A Chinese human rights lawyer was summoned to a disciplinary hearing for his speech in defense of a client. The lawyer’s peers warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is eroding the legal profession in the country. Beijing-based lawyer Song Yusheng was summoned to a hearing with the Disciplinary Board of the CCP-linked Beijing Lawyers Association (BLA) on Jan. 11. The Board charged him with “malpractice” during a trial, accusing Song of speaking in a politically sensitive manner. Another rights lawyer, speaking to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity, said that the BLA contradicted itself in its accusation, since malpractice can only apply to a lawyer’s conduct and not what he says in a courtroom, according to their own rules. “An attorney’s court speech clearly falls under the category of speech rather than conduct,” said the rights lawyer. “Arbitrary confusion of the two things would mean overstepping the …