Just last week a Shanghai lawyer who had helped expose a real estate scandal was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of disclosing state secrets.
Yet a handful of independent lawyers in China are continuing to push the limits of the law.
From his base in Chongqing, Zhou Litai battles against official opposition for compensation for workers mutilated in the sweatshops of southern China.
Our Asia Correspondent Ian Williams went to Sichuan province to meet Mr Zhou and hear of the opposition he faces:
One of the most striking things here is the shortage of young people. Most have gone to work in the booming coastal regions. But word has quickly spread in rural Sichuan about the lawyer who's fighting for the rights of China's migrant workers. Zhou Litai is breaking new legal ground in China, and the authorities are divided over how to handle him.
Zhou Litai, Labour Lawyer:
"You simply can't make money from the land anymore. All the buildings you see here have been built by migrant workers with the money they earn outside. Families rely on their children to earn money outside."
Sichuan provides an army of cheap labour for the factories of the coastal regions. Men like Huang Qing, who earned around £30 a month for working at least 12 hours a day, for seven days a week, in a Hong Kong owned plastics factory. Until, that is, his arm was ripped off by a moulding machine.
Huang Qing:
"I was so tired. I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing. That's how I lost my arm. It was trapped in the machine. I couldn't concentrate."
Mr Huang's case was taken up by Mr Zhou, who sued the factory, winning 200,000 Yuan - around £15,000. That's nearly seven times what was originally offered, and enough to give Mr Huang a fresh start.
He takes the lawyer to meet another worker who's returned to the village - like a soldier from the front line in a war - this one with a leg missing as a result of an accident at a brick factory.
Zhou Litai, Labour Lawyer:
"I'm lawyer Zhou from Chongqing. I'm the lawyer who helped Mr Huang. I'm visiting him. I hear you didn't get too much compensation."
The man received just £25, and the lawyer promises to look into it. The lawyer's already representing more than a thousand workers, and the authorities can't make up their mind if he's a hero or a menace.
Mr Zhou is regarded as something of a hero in these poor Sichuan villages. That's in stark contrast to how he is seen in the booming coastal provinces where he is regarded as something of a demon, the local authorities resenting the work he does.
Zhou Litai, Labour Lawyer:
"Zhou Litai isn't welcome by local authorities anywhere. They think my actions will seriously damage the investment atmosphere and the development of the economy. They think it's normal to have workers lose their limbs, their rights violated. I'm not welcome anywhere I practice law."
Especially in Shenzhen, the southern boomtown close to Hong Kong. Deng Xiaoping launched China's economic reforms here, its opening to the world more than 20 years ago. It's now China's economic powerhouse, with thousands of factories employing millions of migrant workers. Three quarters of the world's toys are made here, but conditions are often deplorable. Accidents frequent.
Many of the victims, turned away from the factories, find their way to Zhou Litai's hostel on the outskirts of the city. According to Shenzhen's own figures, there are around 10,000 industrial accidents every year - mostly the loss of fingers or limbs. But that's probably an underestimate from officials who've tried to drive the lawyer out of town.
Zhou Litai, Labour Lawyer:
"I frequently get threatening phone calls. I've lost track of the number of times. I'd be shocked if I didn't get them. I'm not a greedy person, but a lot of factory bosses and their lawyers call me and offer money to stop me suing them. If I'd have accepted I'd be a multi-millionaire by now. But I won't do that."
Mr Zhou photographs those who pass through his hostel - a catalogue of often appalling injuries, the usually hidden side of China's boom. Before the lawyer started practising here, compensation was derisory or non-existent.
It's the cheap labour of men like these that's made Shenzhen a magnet for foreign investment, the worst conditions being in Korean-owned factories or those controlled by overseas Chinese from Hong Kong or Taiwan.
Zhou Litai, Labour Lawyer:
"One Taiwanese business association complained to the authorities that because of me they are having to pay several times more compensation for a hand than they used to. They threatened to move their factories elsewhere if the local government didn't drive me out of town."
The Shenzhen government tried to take away his license to practice law, demanding he stop his "illegal" activities. Then a strange thing happened. The central government gave him a top legal award, and central television was allowed to make a remarkable documentary.
In a sympathetic portrait of Mr Zhou, it showed rare footage inside a Shenzhen Court, the lawyer haranguing the judges. And it detailed the difficulties facing migrant workers. Faced with this clear sign of support in Beijing, the Shenzhen government backed down.
This was more than a year ago, and so far Mr Zhou's been able to continue with the grudging acquiescence of the local authorities. He argues that all he's doing is upholding China's own laws.
Bravado perhaps. But Mr Zhou's whole career has been a battle: starting at the bottom as a migrant worker himself, in a brick factory, before teaching himself law, and becoming one of the country's first independent lawyers.
Only recently has there been any basic notion of legality in China. Until 1997 all lawyers were called "state law workers" and the idea of representing a client didn't exist.
Even now lawyers like Mr Zhou occupy a kid of twilight legal world, determined to push the limits of the law, but subject to the often arbitrary whims of the authorities.
For his part Mr Huang is one of the many former workers grateful for Mr Zhou's efforts. Happy for the cash, but also for the wider knowledge that, however tentatively, the law is being used to enforce their rights.
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