The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that the state respects and ensures human rights. That human rights should be earnestly respected and ensured was one goal set forth in the report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which also discussed the Party’s aim to complete the comprehensive building of a well-off society and comprehensively deepen reform and opening-up. The construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics features the spirit of ensuring human rights, which is also evident in the process of completing the comprehensive building of a well-off society and building socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the general plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, ensuring human rights should cover economic, political, cultural, social and ecological construction. Social construction is an important part of the general plan. Strengthening social construction is an important guarantee for social harmony and stability. Social construction also keeps abreast with progress in human rights.

 

 

The 18th National Congress of the CPC pointed out that the focus of strengthening social construction should be placed on ensuring and improving people’s livelihood. This includes working for people’s benefit, addressing more people’s concerns and dealing well with issues that are of most interest to people. The list includes education that satisfies people, job opportunities of better quality, improved income for urban households, a social security system that coordinates urban areas with rural ones, improved health for the people and innovative social management. With the government achieving improvement of people’s livelihood by encouraging social construction and pushing forward social construction by improving people’s livelihood and ensuring human rights, China has made steady progress in social construction for years. By the end of 2012, the quality and equalization of basic public services had been improved greatly; education had been developed rapidly with nationwide free compulsory education being achieved; the construction of the social welfare system had made great achievements with the nationwide fundamental pension system being established and the new social aid system being formed; medical insurance covering all people had been implemented and the nationwide basic medical and health networks had been established; the construction of government-subsidized housing had been accelerated; and social management was strengthened and innovations were realized while social harmony and stability was maintained. With improvement in the people’s livelihood, the living conditions of the Chinese people have been enhanced greatly, which is characterized by a continuous increase in job opportunities, a rapid increase in individual incomes, steady growth of household assets, obvious improvement in the basic necessities of life, a substantial boost in minimum living standards and the rural poverty line, and sustained increase of the basic pensions of enterprise retirees.[page]

 

Without the idea of human rights in the Chinese tradition, China borrowed human rights from the outside world. However, the essence and core of human rights is the person; the real substance of human rights is the value and dignity of persons and their realization. In this sense, Chinese history does not lack factors and elements related to human rights, especially the important traditional concepts of people-orientation and the pursuit of people’s livelihood. The people-oriented idea originated in ancient China, with a huge number of discourses about it. The Book of History said that the people are the basis of the state; the ancient philosopher Mencius advocated that the people were more important than the rulers; another philosopher Huang Zongxi proposed that the people are the hosts and the rulers are the guests; and Dr. Sun Yat-sen put forth the Three Principles of the People. All of these are good examples of the principle from China’s 5,000-year history. Prof. Ambrose King Yeo-chi summarized in his book People-oriented Ideology in China that people are the main subject of politics, which means the land under heaven is not ruled by individuals but by all the people, and that the legitimacy of the rulers must be approved by the people. Chien Mu said in Chinese politics the rulers should perform their duties while the people do theirs, and if the rulers do not do so， the people do not need to do so. Mencius said that the people should have the right to kill the rulers if they are brutal and commit a lot of crimes. Both Xu Fuguan and Hsun-Tzu advocated protecting the people and treating them well. The concept of promoting people’s livelihood developed into the idea of protecting the people and treating them well, which made it an independent pursuit of value. The Chronicle of Zuo said that diligence created people’s livelihood and prosperity, and ethics would be ensured when livelihood was protected. Cheng Yi of the Northern Song Dynasty said government should be based on winning people’s hearts, improving people’s livelihood and keeping people undisturbed. Zhu Xi believed that people’s livelihood should be underscored in ruling a country. Dr. Sun Yat-sen regarded people’s livelihood as an important part of the Three Principles of the People and the guideline for his democratic revolution.[page]

 

The enriched people-oriented idea and the long history of promoting people’s livelihood decided the content, focus and path for realizing human rights in China. The promotion of the people-oriented idea and the boost in people’s livelihood mean that human rights protection in China should always take people’s livelihood as the priority, focus and basis. People’s livelihood and the necessities of life should be the primary concern of the human rights concept in China and should be realized first. Putting people’s livelihood first requires attention to ensuring people’s basic needs for survival and giving priority to the right to existence. Regarding people’s livelihood as the most important matter requires that the government set as the starting point and goal of its work ensuring and improving people’s livelihood and raising the level of people’s material and cultural life.

 

 

The main task at present in strengthening social construction is to accelerate social system reform. Based on the socialist social management system with Chinese characteristics, China should establish a social management system that features the CPC leadership, government responsibility, social coordination, public participation and legal guarantees. China should also build a basic public service network that is nationwide, sustainable and organized by the government, while speeding up a modern social organization system that separates governance and social management, clearly distinguishes duties and responsibilities, and is ruled by law.[page]

 

1. Accelerating formation of a modern social management system and integration of social forces.

 

China is now in an era of deep economic and social transformation, with continuous adjustment in social structure, diversified and complex pursuit of interests and increasing awareness of equal and fair participation. As the traditional social management mode is not able to address so many problems in society, establishment of a modern social management system is needed to strengthen social construction.

 

First, a modern social management system requires scientific positioning of the Party, government, society and the public and reasonable handling of their relationship. The basic idea for establishing a modern social management system is to optimize and mobilize social forces to realize social management within a legal and institutional framework, on the basis of fully respecting the interests and demands of all concerned parties and respecting the wishes of all parties. The Party, government, society and public should build a nonconfrontational relationship, which means the parties are not involved in a zero-sum game, but are part of a cooperative scenario that promotes both development and human rights through cooperation.

 

Second, the different functions of various elements to strengthen social construction should be clearly defined, reasonably divided and wisely organized. Under the leadership of the CPC, the government, society and public should assume different functions in social construction and human rights protection, play different roles and jointly participate in management. There should be a division of labor between the Party and the government in their functions, with the scope of power and responsibilities of the government being clarified. The function of coordination and assistance by the society should be separated from the responsibilities of the government. The government and the society should perform different duties. The responsibilities of the government should be strengthened and the coordination role of the society should be reinforced. Meanwhile, the public should be guaranteed broad participation in social management. The people’s right to equal participation and equal development should always be guaranteed.[page]

 

Third, the rule of law should be the basic framework and guarantee. The rule of law should be implemented in social construction, human rights protection and the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The operating framework and standards should be decided and guaranteed by the rule of law.

 

2. Accelerating formation of a basic public service system, ensuring basic human rights, safeguarding social justice and fairness.

 

Basic public service is provided by the government, complies with certain economic and social development stages, and is aimed at ensuring all the survival and development demands of the public. Basic public service is built on a certain social consensus. The domain of this service generally includes education, employment, social insurance, medical and health care, family planning, housing, culture and sports, and reflects the basic requirements of people’s livelihood. It also includes transportation, communication, infrastructure and environmental protection, which are all closely associated with people’s living conditions. The basic public service system is a systematic and integrated institutional arrangement, which consists of scope and standards, resource allocation, management and operation, supply modes and performance evaluation of basic public service.[page]

 

Enjoying basic public services is the right of citizens and providing basic public services is the obligation of the government. Good functioning of the public service system, as an important and fundamental aspect of human rights realization, helps implement human rights conventions and realize basic human rights, as well as pushes forward the further realization of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that each individual should enjoy a living standard that sustains the health and welfare of the individual and the family, including food, clothes, housing, medical resources and other necessary social services. When the individual is faced with unemployment, disease, disability, the death of a spouse, aging or loss of means of livelihood, the individual should have the right to social security. Each person, as a member of society, should enjoy social security.

 

Establishment and improvement of the basic public service system and promotion of equalization of basic public services are necessary for maintaining social justice and fairness. Equalization of basic public service requires that each member of society be able to obtain fairly equal basic public services, which in essence is not a simple equalization or lack of difference, but equal opportunity. Fairness and justice are intrinsic requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Establishment and improvement of basic public services not only offers basic social security, but also builds an equitable social security system, which is a manifestation of the equalization of rights, opportunities and rules, and also a symbol of equal participation and the equal development rights of the people.

 

3. Accelerating formation of a modern social organization system, providing social conditions for human rights protection.

 

Existence of social organizations is the realization and result of the people’s right of association. A well-functioning social organization system and mechanisms provide better social conditions for protecting human rights. Establishment of a modern social organization is conducive to dealing with complicated relations between the state and the society, and the government and the public. It helps form a social structure that provides coordination among the government, enterprises and social organizations. It is conducive to pushing forward social transformation, the reform of government and change in its functions, and construction of modern governance. It is also conducive to realizing the rule of law and a legal society – which has far-reaching influence on human rights protection and realization.[page]

 

When building a modern social system now in China, division of the government and society is a prerequisite; clarification of power and responsibilities is key; and insistence on the rule of law is the direction. The subjectivity of social organizations should be respected, rights and room for development should be given to those organizations and their self-governing functions should be encouraged.

 

 

The essence and core of human rights are the people. The essential content of human rights is human dignity, human value and human realization. Realization of human rights is realization of the aforementioned values and ideas. Looking at this matter from the theory of equilibrium, realization of human rights is in essence about relationships, and primarily the relationship between power and rights. In other words, human rights are realized through interactions between power and rights. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, human rights are indivisible, interdependent and universal. The universality of human rights refers not only to the inclusiveness of their content, but also to the extensiveness of their subject and the diversity of the means of their realization. The interdependence and indivisibility of human rights define not only the relationship among various human rights, but also clearly show the close relationship between the realization of human rights and cultural traditions, and each country’s economic and social development.

 

The origin and development of human rights has showed a path of protecting human rights by balancing rights and power. Human rights are a historical concept and there is a particular environment for its origin and development. A brief historical overview tells us that human rights originated from a new self-perception of human beings and the fight against divine rights and royal rights. At that stage, the main means of realizing human rights was by resistance and fighting for acknowledgment and protection of human rights. The protection and realization of human rights emphasizes separation and fighting. Separation means the clear-cut division between rights and power. Fighting means striving to gain rights from the scope of power. Human rights are always realized by warding off encroachment and infringement by power. The relationship between rights and power as well as the state and citizens is a zero-sum game.[page]

 

Chinese human rights practice is on the path of putting people first, focusing on social construction and coordinating rights with power. The people-first ideology in ancient China and the priority of people’s livelihood underlined protecting and benefiting the people, and adopted a nonconfrontational and cooperative way to address basic human rights issues such as people’s livelihood. The development of people’s livelihood at present in China has been achieved to a great degree. Strengthening people’s livelihood is a means for protecting human rights. China is carrying out the cause of promoting human rights protection in a concerted way and in various areas. Concerted efforts are being made between state and society, government and nongovernmental organizations, rights and power in order to pursue a nonconfrontational and cooperative way to realize a harmonious and orderly society.

 

(Zhou Qiang is a member of the China Zhi Gong Party.)