I. Concept of People’s Livelihood in Traditional Chinese Culture

The concept of human rights was borrowed from the West. In order to have it become rooted in China, people needed to find traces in Chinese culture on which the human rights theoretical system could be based and the Chinese human rights idea could be realized. Only if the idea of human rights is grounded in Chinese culture can the concept of human rights be understood by the people and human rights be earnestly respected and ensured. By doing this, China can be more confident of its human rights development, both in domestic protection and international exchange, learning from the good experience of other countries and further developing itself.[page]

The traditional concept of people’s livelihood in Chinese culture contains the idea of human rights. The Chinese people have long aspired to an ideal world, pursuing a society where there is kindness and compassion for widows and widowers, for orphans, for the childless and for all who find themselves alone in the world, as well as for the disabled and sick. The Tso Chuan said more than 2,000 years ago that people’s livelihood is decided by diligence, which creates affluence, and people with a good livelihood tend to be ethical. Cheng Yi of the Northern Song Dynasty said that good governance should win the hearts and minds of the people, offer them a good livelihood and not disturb them. Another scholar, Zhu Xi of the Northern Song Dynasty, also said that satisfying people’s daily needs is a principle of good governance. In contemporary times, Dr. Sun Yat-sen included people’s livelihood among the Three People’s Principles and made it an important part of the creed of his democratic movement. President Xi Jinping said in pushing forward development in a scientific way that people’s livelihood should be put as the priority, focus and principle.

The idea of people’s livelihood originates from the “people first” concept in Chinese tradition, which can be traced back to 5,000 years ago and is recorded in many ancient documents from China’s brilliant culture. The Shang Shu argues that people should be put first in kingdoms. Mencius advocated that people are more important than rulers. Huang Zongxi said that people are masters and rulers are the guests. The Three People’s Principles of Dr. Sun also included the “people first” concept. This concept includes the idea that people are the main subject of politics; it includes dialectical thinking about the relationship between rulers and the people; it includes economic and social proposals for protecting and nurturing the people; and it includes the idea of making the people’s livelihood prosperous.[page]

II. Thriving Development of People’s Livelihood in China

“People’s livelihood” is a hot phrase right now in China. Any search of livelihood or livelihood construction on either Google or Baidu may get nearly 100 million results.

The Chinese government has always attached great importance to people’s livelihood and livelihood construction. Comrade Chen Yun used to explain his economic strategy simply as food first and construction second. The report to the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress in 2007 opened a chapter for the improvement of people’s livelihood. The report to the 18th CPC National Congress placed social construction centered on people’s livelihood as an important part of the five means for building socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the government work report to the National People’s Congress in 2013, the 2,000-word section about protecting and improving livelihood was the longest chapter. The new central leadership with Xi Jinping as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee initiated a new mission of realizing the Chinese Dream. Xi said the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is also the dream of national strength, national revival and people’s happiness. The Chinese Dream is a dream of the Chinese people, with improvement of livelihood and people’s happiness being a significant part of the Chinese Dream.[page]

China has achieved a great deal in improving people’s livelihood. China’s annual fiscal expenditure on education accounts for 4 percent of gross domestic product, or more than 2 trillion yuan. In 2012, 12.66 million jobs were created and more than 9 million new jobs were created in 2013. The unemployment rate was controlled at less than 4.6 percent. Pensions for retirees increased by 10 percent in 2013, which marked the ninth consecutive year of growth since 2005. The share of government spending on basic health insurance covering 1.3 billion people has increased year by year. In the past five years, the government has allocated funds to build 18 million apartments for low-income families, with 4.7 million apartments completed and 6.3 million ones started construction in 2013.

China’s regional development and livelihood index (DLI) released by the National Statistical Society in February 2013 showed that DLI in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities all increased and the gap was narrowed.[page]

III. Livelihood Construction Ensures Human Rights

Both livelihood construction and human rights protection are based on the “people first” idea. In some ways, the legal manifestation of people’s livelihood is human rights protection. Acknowledgment of people’s subjectivity and acceptance of the “people first” idea is the linkage point between people’s livelihood and human rights and also the starting point of our dialogue and exchange. In terms of value orientation and means of realization, they are obviously different. In traditional human rights protection, it has usually been emphasized that rights should be realized through resistance to power. However, the Chinese tradition has shown another mode of human rights protection, which focuses on consultation and cooperation between the people with rights and the people with power.

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights says that human rights are indivisible, interdependent and universal, including civic and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights and collective rights. Protection of human rights can only be achieved by comprehensively balancing different rights.[page]

IV. Human Rights Construction Path with Chinese Characteristics

Chinese human rights construction focuses on the rights and benefits that concern Chinese people most. The Chinese government earnestly ensures Chinese people’s economic, political, social and cultural rights, promotes a fairer and more harmonious society and makes every individual in society live happier and more decent lives.

Chinese human rights construction sticks to legitimate, comprehensive and pragmatic improvement. The constitutional principle of respecting and ensuring human rights ensures the creation of laws, regulations as well as implementation measures from the legislative, executive and judicial branches that will perfect, respect and protect human rights. The Chinese government sees human rights as an interdependent and indivisible organic whole, promotes the coordinated development of economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights, and enhances the coordinated development of individual rights and collective rights. The government respects the principle of the universality of human rights, while insisting on China’s basic national conditions and new realities.

One feature of China’s human rights construction is the focus and the priority of people’s livelihood. The focus of livelihood is supported by traditional Chinese culture and meets people’s needs. A recent survey showed that the Chinese public’s concept of human rights has been enhanced significantly. But different cohorts had quite different views on human rights. Much of their needs were for economic and social rights.2 In recent years, although national economic growth has slowed, the government’s expenditure on livelihood has increased continuously in response to people’s demands. In the past five years, the cumulative fiscal expenditure on people’s livelihood by the central government was 16.89 trillion yuan, with an annual increase of 21.1 percent and accounting for two-thirds of the total expenditures by the central government. Ensuring an improving livelihood has become the starting point and goal of government work.[page]

V. Great Achievements in China’s Human Rights Development

After years of people’s unremitting efforts, the Chinese people’s living standards, democracy construction, the rule of law, cultural development, social security and environmental protection have all been raised to higher levels, and the human rights cause has been greatly enhanced.

First is the deeper understanding of the “people first” concept in governance. In recent years, the CPC and the government have continuously deepened the idea of putting people first and governing for the people, and have implemented the idea in all the work of the Party and the government. The CPC always keeps close connections with the great masses of the people and focuses on realizing, safeguarding and developing people’s rights and benefits. The CPC also sticks to the people-oriented principle, which is aimed at the overall advancement of the people. The CPC bases its development strategy and enhancement of prosperity on safeguarding the fundamental interests of the people, in order to satisfy the growing material and cultural needs of the people. Meanwhile, the Party and the government pay more attention to discovering the “people first” concept in traditional Chinese culture, combining human rights ideas with traditional Chinese culture and pushing forward the social awareness of human rights.[page]

Second is the socialist legal system for ensuring human rights. Respecting and ensuring human rights has been included in the constitution and other major laws and has become a fundamental principle of governance. In 2004, “respecting and ensuring human rights” was written into the constitution. At the end of 2010, the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics took shape. Both of these events were symbols of the advancement of China’s human rights cause and have helped legalize human rights protection in China. By the end of 2012, China had revised the constitution and adopted 243 laws, 721 administrative rules and 9,200 provincial regulations. The legal system ensuring various human rights was further improved. In the most recent decade, China formulated or revised 26 laws concerning labor, social security, public security and people’s livelihood, accounting for 21.3 percent of the total laws that were drafted and revised during that period. In procedural legislation, the revised criminal procedure law included “respecting and ensuring human rights” and changed some related measures. The civil procedure law, revised in the same year, further protected the litigation rights of parties. A revision to the administrative procedure law was included in the legislative plan of the National People’s Congress in 2013. The litigation system has been gradually improved and justice has been ensured.

Third is the gradual and sustained development of the human rights cause. The concept of respecting and ensuring human rights was not only written into the constitution, but also became the will and guideline for the CPC and the government at various levels. Since its founding, the CPC has fought for ensuring human rights. In 1997, the report to the 15th CPC National Congress said the CPC leads and supports the people to govern the country, supports the people to carry out democratic elections, democratic decisions, democratic management and democratic supervision, in order to ensure people’s rights to enjoy extensive rights and freedom as well as respecting and ensuring human rights. In 2007, the term “human rights” was written into the CPC constitution. The 18th CPC National Congress, which convened in November 2012, placed the principle of respecting and ensuring human rights as a target for completing the building of a well-off society. The Chinese government issued the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010) and the National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015). The implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010) was assessed by the government. In 2013, the Chinese government issued its 10th white paper on China’s human rights progress, comprehensively showcasing the achievements made by the Chinese government in human rights development. As an important fruit of China’s human rights development and theoretical research, the China Society for Human Rights Studies issued two blue papers in 2011 and 2012 on the development report on China’s human rights cause. Due to the encouragement of the CPC and the government and the joint participation of the whole society, China’s human rights are vigorously protected.[page]

Fourth is the expansion of international exchange and extension of dialogue and cooperation. China has actively carried out international human rights exchange and cooperation, playing a constructive role in the human rights affairs of the United Nations, paying great attention to implementation of international human rights conventions, actively participating in drafting international human rights documents and related rules, working for increasing understanding and mutual learning through human rights dialogue, pushing forward unbiased, objective and universal methods for dealing with human rights issues, and earnestly encouraging the healthy development of the international human rights cause. Nongovernmental organizations are also very active in China, playing unique roles. Take the China Society for Human Rights Studies as an example. Since 2008, the society has participated in organizing the Beijing Human Rights Forum, focusing on the relationship between human rights and development, culture, science and technology, and the environment. The forum has been an important international platform for international human rights dialogue and cooperation between developing and developed countries.

China’s human rights cause has been integrated into the country’s five-point socialist construction program with Chinese characteristics, advancing together with economic, political, cultural, social and environmental development. Earnestly respecting and ensuring human rights has been an important part of realization of the Chinese Dream.[page]

China is still a big developing country, with a huge population, diversified landscape, limited resources and many environmental and ecological challenges. In the course of development, problems related to imbalances, lack of coordination or lack of sustainability are naturally prominent. Many actions of the country during this period of development touch on the real interests of the people. The government still needs to put extra effort into addressing these problems. To raise human rights protection in China to a new height still requires a lot of work. President Xi Jinping said, “Regarding the issue of human rights, there is no best, only better.” On the road to respecting and ensuring human rights, China is working for a better tomorrow.

1.From May 20 to 28, 2013, President Luo Haocai of the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), former vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, led a delegation of six to visit the United States and Cuba. During the visit, the delegation extensively exchanged views with representatives from the two governments, think tanks, academia and nongovernmental organizations, elaborating on China’s human rights advancement and Chinese people’s human rights viewpoints, and increasing their understanding of China’s human rights conditions. President Luo delivered speeches at the California Club and California State University, Northridge. His speech is below.[page]

2.The survey taken in 125 Chinese cities collected responses from 15,111 people ranging in age from 14 to 70 years. Zhang Yonghe, “A Survey Report on Chinese Public Concept on Human Rights,” China Human Rights Development Report, No. 3 (2013).

(Luo Haocai, President of the China Society for Human Rights Studies)