China endeavors to improve human rights
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China Daily, July 13, 2011
During the two years 2009 and 2010, China faced the most difficult economic situation after entering the new century, and an unprecedented global financial crisis spread throughout the world, which imposed a heavy toll on China's economic and social development, and posed severe threats to people's life and human rights. Also during these two years, China suffered several major natural disasters, bearing the heavy tasks of disaster relief and rescue, post-disaster reconstruction, and facing tremendous challenges to people's lives and property. Facing these difficulties, the Chinese government persistently combined addressing the financial crisis, meeting the challenges posed by various major natural disasters and maintaining sound and relatively rapid economic and social development with implementing the Action Plan and advancing the cause of human rights in China. It also combined safeguarding human rights with adhering to reform and opening-up policy, promoting scientific development and social harmony, vigorously and steadily advanced political system reform, spared no effort to ensure and improve the people's livelihood, and strengthened democracy and the rule of law, thus guaranteeing the fulfillment of all targets and tasks set by the Action Plan:
Firstly, people's rights to subsistence and development, and economic, social and cultural rights have been improved in an all-around way. During these two years, China's GDP registered an average annual growth rate of 9.77 percent. In 2010 the Chinese urban residents disposable income increased by 11.3 percent over the previous year, a growth of 7.8 percent in real terms, and the rural residents net income increased by 14.9 percent, with a growth of 10.9 percent. An additional 22.7 million urban workers were employed. At the end of 2010 the registered urban unemployment rate was 4.1 percent, down 0.2 percent over the same period of the previous year - the lowest since the global financial crisis which started in 2008. The number of impoverished rural people had decreased to 26.88 million, 13.19 million fewer than that at the end of 2008. Meanwhile, people's living and production conditions in China's rural areas have been noticeably improved, as has the social security system, which covers both urban and rural areas. By the end of 2010 the number of people covered by urban basic old-age insurance reached 257 million, 38 million more than at the end of 2008. The basic medical insurance for urban residents covered 430 million people, while the new rural cooperative medical insurance covered 836 million people, with a total coverage reaching 1.26 billion people, or over 90 percent of the country's population. An overall medical insurance scheme has taken shape.
Meanwhile the right to education has been fully guaranteed. In 2010 the State exempted 130 million rural students undergoing compulsory education from paying tuition and other fees, and subsidized about 12.24 million boarders from poor rural families. By the end of 2010 the nine-year compulsory education covered 100 percent of the national population, the retention rate for students undergoing five years of elementary school education reached 99 percent, and the gross enrollment rate in junior high schools reached 100 percent. The illiteracy rate among the population above 15 years of age dropped to 4.08 percent.
In the same two years the three-year Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction task was basically completed; the basic living conditions of disaster victims and the economic development of disaster-stricken areas either equaled or exceeded the pre-disaster levels, with guaranteed housing and employment for every family. Following the Yushu earthquake and Zhouqu landslide, reconstruction proceeded in an orderly manner, and the human rights of people in the disaster-stricken areas were effectively safeguarded.
Secondly, people's civil and political rights have been more effectively guaranteed. Over the past two years China, upholding the principles of the leading role of the Communist Party of China, the people as masters of the country and the rule of law, has incorporated the implementation of the Action Plan into every link of the efforts to strengthen democracy and the legal system; energetically and steadily pushed forward political system reform, and strengthened democracy and the rule of law; persisted in and improved the systems of people's congresses, multi-party cooperation and political consultation, regional ethnic autonomy and community level self-governance; and expanded citizens orderly political participation, making government affairs better known to the public by increasing policymaking transparency, and putting more efforts into protecting the people's rights to information, participation, expression and supervision. The revised Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China approved at the Third Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress in March 2010 explicitly stipulates that urban and rural deputies to people's congresses shall be elected in accordance with the corresponding population proportion, so as to improve the representative character of the deputies. The Electoral Law further enriches stipulations on the electoral mechanism and procedures, and guarantees the protection of citizens equal right to vote. This marks significant progress in China's construction of democratic politics. Over the past two years, the State has promulgated the Amendment VIII to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the Social Insurance Law and the Tort Liability Law, and revised many other laws including the Labor Law, the Education Law, the Agriculture Law and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Maternal and Infant Health Care. In February 2011 the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the Amendment VIII to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. The amendment abolished the death penalty for 13 types of economic non-violent crimes. The reduction accounted for nearly one-fifth of the total number of crimes carrying the death penalty. The amended Criminal Law laid down restrictive stipulations on the application of the death penalty to people of 75 years old and above, manifesting China's respect for life and protection of human rights. By the end of 2010 China had formulated 236 laws, including some contained in the Constitution, more than 690 administrative regulations, and more than 8,600 local rules and regulations. A socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has been basically established, and there are laws and regulations to go by in the fields of economy, politics, culture, social life and human rights protection.
Meanwhile, human rights have been better protected in the areas of administrative regulation enforcement and judicial process. Protective and relief measures have been strengthened, extorting confession by torture and illegal detention by law enforcement personnel have been strictly forbidden, and the law-enforcing and judicial supervision mechanism has been improved. The right to impartial trials of litigants, especially of those on criminal charges, is protected by law.
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