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BEIJING – For more than 1,200 days, the Chinese government sought to build a case against Wang Quanzhang as it held him incommunicado in secret jails, denying him visits from his family and the lawyers he requested.

On the day of his trial, Wang struck back: He denied the government a quick verdict.

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A Chinese court in the city of Tianjin said Wednesday that it held a hearing behind closed doors for Wang, one of the country’s prominent civil rights lawyers, but could not immediately reveal the outcome because “state secrets were involved.”

The real reason for the hiccup, Wang’s supporters say, was more embarrassing for authorities: Wang fired his government-appointed lawyer soon after his trial began, throwing a wrench into what were supposed to be swift and scripted proceedings.

Four years after President Xi Jinping exhorted the Communist Party to strengthen the rule of law, international observers say the persecution of legal professionals like Wang shows the party-state moving in the other direction. In October, the United Nations Human Rights Council criticized Wang’s detention and called for his release.