, “guanxi” – the network of personal relations – is often an even more serious threat to China’s justice system than corruption and direct Party political controls. 5/5