Progress in China's Human Rights in 2014

Information Office of the State Council

The People's Republic of China

June 2015, Beijing

Contents

Preface

I. Right to Development

II. Rights of the Person

III.Democratic Rights

IV. Right to Impartial Trial

V. Rights of Ethnic Minorities

VI. Rights of Women, Children and Senior Citizens

VII.Rights of Persons with Disabilities

VIII.Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment

IX. Foreign Exchanges and Cooperation

Preface

In 2014 the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government jointly pushed forward the implementation of the country's four major strategic tasks: (1) build a moderately prosperous society; (2) drive the reform in a deeper level; (3) advance the law-based governance of China; and (4) strengthen Party self-discipline. The Chinese people enjoyed practical benefits from the development of the country, and their human rights situation also made new progress.

The basic rights of the Chinese people became better protected, and China's constitutional principle of "respecting and safeguarding human rights" was implemented in a better way. In 2014, China made steady progress in comprehensively completing the building of a moderately prosperous society. By the end of the year, among all the 29 countable or measurable indicators for economic and social development set forth in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), 12 had been over-fulfilled, three had been nearly fulfilled and 11 had made smooth progress, accounting for 90 percent of the total. The mid-stage assessment of China's National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015) was carried out in December 2014, and the result showed that most of the targets set in the plan had been reached, and a larger part of the quantitative indices had been half or even more achieved. In the same year China's efforts for law-based governance reached a new take-off stage. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC approved the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Certain Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Advancing the Law-Based Governance of China, drawing up a clear blueprint for building a socialist law-based country with Chinese characteristics. The fundamental purposes of the blueprint are to protect civic rights, to defend human dignity and to put basic human rights into practice.

The tremendous achievements China has made in its human rights endeavors fully demonstrate that it is taking the correct path of human rights development that suits its national conditions. Along this path, the CPC will steer the country in the right direction; the combination of the universal human rights principle with China's national conditions will safeguard, at a higher level, the Chinese people's rights to life and development; law-based governance will ensure that China's human rights development is enshrined in the legal system and institutions; all aspects of human rights will be developed with key areas being given priority; China will carry on and promote its fine traditions in this field while learning from and absorbing the merits of all other civilizations.

In order to realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, both the CPC and the Chinese government will cherish the country's precious and hard-won achievements and experiences in the realm of human rights, and will make great efforts to develop various undertakings conducive to the protection and realization of human rights, and ensure that all are able to achieve personal development and to contribute to society, to enjoy equal opportunities to achieve their potential and to realize their dreams, and to enjoy equal opportunities to participate in the development of the country.

I. Right to Development

In 2014 the Chinese government promoted development concepts and systems innovation, adopted effective measures to guarantee citizens' access to fair development, had more people to share the fruit of reform and development, and better protected the people's economic, social and cultural rights.

People's living standard further improved. China's GDP in 2014 increased by 7.4 percent over the previous year, and the economy operated within an appropriate range. The economic growth in central and western China was faster than that in the east. As many as 13.22 million new urban jobs were created, more than that in 2013. The total output of grain was 607.1 million tons, an increase of 5.16 million tons over the previous year. The first phase of the central line of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was completed, providing water from the Yangtze River in the south to 60 million people in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the north. More than 66 million rural people began to have access to safe drinking water in that year. In 2014 minimum wage standards were raised in 19 regions. The nationwide annual per capita disposable income reached 20,167 yuan, up 8 percent over the previous year and faster than the economic growth rate in 2014. The annual per capita disposable income for urban residents was 28,844 yuan, and that for rural residents reached 10,489 yuan, up 6.8 percent and 9.2 percent over the previous year, respectively, with the increasing rate for rural residents higher than that for urban residents for the fifth consecutive year. The urban-rural income ratio fell below 3:1 for the first time over the previous 13 years. Nationwide, per capita consumption expenditure reached 14,491 yuan, an increase of 7.5 percent over 2013, among which the consumption expenditure of urban residents was 19,968 yuan and that of rural residents was 8,383 yuan, up 5.8 percent and 10 percent, respectively. By the end of 2014 the number of telephone users in China had reached 1.53 billion, among whom that of mobile phone users reached 1.28 billion, with the penetration rate hitting 94.5 per 100 people. The number of 4G users was 97.284 million, and that of 3G users was 480 million. The number of Internet broadband users surpassed 200 million, among whom that of subscribers using broadband over 4M reached 177 million, taking up 88.1 percent of the total. The total broadband in China was 2500G, the broadband of the international communications gateway reached 9614Gbps, and the broadband of the international communications service gateway reached 3361.9Gbps. The number of trips abroad made by Chinese citizens was 116.59 million, among which those for private purposes reached 110.03 million, an increase of 19.6 percent over the previous year.

Basic public services coverage increase in both urban and rural areas. The State Council issued the National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020), and the central government appropriated a fund of 1.1 billion yuan to promote the development of new-type professional farmers in two provinces, 14 municipalities and 300 counties. China improved the occupational training and testing of farmers in 2014, with more than 400,000 people trained and tested in that year. China also organized training sessions for leaders in practical rural skills, and 12,000 people participated in the training in 2014. Professional training sessions were also held on modern planting and breeding as well as on animal sanitation and epidemic prevention, with more than 70,000 people receiving the training in that year. By issuing the Opinions on Further Promoting Household Registration System Reform, the State Council lifted all restrictions on settlement in incorporated towns (towns with a population of at least 2,500) and small cities, established a uniform household registration system in urban and rural areas together with a residence permit system, established and improved a basic public service supply mechanism linked with residence period, and steadily promoted the complete coverage of basic public services for permanent urban residents.

Educational fairness better guaranteed. China is continuing to increase its input in educational resources, giving preferential treatment to central and western regions and compulsory education in the countryside. In 2014, the education expenditure from the general public services budget of the central government reached 410.19 billion yuan, up 8.2 percent from 2013. The central government allocated one billion yuan from its budget as supporting funds for pre-school education, 13.266 billion yuan for free textbooks for compulsory education courses, and 7.293 billion yuan as cost of living subsidies for boarders in schools offering compulsory education from families with financial difficulties. Nearly 110 million rural students receiving compulsory education benefited from exemption of all tuition and miscellaneous fees as well as free textbooks, first-grade pupils received dictionaries for free, and 12.4 million boarders from poverty-stricken households in central and western China received cost of living subsidies. Since November 2014 the nutrition subsidies covered by national pilot projects for rural students receiving compulsory education have been raised from 600 yuan to 800 yuan per person per year. In the same year, the central government allocated 17.156 billion yuan for nutrition improvement, benefiting 31.84 million students. Secondary vocational education was made free for more than 10 million students, and national grants were provided to nearly 4.88 million senior high school students, 3.15 million secondary vocational school students and 6.6 million college students. The central government also appropriated 31 billion yuan to upgrade schools with poor compulsory education conditions in poverty-stricken areas, with the focus on promoting pre-school education in rural areas, building dormitories for rural teachers in remote and border areas, building senior high schools in counties with a weak educational foundation in regions inhabited by ethnic minorities, and building special education schools in central and western China. The percentage of students receiving nine-year compulsory education remaining in school and the gross enrollment ratio of senior high schools were 92.6 percent and 86.5 percent, respectively. Twenty-eight provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government have started to address the problem of whether or not permitting children of rural migrant workers who received their compulsory education in cities to sit the national college entrance examinations in cities where they are now living. Institutions of higher learning continued to implement the country's Collaborative Admission Plan for Supporting the Central and Western Regions (initiated in 2008) and the Special Admission Plan for Students from Poor Rural Areas (initiated in 2012), expanding the two plans to cover 200,000 and 50,000 people, an increase of 15,000 and 20,000 people, respectively, over the previous year.

Poverty alleviation steadily promoted. China has adopted a strategy of taking targeted measures for poverty alleviation, and declared October 17 as "China Poverty Alleviation Day." Departments of the CPC Central Committee and the central government at various levels, enterprises and public institutions are paired up with and assisting all of the 592 counties that are key targets of the government's development-oriented poverty-reduction work. The central government appropriated 43.3 billion yuan for poverty reduction in 2014, an increase of nearly 10 percent over the previous year, adopted the policy of giving people work in place of relief subsidies, allocated 5.72 billion yuan to support the building of small and medium-sized infrastructure projects for public welfare, such as water conservancy projects, road construction, etc., and earmarked 680 million yuan as remuneration for people in poverty-stricken areas participating in the construction projects. China also resettled 916,900 impoverished people from poverty-stricken areas at a total cost of 5.5 billion yuan. It allocated 154.1 billion yuan out of the vehicle purchase tax to subsidize 14 contiguous poverty-stricken areas, supporting the building and renovation of 31,700 km of expressways and national or provincial highways, building 96,000 km of rural highways and a batch of rural passenger bus stations, and solving the traffic problems of 93 townships, and 10,500 villages. The central government proceeded with the plan of building 138 bridges to replace ropeways in seven provinces and regions, namely, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang. By the end of 2014 the impoverished population in rural China had decreased to 70.17 million, based on the criterion that the national poverty line has been set at 2,300 yuan per person per year (calculated at 2010 constant prices). This means that there were 12.32 million fewer poverty-stricken people at the end of 2014 than a year earlier.

The legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers effectively protected. By the end of 2014 the total number of migrant workers in China was 273.95 million, an increase of 1.9 percent over 2013. Governments at all levels endeavored to stabilize and increase employment as well as business development for migrant workers, thus effectively guaranteeing their legitimate labor rights and interests. The central government formulated the Plan to Raise the Vocational Skills of Migrant Workers, which improved social security and employment service at the community level for them, and provided funds to build 269 county-level employment and social security service centers, and 961 town and township service stations. It gave full play to the important role of the trade unions and other rights-protection organizations for safeguarding workers' rights, provided various kinds of employment services to more than five million people, and helped one million people sign labor contracts with a duration of over one year. In 2014 various central government departments and a social group jointly issued the Opinions of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, State Administration of Work Safety and All -China Federation of Trade Unions on Further Improving Work on Work-related Injury Insurance in the Construction Industry, further defining and detailing the relevant policies and measures. In the same year, human resources and social security departments at all levels investigated and handled 263,000 cases concerning wage arrears. People's courts at all levels investigated and settled 219,000 cases relating to the transfer of land-use rights, disputes over rural homestead and wage arrears, and convicted 753 persons for refusing to pay others for the labor rendered. The Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Administrative Cases Concerning Work-Related Injury Insurance was promulgated in the same year to define employers' responsibility in case of work-related injury insurance, and how to deal with cases of work-related injury caused by third parties. The Provisions also made clear the administrative trial procedures relating to labor relations confirmation, and defined such factors as "work-related, time and place of work" in the identification of work-related injuries.

Social insurance coverage widened. The State Council issued the Opinions on Establishing a Unified Basic Pension Insurance System for Non-working Urban and Rural Residents in 2014, establishing a unified basic pension insurance system nationwide, which solved the problem of laborers, especially migrant workers participating in the basic pension insurance system for urban workers or non-working people. A total of 341.24 million people had participated in the basic pension insurance for urban workers by the end of 2014, and 501.07 million people had participated in the basic pension insurance system for non-working people, increases of 19.06 million and 3.57 million, respectively, compared with 2013. At the same time, some 597.74 million people had participated in the basic medical insurance for non-working urban residents and 736.27 million people had participated in the new rural cooperative medical care system. The coverage of the basic medical insurance system for urban and rural residents exceeded 95 percent. In 2014 a total of 170.43 million people participated in the unemployment insurance scheme, an increase of 6.26 million over 2013, and the number of people receiving unemployment insurance allowances reached 2.07 million, making the average amount of 852 yuan per month. A total of 206.39 million people participated in work-related injury insurance in 2014, an increase of 7.22 million people over the previous year, among whom 73.62 million were migrant workers, an increase of 980,000 people. As many as 170.39 million people participated in maternity insurance, 6.47 million more than in 2013.

Medical security system further improved. The central government has gradually raised the annual government subsidy for the basic medical insurance for rural and non-working urban residents. In 2014 government subsidies for the new rural cooperative medical care system and medical insurance for non-working urban residents reached 320 yuan per person per year, with the individual contribution rising to 90 yuan. Serious illness insurance for urban and rural non-working residents is now available throughout the country, and the reimbursement rate for patients with serious illnesses is 10 percentage points higher than that for the basic medical insurance. The central government appropriated 22.4 billion yuan in 2014 to improve the medical health service system, including the building of 152 disease prevention and control institutions, 257 maternal and children health-care institutions, 24 other professional public health and disease prevention and control institutions, 360 county-level hospitals, 2,645 town and township hospitals, 53 community health service centers, 44,000 village clinics and 18,000 dormitories in town and township hospitals. The government subsidy for the basic public health services rose from 30 yuan per person in 2013 to 35 yuan in 2014, covering 43 items of services in 11 categories, providing more services and benefiting more people. The central government appropriated 15.4 billion yuan as supporting funds for six major public health service projects, including the prevention and control of HIV, tuberculosis and other serious diseases, healthcare for women and children, supervision of food risks, raising public's awareness about health, and personnel training. The central government poured 9.1 billion yuan into implementing the basic pharmaceuticals system at grassroots medical and health institutions, and village clinics. Another 11.8 billion yuan was allocated to promote reform of state-owned hospitals and standardized training of physicians.

Social assistance further improved. China issued the Interim Measures for Social Assistance, and solved the livelihood difficulties of poverty-stricken urban and rural people in accordance with the law, and ensured equal rights, opportunities and treatment for all citizens who sought social assistance. By the end of 2014 there were altogether 18.8 million urban recipients and 52.09 million rural recipients of subsistence allowances, and 5.295 million people enjoying the "five guarantees" (food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses). The average minimum cost of living and subsidy for urban recipients was 411 yuan per person per month and 275 yuan per person per month, up 10.1 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, over the previous year. For rural recipients these figures were 2,777 yuan per person per year and 125 yuan per person per month, up 14.1 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively, over 2013. The central government allocated 500 million yuan to encourage all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government as well as cities and prefectures to establish emergency assistance funds for emergency treatment for seriously ill or injured people whose identities are unknown or who are unable to pay the fees. In 2014, 25.4 billion yuan was spent on providing medical aid to 102 million people nationwide. The in-patient aid, out-patient aid and aid for participating in urban medical insurance and the new rural cooperative medical care system respectively reached 1,723 yuan, 144 yuan and 80 yuan per person. From October 1, 2014, pensions and funds to ensure the minimum living standard for disabled soldiers and other people with special needs both increased by 20 percent.

Construction of government-subsidized housing accelerated. China continued to implement the Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating the Rebuilding of Shanty Towns to give priority to central government's financial input in the rebuilding of shanty towns, and the building of infrastructure supportive to government-subsidized housing projects within the central budget. In 2014 funds provided in this regard within the central budget reached 78.7 billion yuan. At the same time, the central government provided 23 billion yuan as part of the funds in the renovation of dilapidated rural houses, and finished renovating the housing of 2.66 million families. Government-subsidized housing is regarded by governments at all levels as a promise they have to fulfill to the people. Throughout the year of 2014, construction began on 7.4 million government-subsidized apartments, and 5.11 million were basically completed, exceeding the goals of the construction of 7 million apartments and completing 4.8 million apartments set at the beginning of the year. From 2008 to 2014 China provided more than 800 billion yuan from the central budget in urban government-subsidized housing. During this period, construction began on 45 million government-subsidized apartments, of which 20.8 million were to be located in shanty towns. By the end of 2014 China had solved housing difficulties for more than 40 million urban households.

Basic cultural rights better protected. China has speeded up the building of a public cultural services system that covers the entire society, and enhanced the rule of law in the culture market. It has changed 11 items from pre-access approval to post-access approval for investment in this market. At the same time the state has increased its input in cultural programs, carried out the digital cultural programs, and built libraries, art galleries, cultural centers and similar projects that are open to the public for free. In 2014 the central budget allocated 14.38 billion yuan for rural public cultural improvements, effectively improved the public cultural services at the grassroots level, and promoted equal access to public cultural services. By the end of 2014 China had 2,008 art performance organizations, 2,760 museums and 3,311 cultural centers. In addition, China had 3,110 public libraries, which received a total of 522.5 million visits in that year, and 4,246 archives with a total of 128.35 million open archival records. Some 2,115 museums and 43,510 public libraries, art galleries and cultural centers instituted free admission. China had 321 million cable TV users (households) and 187 million cable digital TV users. About 98 percent of China's population had access to radio broadcasts, and the figure was 98.6 percent for access to television programs. China has made radio and television services available for every village with more than 20 households, and is working to expand the coverage to every household. The project of providing direct broadcasting satellite services to every household has covered more than 16 million households so far. In 2014 China produced 429 TV series totaling 15,983 episodes, TV cartoon programs totaling 138,496 minutes. It produced 618 feature films, and 140 other films, including popular science films, documentaries, animated cartoons and special-purpose films. The total cinema box office receipts reached 29.6 billion yuan, an increase of 36 percent over the previous year. Thirty-six domestic films each surpassed 100 million yuan in box office receipts. Meanwhile, China carried out a rural film program, projecting at least one film per month in every administrative village. Outdoor mobile film projection is now giving way to projection at permanent indoor venues, and the number of films to be ordered for purchase exceeds 3,000. The rural library project covers all administrative villages, and a long-term mechanism for regular publication updates is taking shape. The building of digital libraries is also accelerating. In 2014 the central government made use of special lottery funds for the building of 3,600 children's cultural centers for rural schools, up by 80 percent over the previous year. During the period of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) the central government provided 3.385 billion yuan of special lottery funds to build and encouraged local governments to build more than 25,000 children's cultural centers for rural schools. According to the sixth national sports venue census at the end of 2013, China had more than 1.695 million sports venues, with a total area of 1.99 billion sq m. In 2014 China's cultural attractions and scenic spots received a total of 1.4 billion visitors, generating an income of 250 billion yuan and providing employment for more than one million people.

II. Rights of the Person

In 2014 China strengthened supervision over foodstuffs, improved laws and regulations on production safety, combated terrorism according to law, attached more importance to protecting the rights of the accused, detainees and criminals, and stepped up drug-control efforts to protect citizens' personal rights.

Stricter supervision over food safety. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) deliberated the revised draft of the Food Safety Law, which enhances the supervision of the whole process in this field from food production and circulation to catering services, and food import and export, sets up a food-traceability system and a quality labeling system, and increases the penalties for violations of food safety to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in accordance with the law.

In March 2014 the Supreme People' s Court put into effect the Provisions of Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Food and Drug Disputes, increasing efforts to crack down on crimes endangering food and drug safety. People's courts at all levels concluded a total of 11,000 related cases in that year. In March 2014 the Food Safety Office of the State Council, China Food and Drug Administration and State Administration for Industry and Commerce, jointly issued the Notice on Cracking Down on Illegal Acts of Making and Selling Counterfeit and Poor-quality Food, and Strengthening Supervision of Rural Food Markets, launching a special campaign to address problems in the rural food markets such as doing business without a license, and selling and using food and foodstuffs from illegal sources. During this nationwide campaign, the competent departments inspected food producers 424,200 times, food sellers 3,868,800 times, wholesale markets and pedlers' markets 142,900 times, spot checked these markets 253,600 times, banned 22,800 unlicensed businesses according to law, revoked 1,142 licenses for food production and marketing, cancelled 642 business licenses, destroyed 1,375 counterfeit and poor-quality food-producing workshops, checked and confiscated 361,900 kg of foodstuffs that violated trademark laws, investigated and prosecuted 45,100 cases of foodstuffs illegality, and handled 46,800 related complaints and reports from consumers.

Improvement of work safety laws and regulations. In August 2014 the Standing Committee of the NPC approved the Decision on Amending the Work Safety Law, which enhances regulations, mechanisms and measures concerning standardization, planning, liability insurance, responsibility of management organizations and public announcement of serious breaches of the law in the field of work safety. The Decision has helped raise awareness of work safety, strengthen responsibility for law enforcement and supervision, and routine checks and supervision, both overt and covert, to curb violators. In 2014, 453,000 work safety inspection groups conducted 2,342,000 inspections of production and business units, dealing with 1,278,000 incidences of violations, halting the operations of 7,745 such units for rectification and shutting down over 5,000 units. The government strengthened rectification of safety risks, made known to the public all enterprises posing major risks, meted out punitive measures to them such as rectification within deadlines, suspending production for rectification, imposing a fine or shutting down the business completely. The accountability system has been strengthened, and work safety incidents have been thoroughly dealt with. The average time spent on dealing with major and extremely serious safety incidents in 2014 was shortened to 113 days from 123 days in 2013. All the 51 major and extremely serious safety incidents occurred in 2013 have been dealt with, and 38 out of 42 such incidents occurred in 2014 have been dealt with, with 969 persons called to account and 302 of them held criminally liable.

Combating terrorism in accordance with the law to ensure the safety of life and property of the people. In October 2014 the Anti-terrorism Law of the People's Republic of China (draft) was first deliberated at the 11th Plenary Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC. In November 2014 public views of the draft were solicited via www.npc.gov.cn. This draft stipulated the working mechanism, scope of functions and duties, security precautions, intelligence, emergency response and international cooperation in anti-terrorism efforts. On December 28, 2014, the 12th Plenary Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC approved the Anti-terrorism Convention of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to further international cooperation against terrorism. In September 2014 the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate and Ministry of Public Security released the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases Involving Terrorism and Religious Extremism, defining the basic principles for handling such cases, how to determine the nature of the cases, and principle of jurisdiction. People's courts at all levels dealt with 558 cases of crimes of inciting separatism and terrorism, prosecuting 712 culprits. The judicial organs severely punished crimes such as the terrorist attacks at Tiananmen on October 28, 2013 and at Kunming railway station on March 1, 2014 to ensure the safety of life and property of the people.

The rights of the accused, detainees and criminals are protected. In 2014 the Ministry of Public Security formulated the Regulations on Making Audio-Video Recordings by the Public Security Organs When Interrogating Criminal Suspects and the Supreme People's Procuratorate amended the Provisions on Making Synchronous Audio-Video Recordings Throughout the Entire Process of Interrogation of Duty-Related Criminal Suspects, making sure audio-video recording is used in the entire process of interrogating criminal suspects, and giving detailed provisions on the principle, method and procedure of synchronous audio-video recordings, and management and use of such audio-video recordings. The public security, judicial and administrative departments at all levels worked together to promote the establishing of legal aid stations in detention centers, and resident lawyers from legal aid organizations provide legal consultation for the accused and detainees to protect their legitimate rights and interests. By the end of 2014, up to 1,700 legal aid stations had been set up by the legal aid organizations in detention centers across the country, and this service now covers all the detention centers in the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing, and the provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou. The Ministry of Public Security has launched a special program to comprehensively improve the safety management level of detention centers and pressed ahead with professional health care services provided in detention centers to ensure that sick detainees are treated in a timely and effective manner. The Regulations on Temporarily Serving Sentences Outside Prison jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice, and National Health and Family Planning Commission, and Opinions on Strengthening Sanitation Management in Prisons issued by the Ministry of Justice have helped to make law enforcement fairer, stricter and more civilized.

Major progress has been made in drug control. In 2014 drug control department under the Ministry of Public Security implemented the Opinion of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening Drug Control, intensified efforts to launch a special drug-control program in 100 cities and cracked down on drug-related crimes, to clean the social environment and ensure the health and safety of citizens. During this period, a total of 145,900 drug-related cases were prosecuted nationwide, with 168,900 criminal suspects arrested and 68.95 tons of drugs of various kinds seized. In helping drug addicts receive treatment we observe the principle of "putting people first, managing drug treatment services according to law, adopting scientific and comprehensive measures based on individual needs, and supplementing treatment with care and aid," and take measures such as voluntary in-patient treatment, community treatment, compulsory quarantine treatment and community rehabilitation. By the end of 2014 the registered drug addicts totaled 2.955 million, and those who had not relapsed for three years totaled 1.008 million. In 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, 767 drug-treatment clinics were established, receiving a total of 187,000 drug users; 836 employment service centers were set up for drug users recovering from treatment, providing job opportunities for 515,000 ex-addicts of opioids, with an employment rate of 47.8 percent; 46 rehabilitation centers for sick and disabled drug users were set up, providing treatment to over 9,000 people.

III. Democratic Rights

In 2014 China officially designated December 4th as the national Constitution Day through legislation with a view to advancing the rule of law, enforcing the implementation of the Constitution, and promoting citizens' democratic rights to civic participation, democratic legislation, consultative democracy, community-level democracy, citizen supervision and freedom of speech.

The mechanisms for people to exercise state power being improved. The people' s congress system is the fundamental political system of China. In 2014 the Standing Committee of the NPC exercised its power of supervision in accordance with the law, heard and deliberated 13 work reports from the government, Supreme People' s Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate, checked the implementation of four laws, and held three topical inquiries and four topical investigations. It highlighted legislative priorities, accelerated the pace of legislative work, and improved the mechanisms for and effectiveness of legislation to promote democratic legislation. In 2014 the Standing Committee of the NPC deliberated 20 draft laws, revised 10 laws, enacted two laws, and provided eight legal interpretations.

It stressed appraisal before and in the process of legislation. Suggestions were solicited from the general public, experts and related departments via the Internet, symposiums, discussions, investigations and letters. Take the draft amendment to the Administrative Procedure Law as an example. From August 31 to September 20, 2014 over 2,300 pieces of advice were offered by 1,586 people on the second review draft.

The Standing Committee also improved the post-legislation appraisal mechanism to make appraisal a standardized practice that is done on a regular basis. A sound operation mechanism for the enactment, revision, abolition and interpretation of laws was established step by step.

Multilayer consultative democracy steadily developed. Consultative democracy is a form of democracy unique to China's socialist democratic politics. China' s fine traditional culture provides a profound political and ideological wellspring for this new-type consultative democracy. In 2014, centered on building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, comprehensively deepening reform, governing the country with the rule of law and running the Party with strict discipline, the country gathered strength, explored with consultative democracy in greater width and depth, strengthened the function of democratic supervision, continued to strengthen consultation among political parties, in the people's congresses, governments, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and people's organizations, and at the community level. Efforts were made to build a complete consultation democracy system with proper procedures, and expand channels for citizens to participate in state and social governance in an orderly manner, all of which improved the scientific and democratic level of decision making. Since the Second Session of the 12th CPPCC, the conclusion rate of their proposals has reached 99.8 percent.

Power list system actively promoted. In 2014 the State Council made a series of decisions concerning administrative approval items to be cancelled or delegated to lower levels, canceling and delegating to lower levels over 246 items for administrative approval. This means the current Administration has honored the promise of deducting the administrative approval items by one third ahead of schedule. The State Council also released a list of items for administrative approval by all departments, stipulating that no department should exercise administrative approval beyond the list of 1,235 items so as to minimize the possibilities of officials seeking personal gain through power and improve the procedure of the exercise of power. We have actively implemented the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information, gone all out to make government affairs public, promoted e-government and online services to ensure timely and accurate access by ordinary citizens to information, and put the government under public supervision.

More efforts being put in improving Party conduct, upholding integrity and combating corruption. The CPC Central Committee and the Chinese government are unswervingly improving their work practices, adopting zero-tolerance toward corruption and further improving the governance by law. In 2014 the discipline inspection and supervision departments nationwide received a total of 2.72 million tip-off and complaint letters, filed 226,000 cases, concluded 218,000 cases, gave Party and administrative discipline sanctions to 232,000 people, and transferred 12,000 people to judicial organs for suspected crimes; investigated and handled 53,085 cases for violating the "Eight Provisions" of the CPC Central Committee, involving 71,748 people, of whom, 23,646 were given Party and administrative discipline sanctions. We beefed up our efforts to pursue offenders who have fled overseas and recover their ill-gotten gains, strengthened bilateral and multilateral cooperation, launched the "Sky Net" and "Fox Hunt" campaigns, released the Beijing Declaration on Fighting Corruption and established the Network of Anti-Corruption Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies. These steps have helped the government hunt down over 500 escaped convicts and recover over three billion yuan in illegally diverted funds. In 2014 discipline inspection and supervision departments at all levels retrieved 10.5 billion yuan for the country through rectifying Party conduct and combating corruption; a total of 130,000 units nationwide were audited, and over 250,000 audit reports and files were delivered, resulting in an increase in revenue and decrease in expenditure, and over 400 billion yuan of losses recovered. Over 3,800 pieces of evidence of cases involving violation of laws and regulations were found and submitted to the judiciary for further investigation. All these efforts helped to promote the country' s healthy economic growth, ensure social equity and justice and safeguard the immediate interests of the people.

The construction of core socialist values gathering momentum. China's human rights will not be able to make progress without the construction of core socialist values. They are supplementary to each other. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, core socialist values, namely, prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship have been advocated, fostered and implemented in all sectors of society. Core socialist values are the common ideals and spiritual pillars of the Chinese people. In 2014 the state renewed its efforts to promote human rights education, and advanced the construction of core socialist values, launching volunteer services and programs inculcating filial piety education, integrity education, thrift education, cultivating and inheriting fine family traditions, school mottoes, entrepreneurship, fine village traditions and festival culture, and publicizing public service advertisements titled "Our Values." We intensified the building of civilized cities, towns, villages, and units, and exhorted Chinese tourists to behave themselves. We presented role models representing the spirit of our time through the online column "365 moral models." Recommendations for role models and good deeds totaled over 40,000 throughout that year, and by the end of 2014 the page featuring this topic on weibo.com at the website Sina was read by more than 170 million people, exerting a positive influence on society. Freedom of speech better protected. In 2014 China published 46.5 billion copies of newspapers, 3.2 billion copies of periodicals, and 8.4 billion copies of books, with 6.12 copies of books per person. By the end of 2014 the population of netizens in China was 650 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 47.9 percent. Of all the netizens, 508 million were smart phone users, an increase of 76.83 million over 2013, registering an increase rate of 17.8 percent. The users of the top three Internet applications instant messaging, search engine and netnews were 588 million, 522 million and 519 million, respectively. The number of online video users was 433 million, microblog users 249 million, and Wechat accounts over eight million, with its active domestic and overseas accounts per month close to 500 million. The public can air opinions, and raise criticisms and suggestions freely through the news media, and discuss problems of this country and society. The government encourages enterprises to provide various Internet services to the public in accordance with the law so as to create a good environment for the public to acquire and exchange information. A cleaner cyber space is becoming an ever important place for the public to get information and make their voices heard. Social organizations playing their roles better. Renewed efforts are being made to promote the direct registration of social organizations, providing more favorable conditions and an institutional guarantee for citizens to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, express their legitimate demands, participate in the management of public affairs and engage in social services through these social organizations. In 2014 the social organizations registered at the Ministry of Civil Affairs totaled 600,000, an increase of 11.1 percent over the previous year; among them, 307,000 were social groups, with year-on-year growth of 7.3 percent; 4,044 were foundations, a year-on-year growth of 15.7 percent; and 289,000 were non-governmental nonprofit units, a year-on-year growth of 15.1 percent. Meanwhile, the government continued to outsource services from social organizations. In 2014 it allocated a budget of 200 million yuan to initiate 448 projects, with supporting funds of 166 million yuan to assist social organizations to serve society, directly benefiting over 2.35 million people and training about 20,000 heads of social organizations.