But now Gao too is feeling the squeeze. The outspoken lawyer's home and his office are heavily guarded around the clock by up to 20 state security agents. Harassment is a daily occurrence, which even extends to Gao's 12-year-old daughter. Everyday as she goes to school, she too is followed.

Gao's phones have long been tapped, and his car was chased so closely by secret police when he was on his way to meet visiting UN torture investigator Manfred Nowak last month that it was struck several times.

And his latest crime?

Long watched by authorities over his defense of people they consider "trouble-makers," the maverick lawyer wrote an open letter to the top Chinese leadership in October, condemning China's brutal six-year crackdown on the spiritual sect Falun Gong as "barbaric."

Falun Gong, banned by China as an "evil cult" in 1999, reportedly has millions of followers throughout the country and is seen by the government as the biggest threat to stability since the 1989 pro-democracy protests.

In the eyes of the authorities, Gao's high-profile defense of the group is equivalent to declaring a war, putting himself in the spotlight as an enemy of the state.

As a result, Beijing's justice bureau ordered him early last month to close his practice for one year, ostensibly because his firm had not registered its new address. Some 20 lawyers at his practice were also banned from practicing.

Officials have threatened that his personal freedom "would likely be restricted" if he kept on practicing, he says he has been told.

Under the Chinese Communist rule, where economic freedoms do not come with civil liberty, many wonder why Gao considers it worthwhile to pay such a heavy price to stand up to the government, often at little or no fees to his clients.

"I don't have many highbrow ideals, it is just my character," Gao says from his spartan office, shortly before surveillance on him was tightened.

Gao says he feels a strong sense of moral obligation to be a voice for the underprivileged, the oppressed and outspoken activists who find themselves on the wrong side of the regime.

One reason for his boldness and his sympathy, Gao says, is his humble and tough upbringing as a farmer's son in the impoverished countryside in Shaanxi Province.

"Throughout Chinese history, Chinese peasants never had anything, so they have no fear and no greed," Gao says in his typically strident voice. "Chinese peasants detest evil, I'm like that as well."

His father died when he was 11 and, as he was one of seven children, his mother could only afford to put him through school until the age of 15 with borrowed money.

Gao did a variety of jobs including becoming a lumberjack and a miner, before joining the army and being posted to western China's remote Xinjiang region.

After his stint in the army, he got married and stayed in Xinjiang for three years working as a hawker in a market. When he was selling vegetables one day, his twist of fate came.

"You know in those days, people used newspapers to wrap vegetables," Gao says. "There was a torn newspaper page lying on the ground; I picked it up and there was an advertisement about a self-learning law diploma. That advertisement changed my thinking. I have a brain, why do I have to stay a farmer for the rest of my life?"

After qualifying as a lawyer, Gao's work brought him into contact with petitioners, activists, followers of underground religions -- people who exposed him to injustice and made him increasingly critical of China's regime.

To Gao, China's one-party rule and the corruption which thrives under the authoritarian regime is the root of the gross amount of social injustice.

oppressive regime

"The power of today's Chinese government is one of the most unbridled in the world," he says.

And the suppression of civil liberties only serves to condone the thriving of crime and corruption, when well-intentioned criticisms of the regime are often not tolerated, he says.

Gao is the defense lawyer of cyber dissident Zheng Yichun, who was sentenced to seven years in September on the charge of "inciting the subversion of state sovereignty" for posting essays critical of the government online.

Zheng's many essays compare China's current regime to oppressive feudal imperial rule and opine that China must transform through political reforms into a democracy.

Gao despairs that citizens like Zheng who have genuine concerns for the future of the country are seen as subversive and dangerous by the state.

"This regime is not here to serve its people, every day it is suppressing the people. It has no sincerity or ability to solve problems," he says.

"I'm heart-broken that, now we are in the 21st century ... liberty, human rights and democracy are things that still have to be kept in the dar," he says.

Gao says he is concerned that this suppression will eventually lead to what the authorities themselves most fear -- instability.

"This is one of China's most destabilizing factors ... freedom, democracy and law are [universal] mainstream values, how can you suppress them through these crackdowns?" he asks.

Though touting the slogan of a "harmonious society," the Chinese government does not tolerate open criticism and has even stepped up control over the traditional media and the Internet over the past few years.

People with grievances are resorting to more radical ways of making their voices heard, with clashes between ordinary citizens and authorities becoming common.

The heavy crackdown on an attempt by villagers from Taishi village in southern China's Guangdong province to remove a corrupt village chief this summer was a case in point, he said.

"Chinese people don't enjoy civil liberties, if you don't employ unconventional methods, you may as well just be a dog who barks," he says.

Authorities arrested and beat the protesting villagers, forcing them to retract their initial demand. Journalists, lawyers and activists who tried to help were also roughed up and detained.

"It has touched on the most sensitive question of democracy and rule of law," says Gao, who is defending a detained activist who worked for his law firm.

Spiritual Needs

Gao believes China's problems cannot simply be solved through political and legal reforms. The government has to recognize the spiritual needs of the people, instead of suppressing them, he says.

The spiritual void under decades of Communist rule, Gao believes, resulted in the crumbling of moral standards in modern Chinese society, now overwhelmed by purely materialistic concerns.

"The whole nation lacks belief," Gao says. "Officials and ordinary people, everyone is greedy, there is no God in their hearts, they don't think about cause and retribution."

Gao, who attends a Protestant church, believes the revival of religion is inevitable and Chinese authorities are pursuing a no-win battle if they continue to crack down on religions they regard as a threat to their reign.

"This is an inevitable trend. They should recognize it, not suppress it," he says.

Across China, lawyers face pressure not to take on politically sensitive cases and many who take on human rights and civil rights cases, like Gao, have suffered reprisals for doing so.

Cyber dissident Zheng Yichun's brother said half a dozen lawyers he tried to seek help from were too afraid to take on the case.

Gao, who took up the case for free, was like "a ray of hope amid darkness" to his family, Zheng Xiaochun says.

"In China, lawyers who are good and have a good heart like Mr Gao are few and far between," he says.

In 2003, lawyer Zheng Enchong, who was representing displaced people affected by redevelopment projects in Shanghai, was sentenced to three years for "illegally providing state secrets to entities outside of China."

Window of Truth

Gao, with his missions that repeatedly make authorities nervous, also sadly foresees himself being arrested one day.

"It will happen sooner or later, I am prepared for that," he says.

According to Gao, police have already warned him that he has "crossed the line" through his defense of Falun Gong, and that people who do so will find themselves in "a very dangerous position."

"When I go to work and say goodbye to my wife in the morning, we're both prepared that it might be a few years before we see each other again," he says.

Despite this, the defiant lawyer says he will not be intimidated.

On Tuesday he publicly resigned from the Communist Party, citing the harsh treatment of the Falun Gong as a reason and saying it was the "proudest day of my life."

"I'll continue to be a window of truth," he says. "But this regime is very afraid of the truth."

CCP losing its grip on China as riots worsen

By Paul Lin

In the mid-1950s, Chinese authorities suppressed the "Hu Feng counter-revolutionary clique" composed of members of the then Chinese literary and art scene, and Mao Zedong wrote a note saying that the day when the public is happy is the day when the anti-Communist rebels suffer."

The naked truth of this statement was once again revealed prior to this year's world celebration of Human Rights Day on Dec. 10. At least 10 residents of Dongzhou Township in Guangdong Province, who participated in a protest against corruption, pollution and land seizures, were shot dead by riot police. There have been reports quoting villagers as saying that there were even tanks or armored vehicles patrolling the scene, a situation similar to what followed the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

It was unusual that the New York Times gave this incident a front-page headline saying that China's riots were getting worse. It could also be said that Beijing is also gradually losing its grip on the nation, for not only is it unable to control protests, it has shown itself unable to restrain rampant exploitation by local interest groups, including looting and killing.

Between August and September, there was a different riot incident instigated by villagers from Guangdong's Taishi Village. Although this incident was given positive coverage by the state-controlled media, it still resulted in repression by the local government, which colluded with local gangs. As a result, even lawyers and other professionals showing concern over this incident were reported by the international media to have been kidnapped or assaulted.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was on an inspection tour in Guangdong at the time of the riot, but, surprisingly, he did not intervene. Was he simply afraid of local gangs? Or were local leaders or members of the family of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin involved in the incident?

No matter what the truth of the matter is, the hypocrisy of "people-based" governance, as proclaimed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Wen, has been seen for what it is by Chinese interest groups. Hu and Wen don't act in the interest of the people and ignore the pressure of the international community to improve China's human rights conditions.

Repression against human rights protests will just get further out of hand, with the result that lives will be lost as in last week's incident in Guangdong.

In order to safeguard their own interests, privileged groups in China will get rid of people either directly or indirectly. The two incidents already mentioned are examples of the former, while man-made disasters -- such as mining disasters (which are so frequent they kill an average of 16 people each day), explosions in chemical factories (primarily caused by ignoring safety in a drive toward higher profits) -- are examples of the latter.

The Mainland Affairs Council and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy have censured China for the recent massacres. In this way, they highlight Taiwan's effectiveness as a democratic nation.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which has joined hands with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), should show more concern for the misfortune of the Chinese people. I look forward to what the pro-China KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will say in the upcoming talks between the KMT and CCP this month. If he says nothing to criticize the Chinese government's human rights record, then let the Taiwanese people do the work of righting the wrongs of the Chinese people.

Paul Lin is a commentator based in New York.