Financial assistance

Foreign organizations offered financial assistance. According to Li Heping, another lawyer close to Zhou, he had received funds from a foreign foundation since 2013 for a three-year project.

According to Li's assistant, surnamed Gao, the project trained a selected group of lawyers and paid petitioners to organize protests and manipulate public opinion.

Training programs or operations were approved by the foundation, and all the costs were covered, Gao said.

The protest organized by Wu in front of a provincial-level court of Jiangxi last year was sponsored by the foundation, he said.

Foreign organizations wanted "to use us to challenge China's judicial system and cause trouble for the Chinese government. Their ultimate goal is to overthrow the rule of the Communist Party of China," Zhou said.