SCIO briefing on the CPC's philosophy and practice of respecting and safeguarding human rights
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 30, 2021
Beijing Review:
Based on China's conditions, the CPC creatively put forward that the rights to subsistence and development are primary and basic human rights. In this regard, China has indeed achieved enormous progress. But in other areas of human rights, are there any prominent achievements that we can tell the world? Could you illustrate with some specific examples? Thank you.
Lu Guangjin:
This is an overall question on human rights, which is not only about the rights to subsistence and development. In accordance with the principle of universality, human rights also incorporate economic, social, and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights. In recent years, environmental rights and the right to peace have also arisen. Actually, the progress of human rights in China is not a single item that comprises the rights to subsistence and development but a comprehensive and integrated advancement. Great progress has been achieved in the judicial system, as Judge Li just mentioned, especially in the strict control of the death penalty and employing it with prudence. It is basically identical to international standards from a human rights perspective. I will not expand on this, as Judge Li has already spoken about it at length. We can observe that the progress of human rights protection is remarkable in the process of judicial system reform, ranging from strictly implementing the legal principles of no punishment without law and presumption of innocence to protecting the legitimate rights of criminal suspects and prohibiting extortion of confessions by torture. I think the progress made in this area is obvious.
In addition, the protection of civil rights has improved in various aspects, including the basic rights and personal rights of citizens. As for political rights, civic engagement is increasing, and the right to participate in state and autonomous affairs are better protected. There are plenty of specific examples in this regard.
Next, I'd like to invite Dean He to make some additional remarks.
He Zhipeng:
Let me just say a few words about the question. I think the reason why China particularly emphasized the rights to subsistence and development in the 1990s is because China faced a lot of pressure in terms of survival for a long time, as well as many bottlenecks in terms of its economic, social, cultural and individual development. The rights to subsistence and development can be understood as a "bunch of rights," which means that there are many concrete rights under these rights.
I would like to add a few more words to what Professor Lu was saying. Under the leadership of the CPC, China has gradually explored the development of human rights in a gradual manner. We all know that China put forward the goal of achieving moderate prosperity in all respects. In fact, the idea of building a moderately prosperous society reflects the implications of human rights. We studied this problem some time ago. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the economic standard of per capita GDP was regarded as the sole measure of a well-off life. At the beginning of the 21st century, around the 16th CPC National Congress, China achieved its goal of a "well-off" standard of living, referring to the GDP growth target that we previously mentioned. However, can we say that China successfully achieved its goal? The answer is no. The report of the 16th CPC National Congress pointed out that, the well-off life we were leading was inadequate; and the goals of the well-off life were not only to meet people's basic needs, but also to achieve demands for democracy, the rule of law, a better environment and educational opportunities. Therefore, we found that the scope of human rights was gradually expanded under a comprehensive understanding of a well-off life.
We all have some personal experiences when we talk about building a moderately prosperous society in all respects from a perspective of human rights. We have witnessed an all-round improvement in China's economic, political and cultural life, including improvements to our living environment, educational opportunities, employment, and people's rights to know and participate in all fields of society. As the chairperson just mentioned, China is in a new period in which the timeframes of the Two Centenary Goals are converging. China's human rights situation is not perfect yet. We look forward to reviewing and summarizing at this stage, and doing better in the future. Thank you. That is all from me. Thank you, Mr. Lu.
Zhang Wanhong:
I would like to add something. I noticed that the reporter from Beijing Review wanted to hear some vivid examples. I come from Wuhan and would like to talk about the efforts and achievements that the Party and the government made in fighting the epidemic based on Wuhan's experience. Last year, China faced two major battles: poverty alleviation and epidemic prevention and control. As a resident of Wuhan, your question reminds me of the days and nights when China's top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan visited Wuhan and the city was under lockdown. At the commendation meeting on the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, General Secretary Xi Jinping summarized by saying that China's great spirit of combating the epidemic could be characterized by putting people's lives first, nationwide solidarity, sacrifice, respecting science, and a sense of mission for humanity. However, from the perspective of human rights, I would like to tell the story of combating the COVID-19 epidemic from my own experience. For example, on the basis of protecting people's lives and health, we ensured that people fully enjoyed their economic, social and cultural rights, fulfilled the right to participate equally, and promoted social integration and well-rounded personal development. A pandemic of such magnitude represents a litmus test in terms of human rights. In terms of protecting people's rights to education and employment, we initiated a policy of "suspending classes without stopping learning" and boosted the resumption of work, production and business activities. During the epidemic, schools and teachers worked together to overcome the software and hardware limitations. Meanwhile, all sectors of society, including network operators, network course platforms, and platforms for journals, books and data, also made contributions. In the early period of lifting the lockdown and resuming work in Wuhan, many enterprises introduced measures to solve the worries of their employees, such as sending vehicles to pick up their employees and arranging accommodation and food for employees and their families. These are examples with rich human rights implications.
In terms of protecting people's cultural rights, major online platforms provided free online services including movies, TV dramas and online books. Various non-governmental organizations carried out online cultural activities in communities to increase public cohesion and spread positive energy. In terms of protecting people's marriage and family rights, the government attached great importance to solving marriage and family disputes during the epidemic. Joining hands with charity organizations, women's federations in Hubei helped mediate and defuse family disputes during the epidemic. China attaches great importance to ensuring equal participation rights and barrier-free information access for specific groups. Barrier-free measures were adopted, such as by providing sign language interpretation at press conferences. Meanwhile, My volunteer team and I provided barrier-free communication services for hearing-impaired people and medical personnel of Huoshenshan Hospital and Leishenshan Hospital. We also launched epidemic prevention videos in sign language. From these examples, we can see the concrete details of human rights rather than abstract concepts of the rights to subsistence and development. In short, the CPC has made comprehensive progress over the past century in human rights. This is my answer for your question by using stories and experiences.
