On August 13th, it was rumored online that lawyer Yi Shenghua has stepped down from his position as the director of the Beijing Brave Lawyers’ Office. Last Thursday (August 8th), he exposed a major illegal corpse purchasing case by a subsidiary of a central enterprise of the Chinese Communist Party – Shanxi Auris Biological, which shocked both domestic and international audiences. Following this, Yi Shenghua was summoned by the Beijing Judicial Bureau, and his related posts on Weibo were deleted.
According to the information circulating online, on the afternoon of August 13th, the Beijing Brave Lawyers’ Office issued a “Management Change Announcement,” which sparked attention.
The announcement revealed that at a partners’ meeting, it was decided and filed with the judicial administrative authority that the partners of the Beijing Brave Lawyers’ Office have been changed to: Lawyers Wang Xiaoyan, Li Yinghong, Wu Huanyu, and Yi Shenghua.
Lawyer Li Yinghong was appointed as the director of the law firm, responsible for the overall work of the firm (the registration of the change of legal representative has been completed). Lawyer Gong Huiqing was appointed as the deputy director, in charge of the business of the law firm; Lawyer Xu Hongru was appointed as the executive director, responsible for implementing the work assigned by the director and deputy director.
Former deputy director Lawyer Wang Xiaoyan was appointed as the supervisor of the law firm, “responsible for the supervision of professional ethics, practice discipline of lawyers, and all work of the law firm.”
The announcement was signed and stamped by the “Beijing Brave Lawyers’ Office” and was published on August 13th, 2024.
The WeChat official account “Wenjin Academic Circle” also reposted the news, indicating that Yi Shenghua has “stepped down” as the director of the Beijing Brave Lawyers’ Office. If this announcement is true, it signifies that Yi Shenghua has lost his position as director due to exposing the illegal corpse selling case of Shanxi Auris Biological.
However, as of the time of reporting by Epoch Times, the website of the Beijing Brave Lawyers’ Office still shows Yi Shenghua as the director.
On August 8th, Yi Shenghua posted on Weibo, revealing the illegal purchase of thousands of corpses by Shanxi Auris Biological Materials Co., Ltd. According to his disclosure, “Shanxi Auris” has long been collaborating with funeral homes in several provinces such as Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Shandong, illegally acquiring corpses not from natural deaths, then dismembering the bodies, with some bones used to produce biological tissue materials sold to hospitals.
This immediately stirred up public opinion. On that afternoon, Yi Shenghua posted again, saying: “Received a call from the Beijing Judicial Bureau, discussing whether the exposure of unresolved cases is appropriate with me. Thanks to the care of the judicial bureau staff. To change this anger-inducing reality, I am willing to bear the corresponding cost.”
On the 9th, when Epoch Times reporters checked Yi Shenghua’s Weibo again, the related posts had been deleted. According to a post by Yi Shenghua early in the morning, “a higher level has intervened,” and comments from netizens were also hidden by Weibo.
According to the introduction of Yi Shenghua on his website, he was the former director of the criminal department of the Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, a member of the Democratic Revolution Party, selected as one of the Top Ten Litigation Lawyers in China by Asian Legal Business (ALB) in 2013, author of the best-selling book “Don’t Cry in a Foreign Land – A Lawyer’s Memoir of Growth,” and a key influencer on Sina Weibo’s Top Ten in 2017.
Yi Shenghua passed the first national judicial examination with a rank within the top 50, and has been in practice for 15 years, achieving significant success in the areas of criminal risk prevention and defense, business negotiation, and corporate legal advisory.
Yi Shenghua has over 2.5 million followers on Sina Weibo, with an average monthly read volume of 10 million. His self-media accounts on platforms such as Zhihu, Tencent, Toutiao, Baidu, NetEase have a strong fan base and influence. He has been interviewed several times by official Chinese media Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and Legal Daily, and has appeared as a guest on programs like “One Tiger One Talk,” “Very View,” “Top Consultation,” and “Hidden Dragons and Crouching Tigers.”