According to the provisions of Article 32 of the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), a criminal suspect or defendant may entrust one or two persons as defenders in addition to exercising the right of defense by himself. The following persons may be entrusted as defenders:
(1) lawyers;
(2) A person recommended by a people's organization or the unit to which the criminal suspect or defendant belongs;
(3) Guardians, relatives and friends of criminal suspects and defendants.
A person who has been sentenced to punishment according to law or deprived of or restricted personal freedom shall not act as a defender.
Article 43 stipulates that during the trial, the defendant may refuse the defender to continue to defend him, or entrust another defender to defend him.
Specific to this topic, during the trial, the defendant may refuse to continue to defend himself (including lawyers, people's organizations or criminal suspects, people recommended by the defendant's unit, guardians and relatives), decide to defend himself, or entrust other defenders to defend, so the defense lawyer may be dismissed during the trial.