In the face of constant criticism of its human rights record,
the Chinese government has been eager to show the world how it
claims to protect its citizens' rights and interests.
At the end of this year, the government went so far as to hold a
Human Rights Exhibition, to showcase its efforts and the "People
First" policies.
However, it did little to quiet the critics, who cited
allegations of illegal arrests and unfair trials that the
government said were unfounded.
"A tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that is
growing," said Giorgio Magistrelli, executive general manager of
the European Chamber of Commerce in China, referring to China's
conflicts with the West in the field of trade.
The same is true of human rights. While cases of rights
violations grab headlines, the government claims to have been
making steady efforts to improve its human rights record,
especially in terms of poverty alleviation, education, and health
care and social security for the needy.
The frictions between the West and China lie in the different
concepts of human rights. While developed nations preach individual
freedom and certain political and economic rights, China, with its
vast rural economy, argues it must ensure its people enjoy the
freedom from want, an issue solved more than half a century ago in
the United States.
"In a vast developing nation, the overriding task for the ruling
Communist Party of China should be feeding its 1.3 billion people,
making them better off, and giving them a better future by
providing proper education," said Dong Yunhu, vice-chairman of the
China Society for Human Rights Studies.
POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Foreign visitors to China are usually impressed by the rising
skylines of Shanghai and Beijing, but many fail to notice the 23.65
million people live under the poverty line, especially in remote
rural areas.
China's breakneck, but unbalanced, economic growth has seen the
number of people living under poverty line fall from 250 million in
1978 to just 23.65 million last year, and the country has evolved
from a beneficiary of the world food aid program to a donor.
To ensure freedom from want, the government has embarked on a
mission to build a harmonious society, by which it means narrowing
wealth gap and providing more help to the poor.
In October, a national poverty alleviation program was launched
to train one million people under poverty line every year till
2010.
This year, 934 government-designated enterprises have helped
more than eight million impoverished households raise their
incomes, while the poverty alleviation foundation provided small
loans to households in abject poverty helping them learn skills and
develop farming projects.
FREE NINE-YEAR COMPULSORY EDUCATION
Equal opportunity in education is a basic human right. In "a
milestone event" in China's education history, the government will
eliminate all charges for rural students receiving a nine-year
compulsory education by the end of 2007.
The new policy will benefit 160 million children in rural areas,
almost 80 percent of the country's primary and junior middle school
students.
"Over the next two years, we will completely eliminate tuition
and other fees for all rural students receiving compulsory
education," said Premier Wen Jiabao in a cabinetwork report to the
annual parliament in March.
Wang Xiwu, deputy director of the No. 5 Middle School in Huining
County, in the northwestern Gansu Province, said her school had
eliminated all fees and provided students from impoverished
families a subsidy of one yuan per day. As far as she knew, all the
schools in her county had eliminated all fees.
By October, the central government had earmarked 13.3 billion
yuan for implementing the compulsory education scheme in western
areas, decreasing the dropout rate.
Next year, the government will allocate more money to the scheme
in central and eastern regions, so that all the school-age children
will enjoy free nine-year education, said Zhou Ji, minister of
education.
HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY
This year saw China setting timetables for the improvement of
the health care and social security systems, a critical aspect of
raising living standards.
A national survey on medical services earlier this year showed
48.9 percent of Chinese refused to see a doctor when ill and 29.6
percent refused a doctor's advice to be hospitalized due to high
costs.
Health care reform comes in response to public dissatisfaction.
In October, Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of Health (MOH),
said the government would build a system with Chinese
characteristics, rather than simply copy a "European model" or
"American model".
A timetable provided by the MOH has a new rural cooperative
medical service system covering 700 million people in place by
2010, subsidized by the government with 30 billion yuan
annually.
To date, 396 million farmers, 44.7 percent of the rural
population, are covered by the new system.
In urban areas, the government is vigorously developing
affordable community health care services. People suffering minor
ailments are advised to go to community health care centers.
The MOH timetable shows at least 95 percent urban communities
will have their own health care centers by 2010 and 90 percent of
people will be within a 10 to 15-minute walk of a community
healthcare center.
Meanwhile, the government will establish a social security
system covering both urban and rural areas by 2020, decided at an
important CPC meeting in 2006, indicating a substantial increase of
social security spending to come.
MORE TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT
The mushrooming government websites and frequently used public
hearings are cited by the government as evidence of the public
right to know and right to say being respected and safeguarded.
In April, the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform
Commission held a hearing on the feasibility of raising taxi fares
to offset rising fuel costs. Representatives came from the taxi
drivers; taxi passengers and taxi company managements as well as
officials.
Most representatives finally agreed on the proposal of raising
fares by 25 percent to offset oil price hikes and the Beijing
municipal government raised taxi fares from 1.6 yuan per km to two
yuan from May 20.
Meanwhile, the education authorities in Chongqing Municipality
held a hearing on the feasibility of raising high school tuition
fees.
In Xi'an, capital of the northwestern Shannxi Province, the
government held hearings on the possible environmental effects of a
cement factory construction project. The project is still awaiting
final approval, as it must be revised to take public concerns into
account.
This year, 86 percent of central government departments and
local governments had launched websites to publicize information in
time and provide public services.
"The government's website is a great help for business people to
learn about central government policies. It gives me lots of useful
information for my business," said Lin Xuguang who run his own
business in Beijing.
Online interviews with high-ranking officials and online public
opinion polls are both popular with Internet users.
RAISING LEGAL AWARENESS
Many people are exercising their newfound legal knowledge by
taking governments to court to protect their rights.
In northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, for example, the
courts heard more than 1,400 cases in which members of the public
sued governments from January to October -- and won in 600
cases.
In December, a medicine company won a lawsuit against the
Ministry of Finance, after claiming the ministry had failed to
perform its duty in supervising a public tender for medical
appliances.
Meanwhile, the government stepped up a campaign to raise public
legal awareness, especially among farmers.
Village committees will provide an introduction to the country's
legal framework to "every rural household", Dou Yupei, vice
minister of civil affairs, has said.
Dou hoped the country's 800 million farmers will learn to better
employ their democratic rights, and file complaints that more
comprehensively safeguard their interests. The ministry will
improve training for village and township officials to ensure that
rural affairs be handled lawfully.
China's first five-year program to improve public awareness of
legal rights started in 1985. Each five-year program focuses on a
particular segment of society.
HUMAN RIGHTS ARE LIKE FRUIT
"The value of human rights is universal, but the dynamic of its
implementation varies in different countries," said Dong, of the
China Society for Human Rights Studies, explaining China's
approach.
He had his own metaphor for the frictions between China and the
West. "Human rights is abstract like the concept of fruit, which is
the collective notion of apples, pears and bananas, among others.
When a certain country wants to push its idea of human rights onto
the whole world as the only standard, it's like saying only banana
is fruit, the apple and pear are not."
In November, China held its first human rights exhibition. The
10-day event featured more than 700 pictures, 250 legal documents,
330 books and 24 diagrams on China's progress in human rights
protection.
"Our aim is to show that China respects and guarantees the
constitutional principle of human rights, and to popularize
knowledge about human rights among ordinary people," said Dong.
Visitors noticed the exhibition had a special section titled "A
Long Way to Go". "The Chinese government realizes much more efforts
are needed in promoting its human rights cause," Dong said.
"To hold a human rights exhibition itself represents the Chinese
government's enhanced awareness of human rights," said Kirk Denton,
associate professor at the Ohio State University, at the
exhibition.
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006)