Lawyers Should Uphold Justice in the World — The Ultimate Revelation of the "Sea Palace" Case (Serial 16)
Part Two: Chivalrous Lawyer: Legal Rescue of the "Sea Palace"
2. Lawyers Should Uphold Justice in the World
Amid such a one-sided public opinion environment and with the government having already taken decisive action against the "Sea Palace," Lawyer Wang Tengfeng dared to publicly express dissenting views. This was both an act of defying the general will and challenging authority. It was not a spur-of-the-moment impulse but a habitual manifestation of his steadfast belief over nearly three decades of practice: "Lawyers should uphold justice in the world." It was also a natural expression of his chivalrous spirit as a lawyer.
Born in 1963 into a cadre family in Tongling, Anhui, Wang Tengfeng was deeply influenced by a simple and upright family upbringing. His childhood coincided with the unprecedented ten-year turmoil, a special era marked by the absence of the rule of law, social disorder, and suppressed human rights. The numerous injustices left a deep imprint on his young mind and planted the seed of a lifelong commitment to fighting for justice. As he grew older, he encountered figures like the impartial Judge Bao, the righteous Lu Xun, and the outspoken Shi Yang in books, inspiring him to become a lawyer who would speak up for justice and defend the wronged. In 1985, Wang Tengfeng began his legal career as a newcomer in Tongling, stepping into the legal profession (Figures 62, 63). In the early 1990s, to adapt to the reform and opening-up and meet the national demand for interdisciplinary legal talent, he resolutely took a "leave without pay" to pursue a second bachelor's degree in International Trade at Southeast University in Nanjing. After two years of "sharpening his sword," he earned a Bachelor of Economics, and with dual degrees in law and economics, he laid the foundation for his life and career direction. By then, his theoretical knowledge had deepened, his horizons had broadened, and he stood at a critical turning point. After careful consideration, Wang Tengfeng decided to leave his hometown again and head south to Shenzhen to carve out a new path. In the midsummer of 1995, he joined the surging tide of migrants heading to Shenzhen. As a newcomer in an unfamiliar place, his situation was naturally extremely difficult, but it also ignited his ambition: if he could succeed in Tongling, he could do the same in Shenzhen with hard work! Past achievements and glory were behind him; it was time to start anew. To quickly establish himself, while others enjoyed leisure, Wang Tengfeng communicated with clients; while others slept soundly, he delved into legal knowledge and analyzed classic cases. After years of arduous effort, combined with his solid legal foundation, innate insight, and talent, Wang Tengfeng quickly grew into a litigation master lawyer embodying chivalrous righteousness, exceptional legal wisdom, extraordinary litigation talent, and masterful strategic skills.
Figure 62: Street view of Tongling City, Anhui, in the late 1980s.
Wang Tengfeng has always believed that chivalrous spirit is the foundation of a litigation lawyer's career. Without standing up for the rights of the weak or fighting against injustice, one cannot become a true litigation lawyer. In a lawyer's eyes, the "weak" should be broadly understood in line with modern rule-of-law principles. Undoubtedly, the most marginalized members of society are often the weak, and their rights deserve special attention from litigation lawyers. However, in the eyes of litigation lawyers, even criminal suspects and defendants facing the death penalty for heinous crimes are "weak" before the powerful state legal machinery. Fighting for their rights, ensuring fair trials, and safeguarding procedural justice are the inescapable duties of litigation lawyers, even if misunderstood by the public. In the "Sea Palace" incident, Guo's artistic free-spiritedness, inventor's arrogance, and successful entrepreneur's wealth made him a target in a specific social atmosphere. His "Sea Palace" became a symbol of corrupt power-for-money deals. Amid overwhelming public opinion that could corrode and destroy, and under irrational, illegal administrative actions by government departments, Guo and his Sea Elite Entertainment Co., Ltd. were genuine "weak" parties. Bravely speaking up for them was a natural expression of a litigation lawyer's chivalrous spirit!
Wang Tengfeng's admirable chivalrous spirit was already evident in his early career in his hometown of Tongling, Anhui, in the 1980s. Let us take a moment to revisit the first criminal private prosecution case of defamation and insult he handled, which gained national influence.
It was a day in April 1986. A female postal clerk surnamed Xi from Tongling City, Anhui Province, went to the local司法局 legal advisory office and tearfully recounted to Wang Tengfeng, a lawyer who had only been practicing for a year, her painful experience of having her personality and reputation long insulted and slandered by a colleague surnamed Pan. Xi and Pan were originally colleagues and master-apprentice, with a good relationship initially. Unexpectedly, over time, Pan developed improper feelings for the young and attractive Xi. After Xi detected this, she felt disgusted and began to deliberately avoid and distance herself from Pan. Resentful, Pan fabricated rumors that Xi had had ten illicit sexual relationships with multiple people, including himself, to ruin Xi's reputation. To satisfy his disgraceful desires, Pan also tracked Xi's whereabouts, long-term stalking and harassing her. Seeing Xi still unyielding, Pan even posted big-character posters and several times publicly insulted and physically assaulted Xi. Xi suffered immense physical and mental trauma, was in unbearable pain, and finally attempted suicide by taking poison, hoping to die, but was rescued in time. However, Xi's suicide attempt still sparked much discussion among locals unaware of the truth, causing a very negative social impact.
Figure 63: Today's Tongling City, with Tianjing Lake Scenic Area, known as the "First Scenic Spot" of Tongling, in the foreground.
Extremely distressed Xi, with her husband's comfort and support, finally emerged from the shadow of pessimism and turned to the law for help. However, Xi searched all the few lawyers in Tongling at the time, but none were willing to take on her criminal private prosecution case. Besides the difficulty of obtaining evidence, the main reason was that Pan was relatively influential in his unit, a mid-level cadre at the post office, and even the post office leaders protected him, so lawyers were unwilling to provoke Pan, this "hornet's nest." In this situation, with no other options, Xi found the young lawyer Wang Tengfeng. After listening to Xi's tearful account, Wang Tengfeng stood up in righteous indignation and immediately accepted Xi's commission, filing a criminal private prosecution for insult and slander with the court.
However, Wang Tengfeng soon encountered the unique difficulty of obtaining evidence in insult and slander cases, a "stumbling block," especially in that era when high-tech recording and video equipment was unheard of, and Pan's infringing acts left no other physical or documentary evidence. The young, enterprising, and insightful Wang Tengfeng immediately realized: the evidence in this case could only rely on witness testimony and party statements! But the probative value of human testimony was low, and relying on just one or two witness statements might not convince the judge, and mobilizing many employees of the defendant's unit to testify against their colleague was even more difficult.
Wang Tengfeng was not intimidated by the difficulties. He first quietly did ideological work with some employees inside the post office. Although many employees initially held a "mind your own business" attitude and refused to testify against Pan's bad behavior, inspired by Wang Tengfeng's chivalrous spirit of pursuing justice and never giving up, 11 post office employees eventually, based on their conscience and disgust with Pan's wrongdoing, agreed to Wang Tengfeng's request. Subsequently, to achieve good cross-examination results and protect the witnesses' personal safety and address their personal concerns, Wang Tengfeng, after collecting written witness statements, brought some witnesses unwilling to testify in court before the presiding judge handling the case, asking the judge to verify the truthfulness of the statements face-to-face. Thus, after much arduous effort, Wang Tengfeng finally obtained a large amount of firsthand material, forming an interlocking chain of evidence, and on this basis, developed a thorough and complete representation opinion (Figures 64-67).
Figure 64: Wang Tengfeng's handwritten "Representation Statement."
Figure 65: "Statement of Representation" handwritten by Lawyer Wang Tengfeng.
Figure 66: "Statement of Representation" handwritten by Lawyer Wang Tengfeng.
Figure 67: "Statement of Representation" handwritten by Lawyer Wang Tengfeng.
In court, facing the accusations of the private prosecutor Xi, Pan not only flatly denied them but also spread his hands and said smugly, "Accusing me of insult and defamation? Wishful thinking!" When the judge asked the defendant on what grounds he claimed the private prosecutor had an improper relationship with a man, Pan even retorted to the judge with ease: "The world is full of wonders! Why can't it be true that she had a relationship with a man?" However, Lawyer Wang Tengfeng then delivered the private prosecution's statement, using "ironclad evidence" obtained through painstaking investigation, combined with reasonable legal logic and empathetic psychological analysis, to expose Pan's hidden, sinister subjective criminal intent, and to corroborate and link it with his overt objective actions, achieving a seamless and irrefutable case. Seeing his dirty, unspeakable private desires laid bare before the public, Pan's true colors were revealed, and his psychological defenses finally collapsed. His face flushed and paled, cold sweat poured down, and he hung his arrogant head in shame and dejection, clearly showing a psychological state of guilt.
But after coming to his senses, Pan realized that he had good connections within the post office, was favored by his superiors, and was considered a notable "figure." Even if someone accused him of insult and defamation, he thought no one would dare to testify in court. Pan began to ramble on in his own defense, becoming arrogant again. However, Lawyer Wang Tengfeng turned the tables, using the "facts" Pan had fabricated in his defense to present witness statements from over a dozen witnesses and other evidence. Through meticulous logical reasoning and accurate psychological analysis, he refuted Pan completely, shattering his outwardly strong but inwardly weak psychological defenses. In the end, Pan had no choice but to obediently accept the court proceedings and was forced to confess the basic facts of his crime. After careful and thorough trial and deliberation, considering Pan's subjective refusal to admit guilt, the first-instance court ultimately sentenced him to one year in prison (Figures 68-70).
Upon learning that he had been sentenced to one year in prison, and that his "position" in the post office would be taken by someone else, and his status as a public official would be lost, Pan stubbornly refused to admit guilt and appealed. His family hired a well-known local senior lawyer at a high fee to defend him in the second instance. However, facts are facts. All of Pan's and his family's various "efforts" failed, and the local famous lawyer's defense for Pan in the second instance was also defeated by the fearless young lawyer Wang Tengfeng. The Intermediate People's Court lawfully rejected Pan's appeal and upheld the original verdict.
In the late 1980s, when the legal system was extremely imperfect and people's awareness of law and rights was just beginning to sprout in Tongling City, a young lawyer with no power or influence dared to break through numerous obstacles and take great risks to send a mid-level cadre of the post office, who was highly valued by the leadership, to prison. This caused a sensation in the relatively closed Tongling City at the time, spread by word of mouth among the common people, and its social significance far exceeded the case itself. This successful criminal private prosecution for defamation was considered a typical case nationwide at the time, and national media such as People's Daily and China National Radio also reported on it (Figure 71). After Xi Mou's unfortunate experience and legal rights protection story were disclosed by the media, many sympathizers and supporters from all over the country called and wrote to Xi Mou, sending endless care and comfort like snowflakes. Xi Mou thus emerged from the shadows, and his family lived with dignity and pride, becoming close friends with the courageous and righteous lawyer Wang Tengfeng.
Figure 68: The first page of the Criminal Judgment issued by the Tongguanshan District People's Court of Tongling City on October 31, 1986.
Figure 69: The second page of the Criminal Judgment issued by the Tongguanshan District People's Court of Tongling City on October 31, 1986.
Figure 70: The third page of the Criminal Judgment issued by the Tongguanshan District People's Court of Tongling City on October 31, 1986.
Figure 71: Newspaper clippings reporting on the case.
(待续)
