Over the last two decades, especially in the past 13 years, China
has witnessed eight historic changes in the progress of human
rights, along with its achievements in developing a market economy
with socialist characteristics.
1. Historic Changes in the Rights to Subsistence and
Development
Over the years of reform and opening to the outside world, China's
economy developed rapidly and the Chinese people have basically
gotten rid of poverty and become better-off. This is a great change
unprecedented in Chinese history.
The most obvious change is seen in the country's overall economic
strength. China has risen from the 10th in the world, and 2nd among
developing countries in terms of economic strength in 1990 to the
6th and first respectively in 2001. Its GDP reached US$1,000
billion for the first time in 2000, with per-capita GDP of over
US$800. The figures grew to US$1,158 billion and US$900
respectively in 2001, an increase of almost two times of those of
1990 calculated according to constant prices.
Remarkable increases have occurred in people's income and quality
of life. In 2001, the average annual disposable income per head for
urban residents was 6,860 yuan (US$828), 20 times of the 344 yuan
(US$42) of 1978. The average annual disposable income per head for
rural residents grew to 2,366 yuan (US$286), 18 times of the 134
yuan (US$16) in 1978. The Engel coefficient (the proportion of food
expenses in the total consumption expenditure) of urban residents
in 2001 was 37.9 percent, a 16.6 decrease from that of 1989 and a
19.6 percent drop from that of 1978. For rural residents, the Engel
coefficient in 2001 was 47.7 percent, a decrease of 7.1 percent and
20 percent from that of 1989 and 1978 respectively. The average
living space for an urban resident is presently over 10 square
meters, and about 25 square meters for a rural resident. There are
more than 100 cars for every 10,000 urban residents, which was
unimaginable in the past.
Great improvement in satisfying people's right to subsistence and
development can be seen in the domestic market which has changed
from one of shortage in supply to one of abundance since 1988. Now,
there is not only nothing in short supply but 86 percent of
commodities are excess of supply over demand. China has created the
miracle of feeding 22 percent of the world's population with only 7
percent of its land.
2. Civil Rights and Political Rights in a Time of Socialist
Market Economy
In
the process of developing a socialist market economy, the civil
rights and political rights of the Chinese people have been
characterized with the new period of market economy.
In economic activities, the Chinese people have enjoyed the
freedom, equality and tangibly benefits brought to them by the
socialist economic system. While keeping the public sector of
the economy in the dominant position, diversified economic elements
are encouraged to develop, and people can make investment, start
and manage their own businesses, and assume sole responsibility for
its profits or losses. They are enjoying the civil rights, which
are obtainable only after the reform and opening up, and this is
great progress in China's history.
In political life, the Chinese people enjoy their
responsibility, prestige and dignity of being the master of the
country. The private entrepreneurs and self-employed
professionals have formed a social stratum that has newly emerged
with the socialist market economy. While benefiting from the
government's economic policies and taking an active part in
developing the market economy, they are also builders of China's
socialism and masters of the country.
These private entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals have
also been given due respect and recognition by the Chinese
Communist Party, the National People's Congress (NPC), and the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at
various levels. Among them, many of the outstanding have joined the
Chinese Communist Party. Their representatives made up a certain
percentage among the 2,979 deputies to the Ninth NPC in 1998,
together with the other deputies of workers, farmers, intellectuals
and cadres, the People's Liberation Army, those from the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative
Region, as well as returned overseas Chinese. Among the Ninth CPPCC
members, 59.5 percent came from people of this new social stratum
and the non-Communist parties, as well as patriots with no party
affiliation; they made up 63.4 percent of its Standing Committee.
This is also a great progress in people's civil rights and
political rights which reflects the characteristics of the time of
reform and opening up to the outside world.
In social life, the Chinese people have enjoyed the democracy,
freedom and civilization ensured by the socialist political
democracy. The NPC and CPPCC have played important roles in
building political democracy in China. Political democratic
construction undertaken at grass-root levels is going on steadily
in rural areas, and the setting up of self-governing villagers' c
committees has become the inevitable trend to promote democracy in
rural China. Religious beliefs and normal religious activities are
protected by law. So far various religious groups have established
contacts with their counterparts in over 70 countries and regions
in the world.
Human rights are under judicial protection in China. The central
and local public security bureaus and judicial organs punish all
kinds of criminals and economic crimes to protect people's lives
and properties. Meanwhile, the legal rights of the defendants and
suspects are also protected. Since 1983, more than 40,000 people
have been acquitted of crimes by the court at different levels in
China.
3. People's Consciousness of Their Rights to Peace and
Stability
It has become a common knowledge of the Chinese people that the
right to peace is an important part of human rights. Having
suffered many wars inflicted upon them by the power nations in the
past, the Chinese people cherish peace deeply today. The pursuit
and defense of peace have virtually become a human-rights concept
and a specific criterion of behavior for the Chinese people.
The Chinese people have generally realized that the right to
stability is also an important part of human rights. From the
modern Chinese history, the Chinese people see that without
stability, there would be no progress and prosperity of the
country, and there would be no peaceful, well-to-do and happy life
for them. Both the state and people need stability. Any disregard
of the Chinese people's right to a peaceful environment is a
violation of the national will and a trampling on China's national
dignity.
The East Turkistan terrorists committed many crimes by producing
more than 200 violent cases in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region between 1990 and 2001, killing 162 people and causing
injuries to 440. This kind of infringement on human rights and the
threat to peace and stability shall not be tolerated by the Chinese
people.
4. Great Achievements in Protecting the Human Rights of Ethnic
Minorities, Women and the Disabled
The protection of the human rights of ethnic minorities shows
the prime and progress of Chinese civilization today.
The develop-the-west campaign is an important step of the Chinese
nation to keep pace with the times on the basis of the political
system of regional ethnic autonomy. It has brought hope to the
ethnic minority peoples in the remote western regions to make a big
progress unprecedented in their history. Since 1997, the growth
rate of GDP in the regions inhabited by minority ethnic groups has
been successively higher than that of the national average.
The Chinese government has paid great attention to the preservation
of the traditional cultures of the ethnic minorities and has
allocated large amount of fund to support education in areas
inhabited by them. Among the 55 minority ethnic groups, 53 have
their own languages, with more than 80 language varieties, which
compose an important part of the rich and colorful Chinese
culture.
To offer special protection for women and children is a good
tradition of Chinese civilization.
The Outline of the Program for Women's Development in China
(2001-2010) and the Outline of the Program for Children's
Development in Chinese (2001-2010) issued in May 2001 by the
Chinese government show its care and concern for the human rights
of women and children, the future of the nation. Women's
participation in public and national affairs is the practice to
promote their human rights. The number of women officials in the
country has reached 14.88 million currently, 36.7 percent of the
nation's total, an increase of 4.06 million over the figure of
1991.
Women's human rights to employment have been properly protected by
law. According to statistics, the number of working women in both
urban and rural areas have increased from 288 million in 1990 to
330 million in 2000, making up about 46 percent of the total labor
force in employment and producing about 38 percent of China's total
GDP. More and more women have received education and the health of
women and children are improving daily. The mortality rate of
pregnant women and women in labor has dropped from 88.9 per 100,000
in 1990 to 53 per 100,000 in 2000.
The protection of the human rights of the disabled is a glorious
achievement in Chinese history.
After the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection
of the Disabled Persons was issued in 1990, stipulations concerning
the rights of the disabled were written into 40 important laws.
China's Tenth Five-Year (2001-2005) Work Program for People with
Disability was promulgated and implemented in 2001.
The disabled people's rights to employment are protected by the
Chinese government. At present, there are 960,000 disabled people
working in welfare enterprises. The system of work arrangement for
the disabled has been carried out in 720 cities and 2,529 counties
and districts. There are presently 1.11 million disabled people who
have been employed, making up 83 percent of the disabled population
in China.
Care for the disabled is an important part of the government's
poverty-relief program. In 2001, 1.68 million disabled people were
relieved from poverty, and 2.6 million disabled in sheer plight
received help for keeping a basic standard of living. The disabled
in China also enjoy a richer cultural life with more than 3,000
recreational centers set up specially for them. To understand,
respect, care and help the disabled have become the practice of
common Chinese people.
5. Formation of a Legal System for Human Rights
Protection
A
socialist legal system for human rights protection has been formed
gradually in China which, based on the Constitution, consists
mainly of the basic civil, criminal, economic, administrative and
procedural laws and is reinforced by many state and local rules and
regulations. This is significant progress of human rights in
China's history.
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the basic
law for the guarantee of human rights.
The Constitution stipulates that all the state powers belong to the
people, who are the master of the country. Revisions have been made
to the Constitution several times, mainly to increase the part for
human rights protection. Specific stipulations have been made on
the major human rights such as people's civil rights, political
rights, economic rights, cultural rights, social rights, private
rights and collective rights. The Constitution is the general guide
for the practice, preservation and protection of human rights in
China in the new historical period.
The legal system of human rights protection in China is formed
comprehensively, systematically, and scientifically.
Up
to September 2002, the NPC and its Standing Committee had
formulated 430 laws and regulations concerning human rights
protection. The State Council had set up more than 800
administrative regulations, and over 8,000 local rules in this
respect were also made by NPC organizations at various local
levels.
The basic and important laws in the seven major areas of
legislation, such as the Constitution and relevant organic laws,
civil and commercial laws, administrative laws, economic laws, laws
concerning social life, criminal laws, procedure laws and laws on
administrative reconsideration, have all been basically formulated
and put into practice. These laws are closely related to the human
rights issues in the political, economic, and social life of the
Chinese citizens, forming a systematic whole of human rights
protection in China. Every law or regulation set up today has been
tested in practice, thoroughly proven, and worked out in strict
procedures before promulgation to ensure that they have been
formulated scientifically.
China's characteristic legal system for human rights protection
is to keep pace with the times.
The Ninth NPC deemed that the making of new laws and the revising
of the old ones were equally important. While formulating a group
of much needed new laws, it also revised many old laws that are not
compatible with the market economy and the present situation of
human rights protection. In recent years, the Trust Law and the Law
on the Prevention and Cure of Occupational Diseases were passed by
the NPC and its Standing Committee. The Law on the Management of
Pharmaceuticals, the Patent Law, the Law on Sino-Foreign
Cooperative Enterprises, the Foreign Capital Enterprise Law, the
Law on Sino-Foreign Joint Ventures, the Copyright Law and the
Trademark Law have also been revised to regulate the property and
credit relationship in the market, and to protect the legal rights
and safety of the laborers. This has provided legal foundation and
protection for China to take an active part in international
cooperation and competition.
6. Systematic Theories on Human Rights Protection with Chinese
Characteristics Begin to Take Shape
A
theory can be considered systematic if it has a scientifically
formed guideline, a central theme for the whole system, major
problems to study and address, and a series of relevant concepts
and categories. According to these conditions, we may well say that
the systematic theories of human rights protection with Chinese
characteristics have already begun to take shape.
This system of human rights theories has a scientific and
theoretical guideline. The Three Represents (The Communist Party of
China represents the development trend of advanced productive
forces, the orientation of advanced culture, and the fundamental
interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China.) is
an important new theory that has combined the basic Marxist
principles with the practice of China today, representing a new
stage in the development of Marxism in China. The logical
requirement of historical progress and the need of the times has
made it necessary for us to promote and develop China's human
rights theories under the guidance of the Three Represents and to
build a socialist China to meet the requirement of the Three
Represents.
The central theme of this system of human rights theories is to
realize the full and free development of human beings, a target of
human rights progress in China. This will be the major idea of
eternal value in the system of human rights theories in China.
Among the major problems facing human rights studies in China, the
primary ones to tackle are: How to develop human rights protection
under the guidance of the Three Represents? How to respond to and
solve a series of human rights problems posed by the socialist
market economy? How to further practice and promote the right to
subsistence and development? How to better use and develop the
right to peace and stability? How to ensure the implementation of
human rights? And how to fully understand the concepts of
generality and specialty of human rights as well as the individual
human rights and collective human rights?
The system of human rights theories has a series of important
concepts and categories, such as the human being; personality;
human rights; the ideas, practice, progress and protection of human
rights; cooperation and exchange in the realm of human rights; the
struggle for human rights; the relationship between human rights
and politics, economy, society, culture, legal construction,
globalization, informationalization and the new economy.
7. A Social Network of International Exchanges on Human Rights
Issues Has Been Formed
The Chinese people always stand for dialogue, exchange,
cooperation, instead of confrontation, when human rights issues are
concerned. International exchanges on human rights issues have
generally been made through governmental and non-governmental
channels, or specifically, at four levels:
First, between governments. The Chinese government has always
advocated, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, dialogue,
exchange and cooperation on human rights issues, so as to increase
understanding and expand common ground between China and other
countries.
Second, between non-governmental organizations (NGO). NGOs in China
have actively participated in international exchanges concerning
human rights issues within their frames of work, and have been
effectively promoting understanding between NGOs of different
countries in various fields.
Third, between voluntary associations closely related to human
rights protection. Voluntary organizations such as the China
Charity Federation, the Red Cross Society of China, and China
Disabled Persons' Federation have all contributed remarkably to the
international exchanges concerning human rights protection.
Fourth, between human rights organizations. China Foundation for
Human Rights Development has been actively engaged in international
exchanges concerning human rights issues since it was founded in
1994. As it has been playing a more and more important role in this
respect, the foundation has received much attention and favorable
comments from other parts of the world.
8. China Has Embarked on a Road of Human Rights Progress with
Socialist Chinese Characteristics
China has found a road to promote the progress of human rights
vigorously with socialist characteristics.
The ultimate goal of this road is to realize the full and free
development of human beings. The present-stage target is to focus
on developing productivity to ensure the basic human rights to
subsistence and development, while progressing gradually towards
the full and comprehensive development of human beings.
The guideline for this road is to devote totally to achieving
common prosperity and raising the living standard of the Chinese
people by developing productivity so as to promote the
comprehensive progress of human rights in China.
Along this road, while stress is put on people's human rights to
subsistence and development, attention will also be given to their
rights to politics, economy, culture and society, and the balanced
development of both the individuals and the collective.
China will progress along this road step by step, on the
precondition of stability promoted by the reform. Its development
shall be secured by law and supported by morality.
It
is the principles for international exchange on human rights
progress that, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, to make
efforts to replace confrontation with common ground and eliminate
differences, so as to expand understanding and cooperation in the
realm of human rights and friendship between the Chinese and other
peoples of the world.
(China.org.cn January 6, 2003)