LU Guangjin*

 

Abstract: As the fruits and symbols of human civilization, human rights are pursued by people all over the world. Respecting and protecting human rights is the basic spirit of modern civilization, so it is something inherent in the concept of modernization. Chinese modernization is socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. It contains elements common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is more characterized by features unique to the Chinese context. It is a new path to modernization and creates a new model for human advancement. On the road to promoting Chinese modernization, China cultivated innovative human rights jurisprudence, constructed an optimized human rights system, opened up a developmental human rights approach, established a harmonious human rights relationship, and continuously promoted the well-rounded development of the people. China created a theoretical, institutional, and practical paradigm for respecting and protecting human rights that follows the principle of universal human rights and suits the local conditions, opening up a new realm of human rights civilization of mankind. The successful promotion and expansion of Chinese modernization have justified that China has found a path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times and suits its national conditions. The modernization of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, a number larger than the total population of all developed countries in the world today, and the new path of human rights development will change the basic pattern of human rights development in the world and profoundly influence the process and trend of human rights civilization of mankind.

 

Keywords: Chinese modernization · path of human rights development · all-round development of people · human rights civilization

 

 

As a global trend since the industrial revolution, modernization represents the direction of the progress of human civilization. Human societies are the ensembles of social relations, as well as the center of modernization. The fundamental problem to be solved in modernization is the development of human society. More adequate material and spiritual conditions should be constantly created for the better development of people. Human rights reflect the progress of human civilization. Respecting and protecting human rights is the basic spirit and major attribute of a modern civilization, so it is naturally what modernization entails. The Communist Party of China has led the people in carrying out revolution, construction, and reform, developed socialism with Chinese characteristics, and opened up prospects in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, aiming at promoting national modernization, realizing a higher form of social development and leading China into the rank of advanced countries in the world.

 

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commitee, pointed out in the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC that based on our decades of exploration and practices since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, especially since the launch of reform and opening-up in 1978, as well as the breakthroughs made in theory and practice since the 18th National Congress, we have succeeded in advancing and expanding Chinese modernization. It was further proposed in the report to the 20th National Congress that Chinese modernization shows five major features. To be specific, it is the modernization of a huge population; it is the modernization of common prosperity for all; it is the modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement; it is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature; it is the modernization of peaceful development.¹ From the dimension of human rights, these five features of Chinese modernization reflect the practice of China in maintaining a steadfast commitment to the Chinese path to promote further progress in human rights, which contains the basic elements of human rights such as the right to survival, the right to development, the right to happiness, the right to a healthy environment and the right to peace.

 

Chinese modernization is socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of the CPC. It contains elements that are common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is also has characteristics that are unique to the Chinese context. It is a new path to modernization and creates a new model for human advancement. The Chinese path of human rights development is an important manifestation of the Chinese modernization path in the field of human rights as well as an important content of the new form of human civilization created by Chinese modernization. It is in the course of promoting Chinese modernization that the CPC has led the people to find a path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times and suits China’s national conditions, build a new logic of human rights development, and create a new form of human rights civilization.

 

The exploration of the Chinese path of human rights development from the perspective of Chinese modernization aims to identify the inherent logical relationship between Chinese modernization and human rights development. It is conducive to better recognizing that the Chinese path of human rights development is scientific, correct, and rational, understanding the global significance of China’s wisdom, solution, and practice in human rights protection, and commanding the fact that Chinese modernization has created a new form of human civilization. In turn, it will make China more resolved in following the Chinese path of human rights development and promoting further progress in human rights.

 

 

“Because human rights and the sources are not self-evident, they require legal proof. Human rights should not be simple beliefs but sublimated to profound jurisprudence.”² Since the Enlightenment in the West in modern times, thinkers and politicians have put forward various legal principles for human rights according to different social and historical backgrounds and economic and cultural conditions, such as “the theory of natural rights,” “the theory of legal rights,” and “the theory of social rights.”³ With the advancement and expansion of Chinese modernization in the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, Chinese Communists, with Comrade Xi Jinping as their chief representative, have followed a people-centered development philosophy, regarded respect and protection for human rights as a priority of national governance, and put forward a series of new domains, concepts, and expressions of human rights with Chinese characteristics that reflect the trends of the times and the spirit of innovation, laying a solid theoretical foundation for the Chinese path of human rights development.

 

On February 25, 2022, the CPC Political Bureau convened its 37th group study session on the Chinese path of human rights development. General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the session and delivered an important speech. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech comprehensively summarized the historic achievements and valuable experience accumulated by the CPC in respecting and protecting human rights over the past century. According to the spirit of his speech and the important discourses of General Secretary Xi Jinping on respecting and protecting human rights since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the contents and scope of Chinese human rights jurisprudence in the new era covers the following. First, for the characterization and positioning of human rights, it was emphasized that human rights are a symbol of the progress of human civilization and it is the pursuit of all societies to protect the life, value, and dignity of every person and ensure their entitlement to human rights; second, for the relationship between the CPC and human rights, it is emphasized that respecting and protecting human rights is the unremitting pursuit of the CPC and the leadership of the CPC and the socialist system of China have determined the socialist nature of the human rights cause in China; third, for the path of human rights development, it is emphasized that human rights are concrete, rooted in history, and based on current realities that cannot be talked about without considering the social and political conditions as well as historical and cultural traditions of different countries, efforts to advance human rights in any country must conform to national conditions and the popular will, and China has successfully found a path of human rights development in keeping with the trend of the times and China’s national reality; fourth, for the subject of human rights, it was emphasized that we should respect the principal position of the people, human rights are not special privileges bestowed on some people or a small minority but universal rights to be enjoyed by all the people, and we should ensure that development is for the people, that it is reliant on the people, and that its fruits are shared by the people; fifth, for the contents of human rights, it is emphasized that we should promote the comprehensive and coordinated development of economic, social, cultural rights as well as civil political rights, make ongoing efforts to develop the system of whole-process people’s democracy, improve the legal protection for human rights, guarantee the basic rights and interests of the people, and maintain social equality and justice; sixth, for the path to the realization of human rights, it is emphasized that the rights to subsistence and development is the primary and basic rights, living a life of contentment is the ultimate human right, and we should safeguard and improve people’s livelihoods and protect and promote human rights through development and achieve the common prosperity of the entire population; seventh, for the goal of human rights development, it is emphasized that human rights protection is an ongoing cause, there is no end to human rights development, and we should continue to promote the well-round development of human rights and human civilization; eighth, for the evaluation criteria of human rights, it was emphasized that how a country is doing on human rights is essentially gauged by whether the interests of its people are upheld, and whether they enjoy a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness and security, we shouldn’t apply the standards of other countries, and adopting double standards or using human rights as a political tool to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries is even more unacceptable; ninth, for the relationship between human rights in China and the world, it is emphasized that China upholds the shared values of humanity — peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, to strive for fairer, more reasonable and inclusive global human rights governance, and build a global community of shared future.⁴ These nine aspects constitute the basic category of Chinese human rights jurisprudence in the new era. As a relatively complete, comprehensive, and systematic human rights theoretical system, it has become the fundamental and guiding principle for the development of human rights in China.

 

“The most salient feature of human rights in China is the people-oriented nature.”⁵ If the ideological core of Chinese human rights jurisprudence in the new era was to be summarized with an academic term, it would be “the human rights of the people.” People-centeredness is an essential attribute of Marxism and the salient character of socialism with Chinese characteristics. People-centeredness is the hallmark of China’s human rights jurisprudence in the new era, which determines the fundamental questions “who do we serve and who do we rely on?” in the development of human rights in China. As early as the beginning of reform and opening-up, Deng Xiaoping pointed out, “What are human rights? Above all, how many people are they meant for? Do those rights belong to the minority, the majority, or all the people in a country? Our concept of human rights is, in essence, different from that of the Western world, because we see the question from a different point of view.”⁶ Entering into the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping clarified when discussing the Chinese path of human rights development, “Human rights are not special privileges bestowed on some people or a small minority but universal rights to be enjoyed by all the people.”⁷

 

The human rights jurisprudence with the human rights of the people as the ideological core adheres to the people-centered development concept and the position of the people as masters of their destiny, gives full play to their enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity, and ensures that in advancing human rights, the people are the main contributors, promoters, and beneficiaries. The human rights jurisprudence in the new era with the human rights of the people as the ideological core is manifested in three aspects. The first is to uphold the philosophy of people-centered development and enable all people to enjoy more benefits of development in an equal manner. General Secretary Xi Jinping said, “Striving to deliver a better life to the people is the biggest human right.”⁸ The CPC closely links human rights development with the people’s interests. Focusing on safeguarding and improving people’s livelihoods and resolving the most pressing difficulties and problems that are of great concern to the people, it has made steady progress in ensuring people’s access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance. The second is to put people, life, and the people’s interests to the fore. The CPC has always made realizing, safeguarding, and developing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people the starting point and goal of all its work, and guaranteed that as stipulated by law, people enjoy a full range of human rights that are genuine, specific, effective, and functional. From the rights to subsistence and development as the primary rights, living a life of contentment as the ultimate human right, to developing whole-process people’s democracy, and then to protecting and promoting human rights through development and to promoting the free and well-rounded development of every person, all these human rights discourses with Chinese characteristics that embody the authenticity of human rights reflect the spirit of putting people and people’s interests first. The third is to insist on relying on the people and regarding the satisfaction of the people as the most important criterion for human rights development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that “the people’s yearning for a better life is our mission,”⁹ reflecting the essence of human rights development in China. Speaking of the criteria for assessing the human rights conditions of a country, General Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly pointed out, “How a country is doing on human rights is essentially gauged by whether the interests of its people are upheld, and whether they enjoy a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security. Those are the most important criteria for assessing the human rights conditions of a country.”¹⁰

 

The human rights jurisprudence with the people’s human rights as its core transcends the narrowness and limitations of the Western doctrine of “natural human rights” and the liberalism of human rights. It is a new human rights jurisprudence based on the Marxist view of human rights from the actual development of the new era, the conditions of China, and the needs of the Chinese people. It is innovative in the following aspects.

 

First, it emphasizes that human rights are a historical and developmental concept. The cognition that human rights are a historical and developmental concept shows that human rights are the product of certain social and historical conditions with constant development. Human rights do not come from thin air, nor do the so-called “natural human rights” exist. According to Karl Marx, “Right can never be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural development conditioned thereby.”¹¹ The jurisprudence of the people’s human rights inherits the basic position of Marxism on human rights. Meanwhile, it follows the laws of human social development, responds to the new requirements of the development and progress of the times, takes into account the national conditions and development reality in China, and creatively develops Marxist historical-philosophical theories on human rights: The jurisprudence of the people’s human rights correctly grasps the relationship among the ruling party, the socialist system and respecting and protecting of human rights, and regards respecting and protecting of human rights as an important task for governing and rejuvenating the country and developing socialism; it emphasizes the historical process of human rights development, and believes that human rights are relevant to the past, the present, and the future, and it is a long-term historical process to the lofty ideal of mankind that everyone enjoys human rights to the full; it insists that the right to survival and the right to development are the primary and basic human rights, and strives to protect and promote human rights in development; it stresses the comprehensive and coordinated development of different human rights and constantly creates conditions for promoting the well-rounded development of the people.

 

Second, it emphasizes that human rights are concrete and based on current realities. The cognition that human rights are concrete and based on current realities shows that the development of human rights should proceed from the national conditions of a country and the needs of the people, and respect the law of human rights development. We cannot mouth empty words on human rights regardless of national conditions and reality. Moreover, the fact that “human rights are based on current realities” means that human rights development should be based on the present and actual situation to solve practical problems and constantly meet the needs of every individual; the fact that human rights are concrete shows that human rights are not absolute and abstract concepts but something visible and tangible. Talking about human rights in isolation from concrete reality will not solve any problem. It is based on this understanding that China insists on developing and protecting human rights according to its national conditions and reality, rather than blindly copying the models of other countries or accessing human rights in China with the standards of other countries, let alone mouthing empty words on human rights regardless of the social and political conditions and the historical and cultural traditions of China. It is also based on the consideration that human rights are concrete and based on current realities that China insists on opposing the “universal view of human rights” promoted by some countries, double standards on human rights, and the use of human rights as a political tool to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

 

Third, it emphasizes that human rights are comprehensive and common. The cognition that human rights are comprehensive and common means that human rights are for every individual and all people. Human rights are of a certain aspect as well as multiple aspects. Comprehensive and common human rights are neither the human rights of a few people nor the human rights that ignore the rights of some people, but the common human rights of all people where nobody should be left out. The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core attaches great importance to the protection of the rights of different classes and groups, and strives to ensure that all people participate in, develop and enjoy human rights together. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in particular, “We should leave no one behind when building a moderately prosperous society in all respects”¹² and “no ethnic group can be left behind in the push to moderate prosperity in all respects.”¹³ Meanwhile, comprehensive human rights entail the well-round development of all human rights, including not only civil and political rights but also economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights, as well as the rights to peace, development, health, and security. With the goal of moderate prosperity in all respects achieved, China has embarked on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country. The efforts to coordinate and promote the well-round development of human rights and the people reflect the comprehensive and common human rights.

 

The human rights jurisprudence with the human rights of the people as the ideological core combines the Marxist outlook on human rights with China’s specific realities and the best of traditional Chinese culture, applies the principle of universality of human rights in the context of the national conditions, sums up the successful experience of the CPC in uniting and leading the people to respect and protect human rights, and learns from the achievements of excellent human civilization, which is innovative. The human rights jurisprudence with the human rights of the people as the ideological core is an integral part of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the latest achievement of the Sinicization of the Marxist human rights theory adapted to Chinese conditions. The human rights jurisprudence with the human rights of the people as the ideological core is created in the great practice of Chinese modernization. As an important theoretical innovation in promoting Chinese modernization, it is the theoretical foundation and ideological source of the Chinese path of human rights development and the Chinese human rights civilization. The human rights jurisprudence with the human rights of the people as the ideological core opens up a new realm for socialist China led by the CPC to realize respecting and protecting human rights and contributes Chinese wisdom to the human rights thought. 

 

Speaking of the need for major development of philosophy and social science in an era of great social change, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “China is undergoing the most extensive and profound social changes in its history and promoting the most ambitious and unique practical innovation in human history. The unprecedented practice will surely provide a strong momentum and broad space for theoretical creation and academic prosperity. It is an era when ideas are needed and must be produced.”¹⁴ General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, “The sweeping social changes that China is undergoing are not simply the extension of China’s historical and cultural experience, the repetition of socialist practices by other countries, or the duplication of modernization endeavors elsewhere. Nor can they be readily slotted into the template devised by earlier writers of Marxist classics. There are thus no textbooks of predetermined solutions to which we can turn.”¹⁵ The times keep changing while human rights are progressing, so human rights theories are constantly innovating. The human rights jurisprudence with the human rights of the people as the ideological core constructs a new human rights jurisprudence system that belongs to the era of sweeping social changes from a historical attitude, the concerns of the people, and a developmental and comprehensive perspective.

 

 

Playing a decisive role, the system is the key to the success of the development. Human rights are both ideas and system practices. The realization of good human rights jurisprudence needs to be guaranteed by a good human rights system. The purpose of promoting Chinese modernization is to build socialism with Chinese characteristics. According to the Marxist human rights theory, as far as the system is concerned, socialism must be superior to capitalism or other social forms in terms of respecting and protecting human rights in the future “community”. Chinese modernization adheres to the road of socialism, actively learns from the outstanding achievements of human civilization, and combines China with the world as well as tradition with modernity, to establish an optimized institutional system that respects and protects human rights covering the basic national system and different work systems, major policies and specific measures, and internal policies and foreign policies.

 

In a broad sense, the human rights system in the course of Chinese modernization is a socialist human rights system characterized by the leadership of the CPC and based on the socialist system. As the superordinate system of human rights in China, it is the foundation of the human rights system in China. In this regard, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “The CPC’s leadership and China’s socialist system have determined the socialist nature of human rights in China and have ensured that the people run the country, that human rights are enjoyed by all people on an equal basis, and that human rights development is based on a holistic approach. This has enabled us to promote the comprehensive development of all human rights and to better realize, safeguard, and advance the fundamental interests of the greatest majority of people.”¹⁶

 

The leadership of the CPC is the fundamental guarantee for Chinese modernization and the distinctive feature and greatest advantage of China’s human rights system. “The strong leadership of the CPC is the fundamental reason why the Chinese people and Chinese nation have been able to transform their fate in modern times and achieved the great success we see today. Both the facts of history and the reality of today prove that without the CPC, there would be no new China and no national rejuvenation.”¹⁷ According to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, “leadership by the CPC is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” In contemporary China, leadership by the CPC is the choice of history, the people, and national conditions. It is hard to imagine what it would be like in China, a big country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, without the strong leadership of the CPC. The practice has fully proved that the CPC can lead China to continuous development and progress and enable the Chinese people to enjoy fuller human rights.

 

The socialist system is the fundamental system guarantee for Chinese modernization and the fundamental system basis for human rights in China. “The establishment of the socialist system has laid the foundation for all of China’s subsequent progress and development.”¹⁸ According to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, “the socialist system is the basic system of the People’s Republic of China.” The establishment of the socialist system and the road of socialist development in China have been the general trend of China’s historical development since modern times, the inevitable result of the Chinese revolution, and the only way for the Chinese nation to become prosperous. The establishment and development of the socialist political system, economic system, social system, cultural system, legal system, and other basic systems have enabled the position of the people as masters of the country and provided the basic conditions for guaranteeing the basic rights of the people. The socialist system ensures the consistency, equality, and commonality of the interests of all the people and lays an important system foundation for maintaining social equality and justice and realizing the well-round development of human rights.

 

In a narrow sense, the human rights system in the course of Chinese modernization is a system of human rights protection based on the socialist system that covers multiple specific systems, mainly including:

 

1. The human rights system of the people’s democracy. A good democratic system is an inevitable requirement for building a modern country and the original intention of respecting and protecting human rights. The people’s democratic system means the running of the country by the people. As the basic feature of China’s socialist political system, it is mainly composed of a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship, the system of people’s congresses, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy, and the system of community-level self-governance. In China, the national systems are built around the position of the people as masters of the country and the national governance system also operates around realizing the position of the people as masters of the country. The major concept of whole-process people’s democracy proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping has enriched and developed the theory and form of the position of the people as masters of the country. The whole-process people’s democracy is the essential feature of socialist democracy; it is democracy in its broadest, most genuine, and most effective form. The human rights implication of whole-process people’s democracy lies in the following aspects. First, it is more conducive to the protection of people’s democratic rights. The whole-process people’s democracy integrates democratic election, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision into a complete system process, which expands the people’s orderly political participation and ensures that all links and aspects of the country’s political and social life can hear the voice and reflect the will of the people. Second, it is more conducive to the protection of the people’s civil and political rights. The rights to vote and to be elected are the primary and basic political rights of citizens and the core to guarantee people’s enjoyment of political rights. In this regard, the Constitution of China and relevant laws have provided sufficient provisions. In recent years, China has attached great importance to ensuring that the people truly and equally enjoy the right to vote, gradually ensured that both rural and urban areas adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections of deputies to people’s congresses, and appropriately increased the number of deputies to people’s congresses at the county and township levels. Third, it is more conducive to the protection of the rights of the people to equal participation. In the practice of whole-process people’s democracy, the people enjoy the right to manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings, and social affairs through various channels and forms by the law. The country effectively protects the people’s rights to know, to participate, to express, and to supervise to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through laws and policies. The whole-process people’s democracy has given better play to the strengths of the Chinese socialist political system.

 

2. The human rights system with a sound legal system and sensible governance system. The rule of law is essential to guarantee human rights of all. It is an important part of Chinese modernization to build a modern socialist country in all respects under the rule of law and realize a sound legal system and a sensible governance system. The CPC ensures the unity of the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country and law-based governance, respects and guarantees human rights throughout the process of all fields of building a socialist country based on the rule of law, and forms a legal system to protect human rights with Chinese characteristics. China respects and guarantees human rights throughout the process of all links of building a socialist country based on the rule of law and continuously improves the system and mechanism for the protection of human rights by law. The first is to persist in scientific legislation, enhance legislation for human rights protection, and accelerate the improvement of laws and regulations to ensure the equity of rights, opportunities, and rules. As of April 20, 2022, there were a total of 292 laws effective in China. The socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics is continuously being improved, laying a solid foundation for the legal protection of human rights. The second is to enforce the law strictly, steadily promote reform of the administrative structure, build a clean and efficient government that performs its duties properly, and effectively improve the mechanism of administrative protection for human rights. China has established the legal footing for government functions and powers, strengthened checks on and oversight over administrative power, and made the effective protection of people’s rights and interests a criterion of a law-abiding government. The third is to administer justice impartially, continuously promote reform of the judicial system and mechanisms guided by the realization of judicial justice and human rights protection, and protect the basic rights of the people under the law. By administering justice impartially, it aims to ensure the protection and remedy of the rights that are violated as well as the sanction and punishment of illegal and criminal activities. China has deepened reform of the judicial system and ensured that the people can see that equity and justice are served in every law, every law enforcement action, and every judicial case. The fourth is to adhere to the observance of law by all, continuously improve the concept of the rule of law throughout society, and cultivate a culture of the legal protection of human rights. China formulates a law popularization plan every five years and makes full use of institutionalized methods such as the National Constitution Day, the Constitution Publicity Week, the Civil Code Publicity Month, and the naming of national publicity and education bases for rule of law, striving to improve the awareness of the rule of all people. China organizes training in human rights for public servants to guide the whole society to respect and protect human rights.

 

3. The human rights system enjoyed by all people on an equal basis. It is the essential requirement of socialism and the most prominent feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics to realize equal sharing. Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all and its core spirit is equal sharing. The human rights system enjoyed by all people on an equal basis aims to realize the equal participation, development, and enjoyment of all people in politics, economy, society, culture, and other aspects. On one hand, the human rights system enjoyed by all people on an equal basis strives to enable all people to participate equally in the development of national undertakings on all fronts and to share the fruits of development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out when speaking of shared development, “This is about the content of shared development, including economic, political, cultural, social and ecological achievements. We should safeguard the people’s rights and interests in all these respects.”¹⁹ He emphasized, “Shared development means development fruits are shared by all the people, each enjoying his or her share. They are not to be shared by the few or by a special group.”²⁰ The human rights system enjoyed by all people on an equal basis insists on the guarantee of the rights of specific groups on the principle of non-discrimination. Specific groups such as ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities make up the majority of the Chinese population. In a vulnerable position, they are the focus of rights protection. Over the years, China has continuously improved the protection mechanism, striving to ensure that the specific group participates equally in the nation’s politics, economy, and social and cultural life, lives a rewarding life of dignity, and realizes their dreams. To build socialism with Chinese characteristics, China has accumulated and designed in practice a whole set of human rights protection systems suited to its national conditions for sharing the fruits of development. China has established the world’s largest education, social security, and health care systems, ensuring that the fruits of development are shared by all people. The availability of compulsory education has reached the average level of high-income countries. Higher education is becoming globally recognized and universal. People’s basic cultural rights and interests are better protected. Obvious progress has been made in the Healthy China Initiative. Equal basic public health services have been promoted. The main health indicators of the Chinese are generally better than the average level of middle- and high-income countries. On the other hand, the human rights system enjoyed by all people on an equal basis is also manifested in the relentless pursuit of common prosperity. It is the essential requirement of socialism to achieve common prosperity. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “We will never allow the wealth gap to keep getting bigger — the poor to grow poorer as the rich keep getting richer. We will never allow an unbridgeable gulf to open up between those who are wealthy and those who are poor.”²¹ Meanwhile, we must also take into account the needs and possibilities in an integrated manner and make gradual progress following the laws of economic and social development to achieve common prosperity. “The common prosperity we are talking about is the common prosperity for all — material and cultural-ethical prosperity for the people. It is not prosperity for the minority, not yet uniform egalitarianism.”²²

 

4. The human rights system of systematic design. One of the major advantages of Chinese modernization in promoting the development of human rights lies in the ability to promote the development of human rights as a whole in a planned, arranged, and step-by-step manner through systematic top-level design. Over the years, China has insisted on integrating and coordinating the protection and development of human rights with the overall national development strategy and various economic, social and cultural development policies, to construct an institutional mechanism for protecting and promoting human rights in the course of development. In recent years, China has continuously promoted the development of human rights in the coordinated advancement of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the “Four Comprehensives” strategy. To be specific, the CPC and government make policy and system arrangements, including proposals or national plans for economic and social development as well as plans and outlines involving the development of multiple undertakings, to ensure the economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental rights of the people. In 2020, the Proposal of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 14th Five-year Plan for Economic and Social Development and the Long-range Objectives through the Year 2035 was adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. “Promoting comprehensive advancement of human rights” and “promoting well-rounded human development” are included in the 14th Five-year Plan and the long-range objectives. To implement the national economic and social development strategy, China has formulated four “National Human Rights Action Plans” since 2009, becoming one of the few countries in the world that have formulated four “National Human Rights Action Plans.” Over the years, the Chinese government and relevant departments have formulated many policy opinions, development plans, and work programs in employment, poverty reduction, health, education, culture, social security, ecology and environment, ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities, all of which incorporate the development of human rights.

 

It can be seen from the above that the human rights system established in the promotion of Chinese modernization is an optimized human rights system that protects the interests of the majority of the people. Based on the principle of socialism, the human rights system adheres to core socialist values such as democracy, the rule of law, equality, and justice, and reflects the spiritual power of the people’s human rights jurisprudence. It respects the position of the people as masters of their destiny, guarantees that the people are the masters of the country, and embodies integrity, commonality, and consistency in human rights protection. This human rights system not only follows the principle of universality of human rights but also conforms to China’s national conditions and the reality of human rights development. It is a human rights institutional construction that conforms to the trend of the times.

 

 

Development is an eternal theme of humanity. Without development, there will be no progress in human society, let alone achievements in human civilization. It is a successful approach for human rights protection in the course of Chinese modernization to safeguard and improve people’s livelihoods and protect and promote human rights through development, continuously enhance people’s sense of happiness, benefit, and security, and promote the well-rounded development of the people.

 

Looking back into history, it is not difficult to find that the development of human rights in contemporary China has accompanied the promotion of modernization. Modernization itself contains the implication of respecting and protecting human rights. In the early stage of reform and opening-up, the CPC decisively abandoned the policy of taking class struggle as the key link and proposed that the principal contradiction in Chinese society was that China’s underdeveloped social production was unable to meet the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people, thus establishing modernization and development philosophy of “taking economic development as the central task” and that “development is the absolute truth.”

 

To impress the people with modernization development, Deng Xiaoping proposed the concept of “a well-off family” and put forward the development goal of “quadrupling economic production” and the “Three-Step Development Strategy.” It was emphasized that the focus should be on developing the economy, improving people’s livelihoods, ensuring that people’s basic needs are met, and enabling people to live a more prosperous life. In essence, the modernization development theory put forward by Deng Xiaoping is about the rights of the people to subsistence and development, which clearly presents the relationship between modernization and human rights. Later, the people made a historic leap from having only adequate food and clothing to leading a well-off life. On this basis, the CPC Central Committee proposed to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved to become that between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing need for a better life. Especially after the realization of the phased goals of the modernization construction of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, it has become a new choice for modern development and the protection of human rights to achieve a higher-quality development and a higher level of human rights protection based on continuous historic achievements in safeguarding the rights to subsistence and development of the people. It is against this background that General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed to have an accurate understanding of the new stage of development, fully apply the new development philosophy, and accelerate the efforts to create a new development pattern for promoting Chinese modernization, stressed that living a life of contentment is the ultimate human right, reiterated the two centenary goals, and put forward the two step strategy for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects officially in the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC: Basically realize socialist modernization from 2020 through 2035 (including reaching the level of the moderately developed countries, improving the system for the whole-process people’s democracy, building a law-based country, government, and society, securing better and happier lives of the people, the well-rounded development of the individual and substantial progress in common prosperity, fundamental improvement of ecological environment, and basically attaining the goal of building a Beautiful China, and other aspects in close relation to respecting and protecting human rights); build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century. When China is fully built into a great modern socialist country in all respects, the Chinese people will enjoy fuller human rights.

 

The developmental human rights approach of China is the inevitable result of the combined effects of various factors.

 

First, it is the right choice based on China’s national conditions and the needs of the people to insist on the protection and promotion of human rights in development and take a developmental human rights approach.

 

Chinese modernization started when China had a low level of economic, social, and cultural development. China suffered from disasters and misfortunes in modern times. It is estimated that 80 percent of the population was constantly haunted by dire hunger or inadequate food supply and that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people starved to death every year.²³ When there were natural disasters, more people starved. Survival and development used to be the most pressing issues facing China, so protecting people’s right to subsistence became the top priority for human rights development in China. After the construction of the new China, for a period, although China made significant achievements in many aspects, especially obvious improvement in the protection of the people’s right to life and health and the level of social and public services such as culture, health, and education, safeguarding the people’s right to subsistence, lifting them out of poverty and helping them become prosperous in the shortest time possible remained the primary issues facing China. According to the World Bank’s global poverty line for low-income countries, among the 945 million Chinese population in the early 1980s, 82 percent of them lived in rural areas, 95 percent of which were poor.²⁴ In 1978, China implemented a planned economy. The market played little role in economic development and the level of economic output was low, resulting in a severe shortage of many necessities. Therefore, it remained the top priority for advancing the modernization of China in the early years of reform and opening-up to develop the economy, get rid of poverty, and improve people’s living standards.

 

After more than 40 years of development since the launch of reform and opening-up, especially after the completion of the building of a moderately prosperous society and the start of a new journey towards building a modern socialist country since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the overall development of China has continued to reach new heights and historic achievements have been made in the protection of human rights in China. This can be seen in the following respects. The first is poverty reduction. Since the start of reform and opening-up, more than 770 million of China’s rural population living below the current poverty line have been raised from poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total over the same period according to the World Bank’s international poverty standard.²⁵ The second is the average life expectancy. According to statistics, the average life expectancy in China rose from 35 before the founding of the People’s Republic of China to 67.8 in 1981 at the beginning of the reform and opening-up, and then 78.2 in 2021, and the major health indicators of China rank among the top of middle and high-income countries.²⁶ The third is the development of higher education. When the college entrance examination resumed in 1977, only 273,000 students were able to enter university in China.²⁷ In 2021, 11.013 million new students were enrolled in undergraduate programs in regular and vocational higher education institutes.²⁸ Higher education is becoming universal. We can also use the “Human Development Index” (HDI) issued by the United Nations Development Program to measure the development level of countries and regions to understand the important role of development in promoting human rights in China. The three basic indicators of the index are life expectancy, education level, and quality of life. The HDI of China has risen steadily over the years from 0.501 in 1990 to 0.768 in 2021, and China is the only country that has moved from the low human development group to the high human development group since the index was first released in 1990.²⁹

 

Second, the CPC follows the basic viewpoints of dialectical materialism and historical materialism by insisting on protecting and promoting human rights in development and adopting the developmental human rights approach. On one hand, according to the basic viewpoint of Marxist dialectical materialism, the top priority is subsistence and the production of materials necessary for life. According to Classic Marxist writers, “we must begin by stating the first premise of all human existence and, therefore, of all history, the premise, namely, that men must be in a position to live to be able to ‘make history’. But life involves eating and drinking, habitation, clothing, and many other things before everything else. The first historical act is thus the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material life itself.”³⁰ It is following such a basic understanding that China has upheld the rights to subsistence and development as the primary human rights and taken the maintenance and improvement of the people’s living conditions and development conditions as the top priority since the launch of reform and opening-up. Through the battle against poverty and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, China has brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty, significantly improved people’s livelihoods, and successfully resolved the most urgent human rights issues in development. On the other hand, according to the basic viewpoint of Marxist historical materialism, people are the creators of history and the motive force of world history. Putting the people first, we should adhere to the developmental approach, protect the interests of the people with development, and realize the position of the people as masters of the country with development. The CPC has regarded development as the top priority of the Party in governing and rejuvenating the country, aiming to meet the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and keep up with people’s ever-growing desire for a better life.

 

Although development is rich in connotations, covering different dimensions and levels such as the economy, politics, culture, society, and ecology, there is no doubt that the production of material, namely economic development, is an important foundation for all development. Without economic development, other aspects of development are out of the question, like water without a source and a tree without roots. Naturally, nothing is possible for protecting and developing human rights without the material foundation. Since the start of reform and opening-up, China has insisted on taking economic development as the central task, firmly grasped the key point of economic development, developed productivity, enhanced the nation’s overall strength, improved people’s living standards, driven the development of social undertakings with economic development, and promoted the protection of human rights through the development of social undertakings, blazing a new path to better protect human rights through development.

 

Finally, it is in line with the law of the development of human society to insist on the protection and promotion of human rights in development and take a developmental human rights approach.

 

Human rights did not drop from the sky, nor can they be realized overnight. They are the product of certain historical conditions. Meanwhile, human rights are concrete realities related to the actual needs of each individual. According to the law of development and progress of human society, the full realization of human rights is a historical process from low to high, that is, from insufficiency to relative sufficiency and more sufficiency. For the realization of human rights, the developmental human rights approach shows the following four characteristics:

 

The first is that the developmental human rights approach takes the right to subsistence as the primary human right. According to the theory of the right to subsistence, the right to subsistence in the modern sense mainly refers to the right to guarantee the safety and living conditions of the people. The right to subsistence covers not only the right to life and the related right to personal safety but also the right to the continuation of life, namely the basic conditions of subsistence and material for the normal lives of the people. To be specific, the right to subsistence mainly includes the right to life, personal safety, personal freedom, human dignity, health, property, labor, and social security. Obviously, if a person loses the right to life, the protection of other human rights would become empty talk. In other words, only when a person obtains a reliable right to subsistence, is it possible to obtain economic, political, social, and cultural rights based on the necessary material life and safety. Therefore, from the perspective of the pedigree of human rights, the right to subsistence, as the premise and condition for the realization of other human rights, occupies the primary position in all rights. It is precisely based on the understanding that the Chinese government declared as early as the early 1990s that “the right to subsistence is the primary human right that the Chinese people have been long striving for.”³¹ Protecting people’s right to subsistence has been the primary human rights issue to be resolved in Chinese modernization for quite a long time.

 

The second is that the developmental human rights approach takes the right to development as the foundation. The international community’s theory on the right to development was put forward and developed in the 1970s and 1980s, roughly in the same period as the advancement of Chinese modernization in the early days of reform and opening-up. The theory of the right to development is in line with the reality of the development of human rights in Chinese modernization. The reasons are as follows: First, the right to development and the right to subsistence are unified and inseparable. Subsistence is for development while development is for better subsistence. According to the theory of the right to development, “development is the right of all people and everyone has the right to subsistence. Moreover, everyone has the right to live a better life, which is the right to development.”³² Second, the right to development is a comprehensive human right as well as a basic human right, which includes not only the right to economic, social, and cultural development but also the right to political development, so it is compatible with the overall requirements of human rights development in China. Third, the right to development is both a collective and an individual human right. It is a unity of collective and individual human rights. In 1986, the Declaration on the Right to Development was adopted during the 41st session of the United Nations General Assembly. It was affirmed that “the right to development is an inalienable human right” and emphasized that “the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.”³³ Over the past few decades, China has insisted on improving the protection of the right to development through the development and promoted the development of other human rights with the right to development to continuously create conditions for the realization of a higher level of human rights development.

 

The third is that the developmental human rights approach takes living a happy life as the ultimate human right. According to human rights theory, the development of all societies should ultimately be based on the freedom, safety, and happiness of mankind. The pursuit of happiness has always been the value goal of human society which is yearned for by everyone. The right to happiness has been valued by thinkers since the Enlightenment in the West in modern times and elucidated from different positions. Writers of Marxist classics also attach importance to human happiness. The Marxist concept of happiness attaches great importance to human needs and satisfaction and believes that it is the first historical activity of human beings. Meanwhile, according to Marxism, happiness is the unity of material life and spiritual life. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, “the ultimate human right is the right to a happy life.” It is a new expression of the Sinicization and modernization of the Marxist concept of happiness and human rights, which endows human rights in China with new meaning in the new era. The outlook on happiness represented by the concept that “the ultimate human right is the right to a happy life” is the unity of material life and spiritual life. As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the requirements of the people to live better lives are increasingly broad. Not only their material and cultural needs have grown; their demands for democracy, rule of law, fairness and justice, security, and a better environment are increasing. Meanwhile, this kind of happiness is not simply personal happiness but also covers social happiness, which is the unity of personal happiness and social happiness. The concept that “the ultimate human right is the right to a happy life” is a new refinement of human rights marked by happiness, the beautiful goal relentlessly pursued by human society.

 

The fourth is that the developmental human rights approach takes the realization of the free and well-rounded development of people as the objective. As a Marxist political party, the CPC regards the realization of the free and well-rounded development of people as the highest ideal pursuit. Speaking of the relationship between human rights and communism, Engels said, “Real liberty and real equality will be only possible under Community arrangements.”³⁴ Undoubtedly, there is a long way to go to realize the ideal human rights goal of free and well-rounded development of people. Because in the view of Marxism, “the realm of freedom actually begins only where labor which is determined by necessity and mundane considerations ceases, thus in the very nature of things it lies beyond the sphere of actual material production” and “the true realm of freedom, which, however, can blossom forth only with this realm of necessity as its basis.”³⁵ Therefore, without the great development of productive forces, the great abundance of material products, and the well-rounded development of society, it is impossible to establish the “realm of freedom.” In real society, only through the continuous advancement of Chinese modernization, can the people’s right to subsistence be better guaranteed, the right to development be fuller realized, and the right to happiness be obtained more comprehensively, so more sufficient conditions can be created for the well-round development of the “realm of freedom” for the free and well-rounded development of every individual.

 

The developmental human rights approach realizes the protection and promotion of human rights in the course of development, makes human rights protection continuously advance to a new and higher level, and opens up a new path for the development of human rights. Different from the “human rights-based development path”³⁶ taken by some Western countries, the “development-based human rights path” of China does not simply view development from the angle of human rights and put human rights and development in opposition, it unifies development and human rights. China insists on developing human rights in the process of modernization and promotes the progress of human rights through modernization. Meanwhile, it tests the achievements of modernization through the progress of human rights, realizing the interaction between development and human rights.

 

 

Chinese modernization is socialist modernization to pursue the consistency and commonality of the interests of all the people and maximize them. Therefore, it is a very meaningful way to respect and protect human rights in promoting Chinese modernization to establish a harmonious human rights relationship where various human rights and the basic elements related to human rights can coexist in a non-confrontational manner based on the development of human rights. 

 

The harmonious human rights relationship established in the course of Chinese modernization is embodied in the realization of “four organic integrations” of human rights relations.

 

The first is the organic integration of individual and collective human rights. The relationship between collective and individual human rights is an important issue in human rights theory. Western capitalism has a wrong understanding of this issue and the understanding of traditional socialism also deviates. According to Marxism on “every individual” and “all people”, collective and individual human rights are a unity. Chinese modernization not only attaches importance to the development of collective human rights but also pays attention to the protection of individual human rights to strive to coordinate and promote the development of the two. Collective human rights guarantee individual human rights. The founder of Marxism believes, “Only in the collective can individuals obtain the means to fully develop their talents, that is to say, only in the collective can there be individual freedom.”³⁷ Without collective human rights, individual human rights would lose the premise and foundation of their existence. History and reality have repeatedly proved that in China, a unified multi-ethnic country, the fate of individuals is closely linked with the fate of the nation and country while the nation and country are the firm backers of individuals. At the same time, individual human rights are the basis of collective human rights. Without the development of collective human rights, it is certainly impossible to guarantee individual rights, yet if the guarantee of individual rights is not valued, it is equally impossible to have a better development of collective human rights. While attaching importance to the guarantee of collective rights, Marxism also places special emphasis on respecting individual freedom and individual development, holding that “it goes without saying that society cannot free itself unless every individual is freed.”³⁸ The CPC conducted a thorough review of the experience gained and the lessons learned from the international communist movement and China’s socialist revolution and construction, correctly recognized the law of the development of socialism and the historical position of socialism with Chinese characteristics, correctly understood the relationship between collective development and individual development, and regarded individual human rights as the source of collective human rights and collective human rights as the basis of individual human rights to create conditions for the common development of collective and individual human rights. China adheres to the unity of collective and individual human rights, creatively mobilizes the enthusiasm of the collective and the individual, realizes the optimization of individual interests and collective interests under certain social and historical conditions, and promotes the common development of individual people and institutional people.

 

The second is the organic integration of sovereignty and human rights. The relationship between sovereignty and human rights is another important issue in human rights theory. There are different understandings of the relationship between sovereignty and human rights based on different views of human rights and human rights jurisprudence. It is obviously not true to say that “human rights are superior to sovereignty”, nor is it accurate to say that “human rights are a matter within the sovereignty of a country.”³⁹ Against the background that human rights have become a universal discourse, that China has successfully taken the path of human rights development that is in line with the trend of the times and suited to its national conditions, and that China is moving closer to the center of the world stage, it has become an important aspect of China’s relationship with the world to take a clear-cut stand on human rights and to occupy the moral highland of humanity’s morality. With the advancement of Chinese modernization, the consistency of the relationship between sovereignty and human rights has become increasingly apparent. On the one hand, sovereignty is the premise and guarantee of human rights. Without the sovereignty of the country, there would be no human rights of the people. For Marxism, human beings should be a kind of “species-being.”⁴⁰ Human beings are not independent atoms. The identity, role, and status of an individual are dependent on society and country. Deng Xiaoping once said, “People who value human rights should not forget the rights of the state. When they talk about human dignity, they should not forget national dignity. In particular, if the developing countries of the Third World, like China, have no national self-respect and do not cherish their independence, they will not enjoy that independence for long.”⁴¹ This underscores the importance of sovereignty to human rights. Within a country, sovereign countries have the responsibility to protect human rights. As long as there are national borders in the world and people live in their respective countries, it is in the highest interest of the government and people of each country to maintain the independence and sovereignty of the country. From this perspective, both collective and individual human rights in a sovereign country should rely on the protection of sovereignty. On the other hand, human rights are the purpose and destination of sovereignty. In socialist China, the interests of the country are highly consistent with the interests of the people, the masters of the country and society who enjoy all the powers to manage the country and society. As the fundamental law of the country, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China stipulates, “All power in the PRC belongs to the people.” This ensures the position of the people as masters of the country and clarifies the inviolability of human rights in the sovereign country. The connotation of human rights in the unity of human rights and sovereignty advocated by Chinese modernization is different from that in “taking advantage of the human rights issue to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.” The human rights “being taken advantage of to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs” are not real human rights but an excuse against human rights.

 

The third is the organic integration of negative and positive human rights. According to human rights theory, there are two relations between the subject and the object of human rights, namely “negative human rights” and “positive human rights.” Generally speaking, “negative human rights” highlight the subject status of individual human rights, emphasize individual will and freedom, and oppose governmental interference in individual rights, including the rights to life, freedom, and property; “positive human rights” emphasize the subject status of the country and allow the government to take positive actions to support the realization of individual rights, including the rights to work, education, health, social security, etc. Chinese modernization and socialism with Chinese characteristics persist in mobilizing the initiative and creativity of the country, collective, and individuals. It not only “actively protects the interests of individual citizens and certain social groups” but also “avoids wanton infringement on personal rights, right to dignity, and freedom that individual citizens should enjoy,”⁴² striving to realize the harmony and unity between “positive human rights” and “negative human rights.” In the human rights pedigree of Chinese modernization, human rights include not only civil and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the rights to subsistence, development, peace, and environment. The subjects of human rights include both individuals and collectives. It is the unity of these rights and subjects. Taking the right to subsistence as an example, humans are born with the inherent pursuit of “subsistence” which takes the life as the carrier and core. It is generally stipulated in the laws of Western countries that the right to life cannot be deprived without due legal process. It is obviously a negative view of human rights. In terms of the right to life, covering the right to subsistence, it is not only a right that requires external passive inviolability but also calls for active and effective protection to achieve the unity of negative human rights and positive human rights. For the first time in the history of human rights development, China has proposed and put into practice the concept of taking the right to subsistence and the right to development as basic human rights, which overcomes the historical limitation of the West in taking the void right to individual freedom as the primary human right and greatly enriches the connotation of human rights discourse. In a certain sense, it positions the center of gravity and optimizes the value of human rights.

 

The fourth is the organic integration of rights and obligations. It is a distinctive feature of the respect for and protection of human rights in Chinese modernization to emphasize the unity of rights and obligations. As is stipulated in Article 33 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, “the State respects and preserves human rights. Every citizen is entitled to the rights and at the same time must perform the duties prescribed by the Constitution and other laws.” The unity of rights and obligations is determined by the social nature of human rights, because human rights can only exist and be realized in the social relations between people.⁴³ Therefore, human rights are necessarily affected by economic, political, social, and cultural factors. The enjoyment of a certain human right by a certain subject shows the unity of rights and obligations in the interrelationship of individuals, groups, and among individuals, groups, and society. When a certain subject enjoys a certain right, other subjects are obliged to respect it and should not violate it. The purpose of Chinese modernization is to build socialism with Chinese characteristics, which pursues human rights consistent with the fundamental interests of the people. An optimized human rights system based on the jurisprudence of “the people’s human rights” is a coordinated and balanced development of the rights of individuals, groups, and societies, which can only be realized in a social community that undertakes mutual obligations. In a socialist society, everyone is legally subject of both rights and obligations. Rights and obligations are a mutual relationship. On one hand, one should protect one’s rights from infringement; on the other hand, one should safeguard the legitimate rights of others to realize the normal interaction of rights and obligations between the people. Moreover, the unity of rights and obligations is reflected in international human rights affairs. In international activities, every country should enjoy the rights endowed by international human rights conventions and fulfill the corresponding obligations. No country can enjoy privileges that go beyond international human rights conventions and no country should be forced to perform obligations beyond the scope of international human rights conventions that damage its sovereignty. The principle of unity of rights and obligations should be upheld by all countries in their attitude toward international human rights conventions.

 

The harmonious human rights relationship established in Chinese modernization is also reflected in the correct grasp and handling of the relationship between human rights in China and human rights in the world. Facing the deepening of globalization, China advocates mutual learning, harmony, and coexistence of civilizations under an open, inclusive, and cooperative spirit, and avoids using one civilization to frame the rich and colorful human life. China adheres to the integration of the universality principle of human rights with China’s national conditions. On one hand, China actively learns from the outstanding achievements of human civilization, including human rights civilization. So far, China has signed 29 international human rights instruments, including six core UN human rights conventions. China abides by its obligations to human rights conventions, actively aligns domestic laws and policies with the obligations in conventions, and submits implementation reports in time to accept the review of treaty bodies. On the other hand, China strives to promote the development of human rights in the world through its development. General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the important concept of a community with a shared future for human beings, important initiatives such as the Belt and Road, the Global Development, and the Global Security, and important ideas such as a sense of community of shared health for mankind and a community of life for man and nature, which have been widely applauded and actively received by the international community. In response to the unbalanced and inadequate development of human rights in the world, China insists on advancing the global governance of human rights in a fairer and more rational direction to actively promote global human rights governance. China strives to promote cooperation through peace, advance development through cooperation, and protect human rights through development, and continues to play a positive role in promoting the rights to peace, development, environment, and health of people in different countries through its practical actions.

 

The harmonious human rights relationship in Chinese modernization has better grasped the principle of mutual respect and protection among different human rights subjects such as individuals, groups, societies, and countries, and demonstrated a new spirit of contemporary human rights civilization. Such harmonious human rights relationship that respects differences and seeks commonality rather than discrimination and confrontation carries forward excellent traditional Chinese culture and reflects the inevitable requirement for building a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious, beautiful and modern socialist country.

 

 

For the most time of the past centuries since the Enlightenment in the West and the bourgeois revolution, the term human rights has been basically exclusively enjoyed by the West, and the interpretation had also been monopolized by Western countries. Human rights are not only the slogan and “patent” of Western countries but also the tool for them to implement foreign policies, while countries in other civilizations are mostly in a passive or subordinate position, making it difficult to have a right to say in human rights.

 

In promoting the great cause of Chinese modernization, the CPC leads the people to proceed from the national conditions and reality, insists on combining the Marxist human rights theory with China’s specific realities and the best of traditional Chinese culture, learns from the achievements of excellent human civilization, and cultivates nnovative human rights jurisprudence to open up a developmental human rights approach, establish a harmonious human rights relationship, and form a unique theory, system, and practice paradigm for respecting and protecting human rights. China has found a path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times, suits its national conditions, and opens up a new realm of human rights civilization. China has contributed its wisdom and provided its solutions to enrich the diversity of human rights civilizations. The path of Chinese modernization will lead and promote the continuous development and progress of human rights in China. On this path, the organic unity of the leadership of the CPC, the socialist system, and respect for and protection of human rights has been realized, creating a new form of human rights civilization. The success of China in human rights protection has not only enabled the Chinese people to enjoy fuller human rights but also vigorously promoted the development of human rights in the world. The human rights practices in the course of Chinese modernization have changed the basic pattern of human rights development in the world and profoundly influence the process and trend of human rights in the world. 

 

In his report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that from that day forward, the central task of the CPC will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. In the years to come, with the continuous advancement and expansion of Chinese modernization, the cause of human rights in China will make headway on all fronts, the Chinese path of human rights development will become wider and wider, and China will make new and greater contributions to the cause of human progress. 

 

(Translated by HU Liang)

 

* LU Guangjin ( 鲁广锦 ), Vice-president of China Society for Human Rights Studies, Professor of Jilin University Human Rights Institute, Doctor of Laws. The paper is a significant progress of “Research on the New Shape of Chinese-style Human Rights Civilization” (Project Approval No. 21AZD095), a key project of the National Social Science Fund of China, and “Theoretical Interpretation and Discourse Shaping of the Path of Human Rights Development in China” (Project Approval No. 2022CXTD05), a project of the Philosophy and Social Science Research Innovation Team of Jilin University.

 

1. Xi Jinping, “Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects — Report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC,” People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

2. Zhang Wenxian, “Human Rights Jurisprudence in the New Era”, Human Rights 3 (2019): 26.

 

3. Research Group on Human Rights, Guangzhou University, “Outline of the System of Socialist Human Rights with Chinese Characteristics”, Chinese Journal of Law 2 (2015): 60.

 

4. For all the above, see Xi Jinping, “Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights,” Qiushi 12 (2022): 6-8; Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights(Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2021).

 

5. Xi Jinping, “Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights,” Qiushi 12 (2022): 7.

 

6. Deng Xiaoping, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1993), 125.

 

7. Xi Jinping, “Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights,” 7 .

 

8. Xi Jinping, “President Xi Meets UN Human Rights Chief Bachelet,” People’s Daily, May 26, 2022, 1.

 

9. Xi Jinping, “The People’s Wish for Good Life is Our Goal,” in Xi Jinping on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights, compiled by the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2021), 31.

 

10. Xi Jinping, “President Xi Meets UN Human Rights Chief Bachelet,” People’s Daily, May 26, 2022, 1.

 

11. Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2015), 16.

 

12. Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Seminar on Pressing Problems Related to the Two Assurances and Three Guarantees during a Visit to Chongqing Municipality,” in Xi Jinping on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights, compiled by the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2021), 57.

 

13. Xi Jinping, “Remarks at a Meeting with Exemplary Primary-level Workers Promoting Ethnic Solidarity,” in Xi Jinping on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights, compiled by the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2021), 122.

 

14. Xi Jinping, “Remarks at the Symposium on the Work of Philosophy and Social Sciences,” in On the Publicity and Theoretical Work of the CPC, Xi Jinping (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2020), 219.

 

15. Ibid., 232.

 

16. Xi Jinping, “Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights,” 6-7.

 

17. Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century, Compilation of Documents of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2021), 94-95.

 

18. Ibid., 30.

 

19. Xi Jinping, “Developing a Deeper Understanding of the Vision of Innovative, Coordinated, Green, Open, and Shared Development,” in Xi Jinping on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights, compiled by the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2021), 54.

 

20. Ibid.

 

21. Xi Jinping, “The New Development Stage and Development Philosophy Require for the Construction of New Development Pattern,” ibid., 59.

 

22. Xi Jinping, “Solidly Promoting Common Prosperity,” ibid., 67.

 

23. the State Council Information Office, White Paper on the Human Rights in China (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 1991), 4.

 

24. China National Human Development Report Special Edition (Beijing: China Translation & Publishing House, 2019), 1-2.

 

25. the State Council Information Office, Moderate Prosperity in All Respects: Another Milestone Achieved in China’s Human Rights (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2021), 10-11.

 

26. the State Council Information Office, ibid., 18; “Remarkable Achievements in the Development of China’s Public Health Since the 18th CPC National Congress,” People’s Daily, September 8, 2022, 2.

 

27. China National Human Development Report Special Edition, 1.

 

28. “Statistical Communiqué of the People’s Republic of China on the 2021 National Economic and Social Development,” People’s Daily, March 1, 2022, 10.

 

29. Lu Guangjin, “On the New Shape of Chinese-style Human Rights Civilization,” Jilin University Journal Social Science Edition 3 (2022): 15. See HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2021/2022, Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lines: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World.

 

30. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Selected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), 158.

 

31. the State Council Information Office, White Paper on the Human Rights in China (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 1991), 1.

 

32. Xu Xianming, Course in Jurisprudence (Beijing: China University of Political Science and Law Press, 1994), 377.

 

33. Dong Yunhu and Liu Wuping, World Documents of Human Rights (Chengdu: Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1991), 1365.

 

34. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Collected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1956), 582.

 

35. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Collected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 25 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1974), 926-927.

 

36. Lu Guangjin et al., “Creating a New Realm of Human Rights Civilization,” Guangming Daily, May 6, 2022, 11.

 

37. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Collected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1960), 84.

 

38. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Collected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 20 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1971), 318.

 

39. Zhang Wenxian, “Human Rights Jurisprudence in the New Era”, Human Rights 3 (2019): 24.

 

40. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Selected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), 55.

 

41. Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1993), 331.

 

42. Research Group on Human Rights, Guangzhou University, “Outline of the System of Socialist Human Rights with Chinese Characteristics”, Chinese Journal of Law 2 (2015): 68.

 

43. Ibid., 64.