Tong Lihua is a public interest lawyer in China. He founded Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center and Beijing Zhicheng Migrant Worker’s Legal Aid and Research Center in 1999 and 2005 respectively. And he is also the president and founding member of Child Law International Alliance, a non-governmental organisation registered in Geneva, Switzerland, under the Swiss Law. Tong serves as the director of All China Lawyers Association’s legal aid committee, and the director of Beijing Juvenile Law Society. He was a visiting scholar at Yale University and Columbia University.
Tong initiated the Chinese Lawyers Volunteer Network for Child Protection and promoted the establishment of more than 30 specialized legal aid agencies for migrant workers nationwide. His work helped bring about the first generation of professional child protection and legal aid lawyers for migrant workers in China. More than 600,000 vulnerable people, such as minors and migrant workers, directly benefited from the legal aid service he promoted.
Tong Lihua has done in-depth research in the areas such as child protection, migrant worker protection, public interest law, legal reform, etc. He is the author and editor of more than 70 legal books, including “Legal Reform since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party”, “The Law of Minors”, “Harmonious Society and Public Interest Law”. Tong was entrusted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China to undertake major research projects in China. He also actively participates in legislative work, for example, he was involved in the drafting of the Law on the Protection of Minors and participated in the investigation and demonstration of hundreds of laws and regulations in the Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law. Many of his suggestions have been delivered as relevant laws and policies.
Tong Lihua has been a regular guest speaker for more than a decade on various legal TV programs, such as China Central Television’s Law Today program. He has made multiple speeches at dozens of prominent law schools in China and abroad and won numerous honorary titles including “Top 10 Legal Figures in China” and “The Public Interest Legal Figure of 2012” awarded by the International Bar Association.