Progress in Human Rights over the 40 Years of Reform and Opening Up in China

VI. Facilitating the Development of Human Rights in the World

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has redoubled its efforts to promote human rights, sharing its experience in this regard with the rest of the world, and creating more development opportunities for all countries. China follows the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration in global governance, with a mission of making more and greater contributions to humanity. China values the rights to subsistence, development and peace and all other human rights, and strives to further this cause throughout the world.

Increasing foreign assistance. Over the years, China has provided foreign assistance to Asian and African developing countries for use in poverty reduction, education, healthcare, agriculture and infrastructure, involving major construction projects in agriculture, industry, transport, energy and power, information technology and communication, helping resolve national problems and safeguard the local peoples’ life needs.

From 1950 to 2016, despite its own limited development and living standards, China provided RMB400 billion of foreign aid to other countries, conducted over 5,000 foreign assistance projects – of which almost 3,000 are turn-key projects – and organized 11,000 training programs in China for more than 260,000 persons from other developing countries. By 2017 China had dispatched 25,000 medical workers to 72 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Oceania, who have treated 280 million patients and saved countless lives, winning high praise from the governments and peoples of the recipient countries.

Improving development capacity. In recent years, President Xi Jinping has announced a raft of foreign assistance initiatives and measures, which fully demonstrate that China as a major country lives up to its responsibility for advancing the interests of humanity.

Within the framework of South-South cooperation China has steadily expanded its assistance to other developing countries, with more efforts to build and improve platforms for regional cooperation, while fully relying on mechanisms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), BRICS, the ASEAN Plus China (10+1) Summit, China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO), Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC), the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China-CELAC Forum, and China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF). All are designed to improve the development capacity of the countries involved.

China has proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, initiated the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB) for development projects in BRICS, set up the Silk Road Fund and the Assistance Fund for South-South Cooperation, and founded the Center for International Knowledge on Development (CIKD) and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD). All the above are aimed to encourage the recipient countries to enhance their capacity for self-development, reduce poverty, improve their people’s living standards, and protect the environment.

The port-industry-city integrated development model, initiated by China and adopted by Djibouti, Colombo in Sri Lanka and Kuantan in Malaysia, has been welcomed by these Belt and Road countries.

China is steadily increasing foreign assistance training. By organizing training courses, dispatching management personnel, technical professionals and young volunteers, and offering scholarships, China has provided advanced study and training for government officials, higher education degree and diploma programs, and technical training and exchange programs for various kinds of personnel from other developing countries, to share development experience and technologies in a timely manner.

From 2013 to 2017, by establishing economic and trade cooperation zones in the Belt and Road countries, China helped create more than 200,000 jobs in the host countries. Once the 10 major China-Africa cooperation programs are in place, they will help Africa add a total highway length of nearly 30,000 km, add clean water treatment capacity of over 9 million tons/day, and create about 900,000 jobs. The Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), which opened to traffic in 2017, has helped increase Kenya’s GDP by 1.5-2 percent.

Providing humanitarian relief. In the early days of reform and opening up, China’s humanitarian relief focused on helping other developing countries respond to severe natural disasters. This included emergency aid to a number of African countries stricken by severe droughts and to Bangladesh hit by windstorms.

After 2001, China increased its participation in international humanitarian relief, taking an active part in activities launched by UN organizations and expanding its share of aid year by year.

Since 2004, China had provided over 300 international humanitarian relief programs, with an average annual growth rate of 29.4 percent. These relief programs mainly comprise:

• technical aid to Southeast Asian countries against avian influenza;

• material and personnel assistance and assistance in cash

• to Guinea-Bissau against locust plague and cholera,

• to Mexico against A/H1N1 flu,

• to Africa against Ebola, yellow fever, plague and other infectious diseases,

• to Iran, Haiti, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico against earthquakes,

• to Madagascar against hurricanes,

• to Indian Ocean countries against tsunami,

• to Pakistan against floods,

• to the US against Hurricane Katrina,

• to Chile against mountain fires,

• to the Caribbean countries against hurricanes;

• food and goods assistance to the DPRK, Bangladesh and Nepal.

In March 2014 when Ebola broke out in many West African countries, China provided four rounds of humanitarian relief, with a total value of RMB750 million, and deployed more than 1,000 experts and medical workers.

China has enacted laws and regulations on international humanitarian relief and improving its related working mechanisms, and forged stronger cooperation on humanitarian relief with UN organizations and NGOs. In 1979, China joined the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Program (WFP), resumed its activities in the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and made many donations to the UNHCR. The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), China Charity Federation (CCF), China Welfare Institute (CWI), China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) and private charities, along with legal persons of certain enterprises and societies in China, have all engaged in international humanitarian relief, demonstrating to the international community China’s sincere desire to engage in international humanitarian relief and to protect human rights through tangible actions.

Safeguarding world peace. China, along with other countries, is constantly committed to maintaining world peace, supporting international and regional anti-terror cooperation, and creating a peaceful and harmonious environment for the development of human rights in the world. China has made a significant contribution to the right to peace by promoting development with peace and by consolidating peace through development.

In recent years, China has provided solutions to regional flashpoint issues: putting forward proposals and initiatives for the Palestinian issue on many occasions; engaging in serious negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue; actively mediating for the national reconciliation in South Sudan; pressing for a political settlement to the Syrian issue; promoting peace negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban; and facilitating the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue.

China has firmly supported and vigorously participated in UN peacekeeping operations. In April 1990, China dispatched the first five military observers to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), marking China’s official participation in UN peacekeeping operations. By May 2018, China had dispatched 37,000 military and 2,700 police personnel to participate in 30 UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan, Lebanon, Cambodia, Liberia and other countries and regions. China ranks first in terms of the number of peacekeepers among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, and is the second largest donor country to UN peacekeeping operations. In September 2017, China completed the registration of 8,000 standby peacekeeping forces in the UN.

These are the significant measures by which China has met its responsibilities as a major country, fulfilled its promise to support UN peacekeeping operations with concrete actions, and promoted the cause of human rights throughout the world.

VII. Active Participation in Global Governance of Human Rights

Over the 40 years of reform and opening up, upholding the principles of equality and mutual trust, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and cooperation and win-win benefits, China has been active in UN human rights undertakings, fulfilling its international human rights obligations, conducting extensive international cooperation on human rights, and advancing the global governance of human rights in a fair and rational direction.

Fulfilling obligations in international instruments on human rights. To date, China has signed 26 international human rights instruments, including six major ones such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

China fulfills all the obligations prescribed in relevant international conventions, ensuring that its legislation and any amendments as well as its policy formulation are consistent with these conventions, and completing and submitting periodic reports to give feedback on the progress made and any difficulties and problems encountered in implementing international conventions on human rights.

China accepts reviews from the treaty body on its implementation of these conventions. By August 2018, China had submitted 39 implementation reports on 26 occasions to these treaty bodies and received 26 reviews. During the reviews, China conducted constructive dialogue with the relevant treaty bodies and adopted their suggestions in accordance with the actual conditions in China.

China supports the necessary reform of the human rights treaty bodies, promoting dialogue and cooperation between the treaty bodies and signatory states on the basis of mutual respect.

China recommends Chinese experts as candidate members of the treaty bodies, many of whom have been chosen to serve on bodies such as the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations Committee against Torture, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Participating in establishing international rules and mechanisms for protecting human rights. Since the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, China has attended the meetings of the drafting groups of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other important documents on human rights protection, making a significant contribution to drafting, revising and improving these rules.

As one of the major promoters, China participated in drafting the Declaration on the Right to Development, assisting the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to organize global discussions on fulfilling the right to development, and is committed to building mechanisms for actualizing the right to development.

In 1993, China pushed for the adoption of the Bangkok Declaration among Asian countries. The same year, as the vice presidency of the Second World Conference on Human Rights, China participated in drafting the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action. In 1995 in Beijing, China hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Since 2006, China has supported UNHRC in establishing specialized mechanisms for securing safe drinking water, cultural rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities, in calling for special conferences on food security and global financial crisis, and in improving the international mechanisms for protecting human rights.

China is one of the first countries that attended the UN Climate Change Conference. China is an enthusiastic participant and an effective proponent in international climate negotiations, and has contributed to the adoption of the Paris Agreement. China has facilitated the formulation and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations.

Engaging in UN human rights undertakings. From 1979 to 1981, China attended the meetings of the UNCHR as an observer state. In 1981, China was elected a member state of the UNCHR at the meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In 1982, China became an official member state of the UNCHR and has maintained this position ever since. Since 1984, a succession of experts recommended by China have been elected members and alternate members of the United Nations Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. China takes an active part in discussions and negotiations of relevant issues in the UNCHR.

To build a fair, objective and transparent international mechanism for protecting human rights, China is a vigorous proponent of reform of the UN special mechanisms for protecting human rights; it played a significant role in the negotiations and final vote on establishing the UNHRC. Since March 2006, China has been elected a UNHRC member state four times. China maintains constructive contacts with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), encouraging the OHCHR to perform its duties fairly and objectively, and directing more attention to the concerns of developing countries.

China conducts cooperation with the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Since 1994, China has invited the following UN representatives to visit the country: the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, the United Nations Working Group on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the United Nations Independent Expert on the Effects of Foreign Debt and Other Related International Financial Obligations of States on the Full Enjoyment of All Human Rights, Particularly Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. China handles letters from the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council with due attention, carrying out any necessary investigations and giving timely replies.

China is deeply involved in international mechanisms for protecting human rights, assisting multilateral human rights organizations to address such issues in a fair, objective and nonselective manner. China has implemented the suggestions adopted during the first and second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycles, and is actively participating in the third UPR cycle. China has been reelected a member state of the United Nations Committee on Non-governmental Organizations. Chinese experts have been appointed members of the UNHRC Advisory Committee and the Working Group on Situations. China encourages its NGOs to participate vigorously in the UNHRC and other human rights protection mechanisms.

Conducting extensive international exchanges and cooperation concerning human rights. China is committed to promoting constructive dialogue and cooperation on human rights with other countries based on equality and mutual respect, and to organizing extensive exchanges to this end. Since the 1990s, China has established dialogue and negotiation mechanisms for human rights protection with more than 20 other countries. China has organized dialogue and exchanges on human rights and exchanges between legal experts, and technical cooperation on human rights with international organizations and Western countries, including the US, the EU, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, to enhance communication, understanding and mutual learning between governmental departments, judicial organs and academia. China has held human rights discussions with Russia, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia, Pakistan, Belarus, Cuba and the African Union, to share experience and enhance cooperation.

In recent years, China has hosted several international forums and seminars on human rights in Beijing, including the Conference Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2016), the 16th Informal Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Seminar on Human Rights (2016), the International Seminar Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development (2016), and the First South-South Human Rights Forum (2017). All of these have strengthened international dialogue and exchanges on human rights. The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) and other human rights NGOs in China promote exchanges and cooperation on human rights. They have organized the Beijing Forum on Human Rights on nine occasions, China-Europe Seminar on Human Rights on four occasions, and the International Seminar on Human Rights and Museology several times, as well as the China-Germany Seminar on Human Rights and the Sino-American Dialogue on the Rule of Law and Human Rights. These play an important role in increasing exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. Every year China receives human rights representatives from many countries and international organizations, and arranges for foreign visits by Chinese human rights delegations, to strengthen its exchanges and cooperation on human rights with other countries and enhance mutual knowledge and understanding.

Providing Chinese solutions to global human rights governance. China is actively engaged in global governance of human rights, making proposals at the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Council and on other occasions to promote the establishment of an international human rights system that is fair, just, reasonable and effective.

China proposes the view that “The rights to subsistence and development are the primary, basic human rights.” China adheres to the principle that all human rights should develop side by side, and that both the universality and the particularity of human rights should be taken into account. China emphasizes advancing development through cooperation and promoting human rights through development. These perspectives and proposals lead the cause of human rights both in developing countries and in the wider world.

The idea of building a global community of shared future, as proposed by President Xi Jinping, has elicited a positive international response. The concept has been written into many resolutions of the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations Security Council, and is being recognized by more and more countries. It is an example of Chinese wisdom and a Chinese solution to future world development, including global governance of human rights. China has supported the passing of many resolutions by the UNHRC, including the President’s Statement on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and of the Adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Promoting the Right to Health through Enhancing Capacity-building in Public Health, The Contribution of Development to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights, and Promoting Mutually Beneficial Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights. Particularly, the passing of the resolution, The Contribution of Development to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights, for the first time introduced the concept of “promoting human rights through development” into the international human rights system.

On behalf of over 140 countries, China has delivered speeches on issues such as “enhancing cooperation on human rights”, “actualizing the right to development” and “building a global community of shared future” on many occasions; China has also hosted side events and exhibitions at the UN with the theme of “promoting human rights through poverty reduction”.

VIII. Path of Human Rights Protection Suited to National Conditions

Over the past four decades of reform and opening up, China has made significant progress in human rights, creating a new path of human rights protection based on China’s history and national conditions, and the successful experiences of other countries. This path is the result of the Chinese people’s experimentation in practice and theoretical innovation led by the CPC, and embodies the essence of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Human rights protection centered on the people.People are the fundamental driving force of history. People-centered development toward a better life was the original aspiration and remains the distinct goal of China’s reform and opening up. To realize this aspiration, the state respects the people’s principal position in the country, safeguards their political rights, expands orderly political participation in all fields at all levels, and ensures the people’s rights to equal participation and equal development. Furthermore, the state takes the people’s wellbeing and common prosperity as its ultimate goal, enables the people to be the main contributors, promoters, and beneficiaries of development, and works to fulfill their aspirations for a better education, more stable jobs, higher incomes, more reliable social security, better medical and health care, improved housing conditions, and a beautiful environment, advancing the all-round development of the people. Since the 18th CPC National Congress the CPC has given prominence to the principle of people-centered development by putting the interests of the people above all else, focusing its efforts on their aspiration for a better life, and enhancing the protection of all basic human rights. The CPC and the Chinese government plan reform policies and set reform measures in the interests of the people, and always make sure that reform responds to public demand. China’s national rejuvenation represents a process of promoting social fairness and justice, advancing human rights, realizing, safeguarding, and developing the fundamental interests of the people, ensuring that the fruits of development better benefit all the people in a fair way, and enabling every person to enjoy self-development and serve society with dignity.

Integration of the principle of universality of human rights with China’s national conditions. The universality of human rights is grounded in human dignity and value, and based on common interests and basic moral norms shared by all. There is no universally applicable model for fulfilling human rights, and human rights can only advance in the context of national conditions and people’s needs. The CPC and the Chinese government approach human rights from a historical, dialectical and developmental perspective, and take advantage of the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics while bearing in mind the overarching condition that China is still and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism, integrating universality with particularity. The central authorities take proactive steps to meet the people’s need for development, and advance human rights in a planned and progressive manner.

Primary focus on the rights to subsistence and development. From the mid-19th century China suffered repeated foreign aggression and fell to the status of a poor and weak country. The experience of numerous hardships taught the Chinese people that the rights to subsistence and development are the primary rights – the preconditions and the foundation for all other human rights. A process of self-actualization for individuals, development is a means to eliminate poverty and paves the way for realizing other human rights. Taking development as its top priority, China is committed to liberating and developing the country’s productive forces and eliminating poverty. The country has achieved outstanding economic success and realized the historic leaps from poverty to secure access to food and clothing, and thence to moderate prosperity. In the light of its national conditions, China pursues innovative, coordinated, green, open and inclusive development, highlights balance and sustainability, and promotes harmony between urban and rural areas, between regions, between the economy and society, and between humanity and nature to lay a solid foundation for fulfilling and protecting the right to development.

Coordinated progress in all human rights as a major principle for human rights protection. Over the past 40 years, adhering to the principle of interdependence and inalienability of all human rights, China has coordinated the planning and promotion of all rights and endeavored to strike a balance between economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights, and between individual rights and collective rights. Moving toward the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation set out by the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC has advanced the overall plan of seeking economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress, and made comprehensive moves to complete a moderately prosperous society in all respects, to extend reform, to advance the rule of law, and to strengthen Party discipline. In this way China has made comprehensive progress in human rights through an integrated approach.

Institutional guarantee of human rights under the rule of law. The rule of law is a symbol of human progress and an important guarantee of human rights. China has made rule of law the fundamental strategy for governing the country and worked to build a socialist country under the rule of law. The state enhances comprehensive protection of human rights under the rule of law, ensures that the people enjoy their rights and freedoms to a fuller extent, and strives to realize social fairness and justice, in an effort to bring about the all-round development of individuals and comprehensive progress of society. Since the 18th CPC National Congress the CPC and the Chinese government have made comprehensive moves to advance the rule of law, taking a holistic approach to building a country, a government and a society where the rule of law applies. The central authorities have given greater prominence to respecting and protecting human rights in building a socialist country under the rule of law, and placed human rights under the full protection of the rule of law through strengthening legislation, law enforcement, administration of justice, and observance of law.

A global community of shared future as a way to improve global human rights governance. China is a supporter, practitioner and promoter of the sound development of the international human rights cause. Since reform and opening up China has pursued common development across the world, aiming for a better life for the Chinese people and the peoples of other countries. China has developed rapidly by taking advantage of opportunities created by a peaceful international environment. It has in turn upheld and promoted world peace and common propensity through its own development, and made an outstanding contribution to the cause of international human rights. China calls for inclusiveness, exchanges, and mutual learning between cultures and between countries to advance human rights together. International human rights issues should be resolved through consultation. Building a global human rights governance system needs the participation of all countries, and progress in human rights benefits all peoples in the world. All member states have the responsibility to abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, uphold the principle of sovereign equality, and engage in human rights exchanges and cooperation in a constructive way. China conducts extensive and in-depth cooperation on international human rights, and promotes a fair and equitable global system for human rights governance by working together with other countries to build a global community of shared future.

Conclusion

The past 40 years of reform and opening up have seen a growing sense of gain, happiness and security, and noteworthy progress in the cause of human rights in China. It is a fact that the Chinese people have never enjoyed a more extensive range of human rights than they do today.

China is the largest developing country in the world. Its progress enables the Chinese people to enjoy human rights to a fuller extent, contributes significantly to the development of humanity, and shares with the world China’s experience in protecting human dignity and enriching the diversity of human rights culture.

There is always room for improving human rights. To protect human rights to a fuller extent, China still has a long way to go and faces many difficulties and challenges. As China is still and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism, pressing problems caused by unbalanced and inadequate development await solutions. Many areas concerning public wellbeing require improvement. Poverty alleviation remains a formidable task. The people’s aspirations regarding employment, education, health care, elderly care, and environment are yet to be satisfied, and protection of human rights under the rule of law needs to be enhanced.

The Chinese people are striving to achieve the Two Centenary Goals and the Chinese Dream under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee led by President Xi Jinping. Through perseverance in the coming decades, they will enjoy better protected human rights and greater dignity, freedom and happiness. The cause of human rights in China can look forward to prospects of a brighter future.