Jerome Cohen Quotations

This seems to be a case of local officials who have blatantly abused their legal powers, and have no legitimate defense against the case he brought against them, resorting to extralegal methods to cut off his ability to pursue justice, ... It's very, very sad, and another example of how rough the legal situation is in rural areas.

They expect the court to convict somebody of obtaining state secrets. This is never-never land.

There's a lot of things to learn, starting with you'd better caution people just as the State Department cautioned people, especially those of Chinese descent, before they decide to engage in academic research in China,

At a time when leaders are vying for the top positions, nobody wants to be seen as too soft on the outsiders. Everybody wants to be seen as protectors of national sovereignty, protectors of state secrets.

It's going to make people go more carefully. It's certainly going to inspire some American lawyers to learn more about the realities of Chinese justice. And it will help some Chinese lawyers become better known because of their cooperation with us.

It wasn't a question of legitimate state secrets. They don't want embarrassing coverage. So it's very convenient for the courts to say 'state secret', therefore opaqueness, and no reporters.

How did they get this note? ... China has detailed provisions about what you have to do to execute a search.