The Path of Human Rights Development with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era the Coordinated Promotion of Social Rights Protection and Economic Development
GONG Xianghe * & WeI Wensong **
Abstract: The principle of marxist theory on the dialectical relationship between the economic base and superstructure is an important theoretical basis for recognizing the mutual relationship between social rights protection and economic development. China and the West have different practical experience in handling their relations. But a proper handling of their relations is conducive to promoting the development of human rights. It is one-sided to either emphasize too much on social rights protection or to excessively pursue economic development. The in-depth interaction between social rights protection and economic development is that they promote and restrict each other. It is the right choice for human rights development with Chinese characteristics in the new era to promote social rights protection and economic development in a coordinated manner. We should not only lay a solid material foundation for social rights protection with the high quality and efficiency of economic development, but also take social rights protection as the ultimate goal and strategic means to provide sufficient driving force for economic development. And social rights protection and economic development should be synchronized.
Keywords: social rights protection · economic development · major social conflicts · coordinated promotion
In his congratulatory letter to the symposium on the 70 th anniversary of the launch of the universal Declaration of Human rights on December 10, 2018, President Xi Jinping stressed that the times were developing and human rights were making progress. China adhered to the principle of integrating the universality of human rights with contemporary realities, and followed a path of human rights development suited to China’s national conditions. China upheld the people-centered concept of human rights, took the rights to life and development as the primary fundamental human rights, coordinated and promoted the economic, political, social, cultural and environmental rights of all our people, strived to safeguard social equity and justice, and promoted all-round human development. 1 In his congratulatory letter, President Xi Jinping profoundly revealed the logical connection between the development of the times and the progress of human rights. In other words, the development of the times laid a solid and realistic basis for the progress of human rights, and the progress of human rights promoted the development of the times to a certain extent. He pointed out that the people-centered principle was always the root of human rights construction, and that abiding by the people-centered principle was the right choice for human rights progress. He also pointed out the way forward for the development of human rights with Chinese characteristics in the new era and defined the path for human rights development with Chinese characteristics.
Social rights are a specific constitutional concept, and an important concept in the human rights system. They refer to the right of citizens to enjoy and demand the state to perform correspondingly positive obligations according to law, including the right to life, the right to work and the right to education. 2 In China, the Constitution provides provisions on social rights that are suited to the country’s national conditions, which is the inherent requirements of socialism, the contemporary expression of the tradition regarding people’s livelihood, and the timely response to the social and historical changes. 3 The entry of socialism with Chinese characteristics into the new era is a new historical juncture in China’s economic and social development. The principal contradiction in Chinese society has been transformed from one between the people’s ever-growing material and cultural needs and backward social production into one between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The transformation of the principal contradiction in society implies that China’s human rights development has reached a higher standard and met higher requirement, and that the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government also have a new understanding and judgment of human rights development. At the same time, the development of human rights in China in the new era is facing new opportunities and challenges. The transformation of the principal contradiction in society and the special view on human rights are influencing the choice of the path of human rights with Chinese characteristics. It should be fully affirmed that social rights protection and economic development have always been the core themes in the construction of China’s human rights cause. Social rights protection and economic development go hand in hand, and demonstrate a unique historical evolutionary logic, which has accumulated rich experience in human rights development. Therefore, to properly handle the relationship between the two holds the key to the steady and long-term development of human rights with Chinese characteristics.
I. Theoretical Basis for the Relationship Between Social Rights Protection and Economic Development
A. Marxist theory on the dialectical relationship between the economic base and superstructure
The economic base determines the superstructure and the superstructure reacts to the economic base — this is the important theoretical viewpoint of Marx and Engels on the relation of social development. This theory not only provides an in-depth explanation of the internal laws of modern national social structure, but also offers theoretical guidance for many countries to deal with the relationship between social rights protection and economic development. In his Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of political economy in 1859, Karl Marx stated that in the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of the material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which corresponds definite forms of social consciousness. The production mode of material life restricts the whole process of social life, political life and spiritual life. It is not people’s consciousness that determines their existence. On the contrary, it is people’s social existence that determines their consciousness. With the change of the economic base, all the huge superstructures are transformed either slowly or quickly. 4 This is the first complete and comprehensive exposition of the Marxist theory about the dialectical relationship between economic base and superstructure. This exposition not only systematically reveals the profound value and meaning of this principle, but also lays a theoretical foundation for analyzing the internal logic in the relations between the protection of social rights and economic development to some extent. This theory aims to clarify that between the economic base and superstructure, the former is primary, and the latter secondary; the former is the root of the latter, and the latter is a derivative of the former. Engels further pointed out that economic factors are not the only and whole factors of economic development. The components of the superstructure consist of laws and institutions — they interact with the economic base and, to a certain extent, can modify it. 5 Therefore, Engels also elaborated and emphasized the influence and reaction superstructure has when it comes to economic development. The former is also of great theoretical value and practical significance to the latter, which is easily neglected in the development of the structure of social relationships.
From the relationship between social rights protection and economic development, the more intuitive meaning of the economic base can be expressed as all foundations laid for economic development. With this, economic development has been endowed with richer connotations. And the superstructure contains such contents as class relations, state machinery to maintain such relations, social ideology, and corresponding political and legal systems, organizations and facilities, including human rights protection-related policy planning and the legal system built around the protection of human rights. Therefore, based on the analysis and understanding of the dia-lectical relationship between the economic base and superstructure, economic development determines the degree, content and level of social rights protection to a certain extent. On the other hand, social rights protection, as a kind of institutional design in the superstructure, also has counter-reaction to economic development. Furthermore, the dialectical relationship between social rights protection and economic development under the Marxist theory can be expressed as follows: economic development determines social rights protection, and social rights protection has a counter-reaction to economic development. An in-depth study of the dialectical relationship between the two is an important premise to grasp the law of the formation and evolution of the development path of human rights. The basic principle of historical materialism that the economic base determines the superstructure is not only applicable to one or several social forms, but also to the whole process of human history. 6 In other words, the systematic explanation of Marxist theory on the dialectical relationship between the economic base and superstructure is also applicable to guiding modern countries to correctly handle the relationship between social rights protection and economic development, and is also beneficial to promoting the in-depth exploration of human rights. Therefore, the main theoretical basis for the internal relationship between social rights protection and economic development can be found. And the basic experience of China and the West in dealing with the relationship between social rights protection and economic development further confirms the deep logical relationship between them from the practical level.
B. Theoretical exploration of the relationship between social rights protection and reform of the economic system
Regarding the theoretical connotations of human rights protection, the two core themes of social rights protection and economic system reform have been accompanied by the historical process of human rights development. The understanding of the relationship between the two has always been an important theoretical issue of human rights protection, and the academic community has been carrying out a theoretical exploration of it. In general, the following arguments can be found in the existing academic research on the relationship between social rights protection and economic system reform. First, from the perspective of human rights protection, some describe the basic picture of the relationship between social rights protection and economic system reform through the dialectical study of the right to freedom and social rights. In essence, human rights are the norms of the social system needed for a market economy. On the one hand, the establishment and operation of the socialist market economy require the equal protection of individuals’ right to freedom. On the other hand, the widening gap between the rich and the poor caused by the market economy requires the protection of the economic, social and cultural rights of the members of the society, as well as the protection of the human rights of the weak. 7 Second, through the establishment of a data model, some try to more intuitively present the internal relationship between social rights protection and economic development, and adopt quantitative analysis to prove that the two not only promote but also restrict each other. In the process of economic development, inadequate and excessive protection of social rights will bring damage to economic development to a certain extent, and hinder the realization of social rights at a higher level. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the reasonable range of social rights protection in the process of economic development. 8 Expenditure on social rights protection is an important factor affecting economic growth. Education expenditure, health expenditure and social security expenditure all show positive effects. Among them, the influence of health expenditure and social security expenditure declines slightly and the influence coefficient has become relatively small. 9 Third, some emphasize the harmonious co-development of social rights protection and economic development, transcending the theoretical viewpoints devel-oped from a single aspect of their relationship, and pay more attention to the multiple aspects of the existing relationship between them from a comprehensive perspective. With the mutual restriction between the two and the arrival of the new normal and new era, the relationship between social rights protection and economic development is facing new challenges. The harmonious co-development of social rights and economic development requires social rights to actively lead economic development, and institutionalize social rights protection indicators. 10
To be specific, social rights, as an important driving factor of economic development, play an important role in the process of economic development. Therefore, the value of social rights for economic development should be affirmed, and needs to be further explored. Of course, social rights usually do not directly or automatically promote economic development, but need to realize conditions in terms of rule of law, social environment, and values in order to achieve their value function. The main effects of economic development on social rights protection are as follows: On the one hand, taking economic development as an important explanatory factor and influencing variable can promote and guarantee social rights in a more complete way. Moreover, from the more practical perspective of economic development, it is more scientific and innovative to explore ways to promote social rights protection. Economic development will affect the realization of specific social rights at different levels, and the protection of the right to life, the right to education and the right to labor will all be affected by economic development. On the other hand, there is no doubt that economic development has laid a relatively important material foundation for social rights protection. Economic stability and sound economic development will, to a cer-tain extent, promote the gradual improvement of social rights protection. If the content of social rights protection can be expanded, it is also helpful to enrich the means and ways of social rights protection. Social rights protection for the purpose of promoting economic development is an expansion and extension of the existing ideas on social rights protection, as well as further enrichment of the contents of “human rights teleology”. It is a kind of social rights protection idea in line with the needs of social development. 11
II. The Practical Experience of China and the West in Dealing with the Relationship Between Social Rights Protection and Economic Development
A. China’s experience in dealing with the relationship between social rights protection and economic development
From the perspective of practice, China’s experience in the human rights cause shows that there is an inseparable relationship between social rights protection and economic development, and the relationship between the two can be reconciled and controllable. Between them, there is no absolute opposition or conflict. This is also the essential difference between China and Western developed countries in dealing with their relations. On the premise of promoting a high level of economic development, China can ensure that social rights protection is controlled within a reasonable range, so that the two can develop together and complement each other. It is no accident that this has been achieved successfully. In terms of social rights protection, in the process of social operation, there is an interactive relationship between economic development and social rights protection, in which they promote and restrict each other. They present a spiral rising process of repetition, and thus promoting the progress of the whole society and human development. 12 On the one hand, economic development has constantly enhanced state capacity to provide a material basis for the protection and realization of social rights. On the other hand, the more social rights citizens enjoy, the more they will be motivated to participate in economic construction, because the full protection of social rights can free citizens from worrying about their future, promote the realization of socialist fairness and justice, and truly contribute to common development and shared development. 13 In more than 40 years since the implementation of reform and opening-up, China has always attached great importance to economic development and made a series of overall plans for its economic development, which has been an important measure for the country to stand up, get rich and become strong. Of course, in this process, economic development has gone through several phases. In the early stage of reform and opening-up, the development of China’s social and economic productive forces was backward and materials were scarce, and the vitality of economic factors urgently needed to be liberated. The development of productive forces and the stimulation of the vitality of production factors became the core objectives of economic system reform. 14 After nearly 10 years, the main purpose of China’s economic development was to get rid of the absolute lack of supplies, try our best to change the situation of relatively backward economic development in the early stage, further improve the livelihood standards of the people, meet their growing material and cultural needs, and take effective protection of citizens’ basic right to life as the primary objective. In the whole system of rights, the right to life belongs to the category of social rights. 15 Different from the Western developed countries, China has developed a successful path with Chinese characteristics in overcoming the “middle-income trap,” which also provides a useful reference for other countries in dealing with the relationship between social rights protection and economic development.
China’s economic development continues to improve. China’s economic aggregate is now the second largest in the world, behind only the United States. At the same time, China has also made great progress in human rights protection. Economic development is not the only field demonstrating the “China speed”. China’s practice and level of human rights protection have also been greatly improved. Moreover, social rights protection and economic development have formed a mutually reinforcing and mutually promoting trend. In the early 1990s, with Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour speech as the demarcation point, the social productive forces ushered in revolutionary development since then, and China’s economy has entered a new stage of development, and the level of social rights protection has also been greatly improved. Since the beginning of this century, social overcapacity has become a prominent practical problem in the field of economic development, and expanding domestic demand has become an important strategic arrangement and value of China’s economic development. As a result, while the driving force of economic growth was shifting from the outside to the inside, it also had a profound impact on social rights protection. In response to the global financial crisis of 2008/09, the Chinese government implemented an economic stimulus plan with a total investment of 4 trillion yuan. In the face of the pressures on its exports, expanding domestic demand and preventing economic decline have become China’s the top economic priorities. 16 Thanks to the effectiveness of China’s macro policies, economic adjustment is being advanced and various projects to improve people’s livelihoods have been vigorously promoted, and the level of social rights protection has been further improved. With the gradual slowdown of economic growth, China’s economic development has gradually entered the “new normal” stage since 2012. General Secretary Xi Jinping used the concept of “new normal” for the first time when he visited Henan Province in May 2014. Since then, he has systematically expounded its profound connotation on various occasions and scientifically and deeply explained the internal laws of China’s economic development. Under the new normal, we need to pay more attention to meeting the needs of the people, paying more attention to the lives of low-income people, attaching more importance to coordinated development, and placing more emphasis on overall social stability. It will be a long-term trend for China to gradually move toward an inclusive and shared economy. 17
B. Reflections on the West’s treatment of the relationship between social rights protection and economic development
The course of human rights construction in Western developed countries shows that undue emphasis on social rights protection and a social rights protection system based on high welfare policy lacks stability and duration. Any major crisis experienced by economic development will cause great damage to social rights protection. After World War II, developed countries in Western Europe advocated high-welfare development policies and advocated that the government should provide as much support as possible for the realization of national rights in medical treatment, education, industrial injury and old-age care. Many economists also put forward the view of building welfare states, that the government has an inescapable responsibility for the protection of human rights. Under the influence of this view, the economic construction of developed countries in Western Europe was burdened with enormous social pressure, which have even exceeded the limit of economic development under the cumulative effect of high welfare policies. It can be said that the protection of social rights in Western European countries is built upon the overload of economic development. In the Western developed countries, several economic crises have been accompanied by economic recession, increased unemployment and reduction of welfare subsidies. The more obvious question is whether the government should invest the limited funds in the protection of social rights or use the funds for economic construction and recovery. Western developed countries have gradually lost themselves in dealing with the relationship between social rights protection and economic development, and they believe that the two are in an either/or, zero-sum relationship. To achieve economic recovery and development, people can further implement the policy of fiscal austerity only on the basis of controlling the expenditure on social rights protection. In turn, in order to improve the level of social rights protection, they have to slow down the speed of economic development to some extent. One of the reasons why Western welfare states lost themselves in several global economic crises is that these countries misjudged the relationship between social rights protection and economic development, and believed that there was an inevitable conflict between them. Under the guidance of this idea, Western developed countries blindly pursue high welfare, ignoring the actual resilience of their economic development level, and damaging the internal driving force of economic development.
Taking into account the history of Western countries’ development, it should be pointed out that the law of human rights development is that there is a high degree of coupling between social rights protection and economic development. Due to the different stages of economic development, the phased characteristics of economic devel-opment are relatively obvious, the construction of human rights also demonstrates a corresponding trend, and the content and degree of social rights protection are also adjusted accordingly. Of course, it should also be noted that social rights protection also has a huge impact on economic development. The excessively high welfare policy should neither be set to strengthen social rights protection, nor should an excessively low social protection level be set to restrain social rights protection. Neither of these should be adopted. Because, in the case of the former, excessive welfare policies will be divorced from the economic protection that economic development can provide. This will harm the internal driving force of economic development and devour the enthusiasm and initiative of economic development. As for the latter, the low level of social security will hinder the achievement of the goal that the fruits of development should be shared by the people, and will cause economic development to deviate from the correct guidance of goals, and fail to make economic development bring real benefits to mankind. Therefore, as mentioned above on the theoretical part, social rights protection must be based on a strong economic foundation and a reasonable range of social rights protection should be set up. While promoting economic development, we must pay attention to the investment in social rights protection, ensure the implementation of various welfare policies and project construction plans for people’s livelihood, and promote economic development through the protection of social rights.
To sum up, the basic experience and lessons of China and the West in dealing with the relationship between social rights protection and economic development further prove that, in a certain period of time, the strength of a country’s capacity determines the degree of its possession and distribution of social resources, which leads to the fact that social rights protection cannot be realized without limits. Rather, the actual national conditions should be taken into consideration. The type of responsibilities borne by economic development is not limited to the protection of social rights. The total amount of economic development and the resources produced by society are limited, and investment in social rights protection should not be unlimited. Therefore, excessively high social rights protection requirements will exceed the range economic development can bear, and thus will hinder and damage economic development. So the demand for social rights protection must be controlled within a reasonable scope, and based on the reality of economic development. After going through different historical development stages, China has a deeper understanding of the relationship between social rights protection and economic development. Too much emphasis on social rights protection or the pursuit of economic development is not conducive to the development of China’s human rights cause. Social rights and economic development promote and restrict each other. The stability and long-term development of one of them are based on the reasonable limits provided by the other. This understanding is of great significance to the choice of the path of human rights with Chinese charac-teristics in the new era.
III. The Coordinated Promotion of Social Rights Protection and Economic Development is an inevitable Choice for China’s Human Rights Development
Based on the theoretical basis of the relationship between social rights protection and economic development and the practical experience of China and the West in dealing with the relationship between social rights protection and economic development, the right choice of human rights development with Chinese characteristics is to adhere to the coordinated promotion of social rights protection and economic development. According to the viewpoint of Marxist philosophy, the main contradiction of a society is the intensive expression of the law of movement of the basic contradictions of the society at a certain stage and within a certain scope, and is the most basic condition of a country. Accurately grasping the principal social contradiction is the premise of and key to human rights development. 18 The principal contradiction of a society is the representation of the overall development status and stage of the society, and the summary of the problems of social development, which affects the choice of path and value orientation of human rights development with Chinese characteristics. The development of human rights with Chinese characteristics should fully grasp and understand the principal contradiction in Chinese society. The transformation of the principal contradiction in Chinese society is the result of a new study and judgment of China’s social development. The coordinated promotion of social rights protection and economic development should be based on the transformation of the principal contradiction in Chinese society. In other words, a profound understanding of the principal contradiction in society is an important prerequisite for formulating a reasonable economic development plan and scientifically implementing human rights protection policies.
Therefore, on the one hand, efforts should be made to solve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, so as to ensure that economic development, as the top priority and the fundamental means, lays a solid material foundation for the protection of social rights, and better satisfies the conditions for the realization of people’s right to a better life from the economic perspective. On the other hand, more attention should be paid to the active role of social rights protection as the system component of the superstructure in economic development, so as to ensure that social rights protection as the ultimate goal and strategic means to add new impetus to eco-nomic development, and to provide institutional guarantee for the balanced and full development of the economy. It should also be noted that both economic development and human rights protection require a complete legal system to provide normative support. Human rights are the most universal claim, and need most the protection of universally binding legal norms. 19 Social rights protection and economic development can be promoted in a coordinated manner from the following aspects.
A. To lay a solid material foundation for social rights protection with high quality and efficiency of economic development
The development of human rights with Chinese characteristics should be based on China’s reality, and integrate the national strategy with the fundamental interests, rights and obligations of the people, and the right to “governance” with the right to development, so as to create a path of governance and human rights protection with Chinese characteristics. 20 Social rights protection is based on a certain economic foundation. The high quality and high efficiency of economic development is the important premise and foundation for constantly improving the level of social rights protection. Now that China’s economic development has entered a new normal, we should pay more attention to the quality of economic development, give overall consideration to quality and efficiency, and pay more attention to the coordinated development of all fields related to economic development. Economic development is the top priority, but one of its fundamental purposes is to ensure the realization of social rights such as people’s livelihoods. In order to fully implement the role of economic development in guaranteeing social rights, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have formulated national development strategies and plans for national economic and social development. Since the launch of reform and opening-up, the Communist Party of China has put forward the “three-step” development targets for modernization and the building a moderately prosperous society in an all-around way, so as to ensure the rapid development of the economy is accompanied by the improvement of people’s lives, from guaranteeing basic subsistence to being well-off and then to common prosperity. 21 Social rights have become the fastest growing part of the basic rights enjoyed by citizens, and the current Constitution confirms the positive role of social rights protection in promoting people’s livelihoods and quality of life. Therefore, state regulation has become an important means to coordinate the development of various undertakings, and social rights have been fully guaranteed in the process of economic and social development and the improvement of the legal system. At the same time,national economic and social development plans 22 have made specific provisions for China’s economic development and social rights protection. As China enters a decisive stage in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, deepening reform in all respects has entered a crucial stage and a deep-water zone, human rights protection has ushered in new historical opportunities and new requirements of the times has emerged. In line with the new conditions of economic and social development, human rights protection should be more law-based and comprehensive. 23
B. Providing impetus for economic development with the protection of social rights as an end and a means
As has been mentioned above, social rights protection can play a leading role in terms of the value orientation in economic development. In other words, economic development provides a material basis for social rights protection, determines the degree and level of social rights protection, and social rights protection can effectively promote economic development. This is another practical lesson learned from China’s experience of economic and social development. As a kind of special productive institutional resource, social rights have more and more important value in the economic development of modern society, including intrinsic value and extrinsic value. Intrin-sic value means that social rights are a constituent element and endogenous variable of economic development. In other words, social rights are not only the constituent elements of economic development in the form of institutional resources and means of production, but also the core content of human capital as a kind of capital for promoting economic development. Extrinsic value means that social rights provide a fair and orderly institutional environment and a stable and harmonious social environment such as the spiritual environment for economic development. 24
C. Social rights protection and economic development should be synchronized
The close relationship between economic development and social rights protection, in which they depend on and promote each other, requires us to establish the awareness that economic development provides the material basis for social rights protection, and economic development must promote the improvement of social rights protection at the same time. The two should go hand in hand and adapt to each other. We cannot only emphasize the former and ignore the latter. Therefore, through the Constitution, laws and the national economic and social development plans and other positive state actions, China has established the institutional guarantee that social rights and economic development are synchronous and mutually adaptive, and clearly stipulated that the level of social rights protection must be compatible with the level of economic development. For example, Article 14 of the Constitution clearly states that “the State shall make reasonable arrangements for accumulation and consumption, taking into account the interests of the state, the collective and the individual, and, on the basis of developing production, shall gradually improve the people’s material and cultural life. The State shall establish and improve a social security system commensurate with the level of economic development.” Article 46 of the Labor Law stipulates that “Wage distribution should follow the principle of distribution according to work, and equal pay for equal work should be implemented. The level of wages should be raised gradually on the basis of economic development.” In addition, attention should also be paid to the fact that the lack and excess of social rights protection will both hinder economic development. Inadequate social rights protection will, to a large extent, eliminate the positive impetus of economic development and become the “weak link” in the process of economic development, which is difficult to match with other resource factors with high investment level. Excessive social rights security will lead to idle and surplus human resources. It will be difficult for economic development to obtain a stable guiding role from social rights security, which will also restrict sound economic development.
To sum up, the development path of human rights with Chinese characteristics has rationally clarified the internal relationship between social rights protection and economic development from the perspective of concept, scientifically established the system of coordination between social rights protection and economic development from the perspective of system, and practically achieved the coordinated progress of social rights development and economic development. Adhering to the coordinated progress of social rights protection and economic development is an idea formed on the basis of the historical experience and practical exploration of China’s continuous progress in human rights. It not only embodies the characteristics of China’s human rights development in the new era, but also scientifically constructs the dynamic relationship between social rights protection and economic development, which has actually gone beyond the traditional idea of the conflict between social rights and economic development. Upholding the coordinated promotion of social rights protection and economic development can better promote the practice of human rights development with Chinese characteristics, and at the same time contribute Chinese wisdom for the development of the human rights cause of all countries.
(Translated by CHEN Feng)
* GONG Xianghe ( 龚向和 ), Professor of the Law School and Executive Vice President of the Human Rights Research Institute, Southeast University.
** WEI Wensong ( 魏文松 ), Ph.D Candidate in Law School, Southeast University. This paper is the phased re- search result of the Ministry of Education’s humanities and social sciences planning fund project “The Right to Equitable and Quality Education in the New Era: Research on National Obligation for Balanced and Full Development of Education” (Project No.: 19YJA820012).
1. Xi Jinping, “Letter of Congratulation on the 70 th Anniversary of the universal Declaration of Human rights”, people’s Daily, December 11, 2018.
2. Gong Xianghe, Social rights as Human rights: A Study on Legal Issues regarding Social rights (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2007), 13.
3. Xu Shuang, “The Development of Social Rights in the Constitution: Tradition, Reform and Future”, Tribune of political Science and Law 5 (2019).
4. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Selected Works of marx and engels, vol� 2 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), 32-33.
5. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Collection of marx and engels, vol� 4 (Beijing: People’s Pub-lishing House, 1972), 484.
6. Zhao Jiaxiang, “Formation Process and Systematic Demonstration of the Principle of Economic Base Deter-mining Superstructure”, Journal of Beijing university of Administration 1 (2011).
7. Chang Jian, “Forty years of China’s Economic Restructuring and the Development of Human Rights”, Theo-retical exploration 1 (2019).
8. Gong Xianghe and Dong Hongwei, “Reasonable Range of Social Rights Protection under the Requirement of Economic Development”, the Ideological Front 1 (2015).
9. Pan Wenqing and Gong Xianghe, “A Study on the Correlation between Social Rights Protection and Economic Growth”, Social Sciences in nanjing 3 (2014).
10. Gong Xianghe, “Social Rights and Economic Development: Two-wheel Drive for China’s Development Miracle in the Past Four Decades of Reform and Opening up”, Journal of yunnan normal university (philosophy and Social Sciences) 5 (2018).
11. Dong Hongwei, “Promoting Economic Development with Social Rights: A New Approach to Social Rights Protection”, Journal of northwest Agriculture & Forestry university (Social Science edition) 1 (2013).
12. Gong Xianghe and Dong Hongwei, “Reasonable Range of Social Rights Protection under the Requirement of Economic Development”, 64.
13. Gong Xianghe, “Social Rights and Economic Development: Two-wheel Drive for China’s Development Miracle in the Past Four Decades of Reform and Opening up”, 48-49.
14. Yao Wuhua and Gao Debu, “The Driver Identification of China’s Economic Growth in the New Era: An Analysis Based on Economic Development Experience since the Reform and Opening up”, Inquiry Into economic Issues 1 (2019).
15. Gong Xianghe, “Criticism and Reconstruction of the Concept of the Right to Life”, Study and exploration 1 (2011).
16. Wu Yiqun and Liu Yu, “The Impact and Implications of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis”, Southeast Academic research 1 (2009).
17. Zhang Zhanbin, “Trend Characteristics and Policy Orientation of China’s Economic New Normal”, Journal of national Academy of Administration 3 (2015).
18. Zhang Wenxian, “Human Rights Jurisprudence in the New Era”, Human rights 3 (2019).
19. Chang Jian, “On the Four Norms of Human Rights Protection in China and Their Relationship”, modern Law Science 2 (2015).
20. Li Long and Ren Ying, “On National Governance and Human Rights Protection”, Journal of Wuhan university (philosophy and Social Science edition) 5 (2014).
21. In the early 1980s, the Communist Party of China put forward the “three-step” development strategy for modernization. First, from 1981 to 1990, China should double its GDP and provide enough food and clothing for the people. Second, from 1991 to the end of the 20 th century, China’s GDP should double again and the people can lead a well-off life. Third, by the middle of the 21 st century, China’s GDP should be quadrupled, and the people should live a relatively rich life, reaching the level of the moderately developed countries. At the 15 th National Congress of the CPC in 1997, the strategic objective of the “three-step” strategy was made more specific and clearer. China’s new three-step development strategy for the first half of the 21 st century was put forward. In the first decade of the 21 st century, China’s GDP should double that of the year 2000, enable the people to lead a more prosperous life, and form a fairly complete socialist market economy. After ten years of hard work, by the time the Communist Party of China celebrates its 100 th anniversary, the national economy should further develop and various systems should be more improved. By the time the People’s Republic of China is 100 years old in the mid-21 st century, China should basically achieve modernization and become a socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic and culturally advanced. After entering into the 21 st century, the CPC put forward the strategic conception of “building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.” “the white paper The Right to Development: China’s Vision, Practice and Contribution”.
22. China began to formulate its first five-year plan in 1953, and since the 11 th Five-Year Plan, the Chinese ex- pression for Plan has been changed from “ji hua” to “gui hua”. And to date, there are 13 five-year plans.
23. Fang Guangshun, Si Shuyan, and Ma Huiliang, “Construction of Human Rights Concepts and Human Rights Protection in Line with Economic and Social Development”, Scientific Socialism 5 (2015).
24. Gong Xianghe, “On the Value of Social Rights in Economic Development”, China Legal Science 5 (2013).
