Development of human rights in China
By Li Junru (China Daily)
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, human rights of the Chinese people gradually changed from the requirements in guiding principles to everyday life in reality.
Starting from 1978, led by Deng Xiaoping, the Communist Party of China decided to pool all strength to develop the economy and establish systems in various aspects of the economy, politics, culture and society such as protecting and improving people's livelihood and maintaining people's dignity, starting the great march toward the goal of modernization.
It is in this process of all-round development that the Chinese people solved their problems of food and clothing and started to develop themselves on the basis of the right to exist.
They walked toward the basic human rights endowed by the Constitution step by step and promoted the process of democratic and legal construction. All these reforms and development have greatly promoted the development of China's human rights cause and human rights theory with Chinese characteristics.
First, in the process of bringing order, we realized that human right is not unique to the bourgeoisie, but also the rights pursued by all people, including the Chinese people.
Second, we realized while summing up the historical experience that the universality principle of human rights should be combined with the national conditions of various countries. We should not only consider the levels of economic and social development of various countries, but also respect their historical and cultural traditions.
Third, we realized in our practices that people's realization of human rights in various countries is not immutable and frozen, but constantly rising with economic and cultural development. We must promote the development of our human rights cause according to de facto demands of the majority of people.
Fourth, we realized in the process of promoting the development of human rights cause that it is a rights system and the organic combination of various rights under legal protection. In other words, human rights include not only civil rights and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights. All the rights must be protected by law.
Fifth, we realized in the process of protecting and improving the Chinese people's human rights that the rights to live and right to develop are the basic human rights we are committed to give priority to.
It is a big issue for China of more than 1 billion people, to ensure all its people to enjoy the basic conditions and rights for their normal life; it is an even bigger issue in terms of how to enable every individual to develop himself/herself during the economic, political, cultural and social development.
Therefore, we must give priority to protecting and improving people's right to live and right to develop as the basic human rights. Only by doing this can we ensure that our human rights cause can benefit every Chinese citizen.
Sixth, we realized that in the long term human rights development cannot be realized without social harmony and stability, continuous development and legal protection.
Practices show that in an unstable society, the common people suffer the most. Hence, we often say: stability is the premise of realizing human rights; development is the key to realizing human rights; law-based governance is the guarantee of realizing human rights.
Finally, we realized in our practices that in international exchanges, human rights dialogue is better than human rights confrontation.
Human rights confrontation cannot protect or improve human rights of the people in a country. Moreover, it can harm the existing human rights because of social unrest. Only through human rights dialogue can we genuinely and effectively promote the human rights cause of various countries.
All these understandings from the Chinese people's human rights practices, including not only the universal consensus of the international community on human rights, but also China's own experience.
The author is vice-president of China Society for Human Rights Studies and former president of the Party School of CPC Central Committee.
Mutually beneficial relations
Before Hong Kong returned to the motherland in 1997, US-based Newsweek declared that "Hong Kong is dead". However, the more than 10 years' practice of "one country, two systems" after 1997 proved that the Chinese government totally abides by its international commitments and related laws.
In the 14 years since Hong Kong returned to the motherland, no Hong Kong citizen has been detained or punished because of different political views or criticizing the government: no newspaper, magazine, radio station or website was blocked because of criticizing the Chinese government or the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In fact, several thousand assemblies and demonstrations have received "no objection letters" from police.
Actually, universal values such as freedom, democracy, human rights, rule by law and market economy are civilization's fruits for all human beings, not the "patent" of the Western countries.
In 1992 when Deng Xiaoping visited South China, he said the leftist opinion of "reform and opening-up should distinguish capitalism from socialism", and put forward criteria in three aspects, launching the historical transformation from planned economy to market economy and putting China's economy in the fast lane.
Based on the concept of "existence determines consciousness", transformation of economic basis leads to progress of values. This substantively is to enjoy the fruits of universal values so as to provide more solid and more abundant material and spiritual bases to improve China's human rights (including the right to live and right to sufficient food and clothing).
The soaring economic development and transformation of concepts of China can bring endless business opportunities for Hong Kong. Hong Kong can transfer its labor-intensive industry north to the mainland and energetically develop its service industry so as to encourage democracy.
The central government has decided that Hong Kong can generally elect its chief and Legislative Council in 2017 and 2020 respectively, consolidating the basis of social and human rights progress in Hong Kong.
In human rights realm, practice show that "a good motherland can improve Hong Kong; and a good Hong Kong can make the motherland better."
Implement declaration of the UN
Western imperialism once wanted to rule the whole world and impose its values on other countries, though it denied its own values several times. This is totally wrong because human rights do not mean conflicts of power, which is also known as "clash of civilizations", today, but dialogues among different civilizations.
It is certain that we belong to one world; we cannot and have the right to do as the United States did by trying to impose its outlook on human rights on others by force and imperial war.
Each nation should determine on its outlook for itself on human rights according to its tradition. The human rights declaration issued by the UN in 1948 was recognized by all nations. What we need to do is to put the declaration into practice.
Pierre Bercis is president of New Human Rights Association in France and a member of National Consultative Commission of Human Rights
Food as important as freedom
Are socio-economic rights entitled to the same protection as civil and political liberties? Western theory on human rights is deeply influenced by market capitalism, political liberties and individualism.
It puts great premium on civil and political entitlements but there is insufficient recognition of the need for socio-economic entitlements. The latter are seen as mere offshoots of political liberties. In contrast, Asian scholars argue that food is as important as freedom and bread as important as the ballot box.
There can be no meaningful enjoyment of human rights if poverty is pervasive and hunger and disease stalk the land. Socio-economic rights to basic necessities and to development are entitled to the same protection as civil and political liberties.
Problem of Western media
Without the precious information I got through years of intense communication with Chinese people and people from other regions all over the globe, I would never have realized that the human rights discourse of the Western media is problematic. But becoming aware of an issue is one thing; collecting solid data and analyzing them with a sound scientific methodology is much more time-consuming.
Especially in the field of human rights, it is extremely damageable to everybody if some actors try to impose their specific set of values to the whole world, even though it is obviously in contradiction to the human rights concept which has been worked out by the international community within the framework of the United Nations.
Chinese culture - one of the first to truly establish itself on this planet - comprises many valuable strands of knowledge, seen in every facet of its being. It is one of the first developed communities to have shown "history and heritage of humanity".
China and Mexico are multi-ethnic cultures and therefore multicultural. Both countries boast an enormous cultural heritage whose protection necessitates the joint efforts of individuals, communities and authorities, both of present and future generations.
Cultural diversity is the plurality of cultures coexisting both nationally and internationally. It implies the preservation and continuity of existing cultures, through the respect owed towards them. The vitality of the community is evident through its production and subsequent reproduction of meaning and cultural identity.
We should learn from each other
Interaction between universal standards and understanding and a variety of local specificity generates the serious questions demanding the consideration.
The recognition that each society has both valuable and negative aspects, their freedom to criticize and, at the same time, openness to loan positive aspects should become the norm of intercultural dialogue and social reforming. In each tradition there is something that is able to contribute to the development of global human rights culture.
China will have its own norms
The Chinese concepts of human rights are nurtured in the rule of rites, or li in Chinese, while the European concepts were established when the rule of law came into play. The Chinese concepts of human rights are obligation-oriented, while the European concepts are right-oriented.
The Chinese concepts of human rights pay more attention to the rights of the group while the European concepts more to the rights of individuals.
I am positive that China shall set up its own human rights protection system, which adapts to its own tradition, culture and social development. To be more specific, China will define its own content and scope for the human rights and design the protection mechanism within its legal system in accordance with the ratified international instruments.
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