IN A DECISION that surprised even the most hopeful China watchers, on October 30 an appeals court in the eastern province of Shandong overturned a guilty verdict against human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, and remanded the case to the county court for a retrial.

The visually impaired, 35-year-old defendant, known affectionately as the “barefoot lawyer,” is a self-taught jurist who had angered local officials by spearheading a historic class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of victims of forced abortion and sterilization. On August 24 of this year, Chen was sentenced by the Yinan County People’s Court to four years and three months in prison for “willfully damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic.” Retaliation was widely believed to be the real motive behind the charges.