Annex: Provisional Regulations on Lawyers of the People’s Republic of China

To some Western readers, the function of Chinese lawyers as described in translations of the Provisional Regulations will appear comparable to the function of lawyers in the United States and many Western European countries. In at least one news release following enactment of the law, however, the government of the People’s Republic of China denied any apparent similarity. A reprint of the Regulations and the Chinese Government’s position as published in the Renmin Ribao, the official government newspaper, follows.-eds.