Editor’s Note: On November 8, 2022, the China Society for Human Rights Studies held a seminar in Beijing on “Deeply Studying and Implementing the Spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and Adhering to the Chinese Path of Human Rights Development”. Padma Choling, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, addressed the event. The participating experts and scholars focused on studying and implementing the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and conducted in-depth interpretations of the macro and micro issues centered on the Chinese path of human rights development from multiple perspectives. Here are excerpts from some of the experts’ discussions for reference. Selected papers include Dai Jitao’s “On Using the Constitutional Way of Thinking to Promote All-around Development of Human Rights”, Gong Xianghe’s “Committed to the Chinese Path of Human Rights Development Featuring a Coordinated Relationship between Human Rights and Economic Development”, He Zhipeng’s “Core Elements of the Chinese Path of Human Rights Development”, Hua Guoyu’s “The Logic of China’s Human Rights Development in the New Era”, Li Chaoqun’s “The People-centered Discourses in the Chinese Human Rights Discourse System”, Zhang Aining’s “The Chinese Modernization: A Chinese Path Empowered by the Right to Development”, and Yang Bochao’s “The Cultures and Values of the Times Underlying the View of Human Rights in Contemporary China”. It is hoped that this collection of papers will help in studying and implementing the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and in understanding the important discourses on respecting and protecting the human rights, as Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has said.

 

 

DAI Jitao*

 

In the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee said: “We will follow a Chinese path of human rights development, actively participate in global human rights governance, and promote all-around advancement of human rights.”¹ In the new era of advancing law-based governance across all fields of endeavor and establishing a socialist country under the rule of law, we must fully utilize the constitutional way of thinking to promote the comprehensive development of human rights and continuously strengthen legal protection for human rights to ensure that the people enjoy extensive rights and freedom endowed by law.

 

 

Article 33 of the current Constitution of the People’s Republic of China clearly stipulates: “The state shall respect and protect human rights.” The Constitution is formulated and continuously improved under the CPC leadership and, based on profound practical experience of the country’s socialist revolution, construction and reform, embodies a high degree of unity between the CPC’s policies and the people’s willingness to demonstrate great vitality, and provides a fundamental legal guarantee for reform, opening-up and socialist modernization. The continuous development of human rights in China fully proves that the Constitution is a good document that conforms to national conditions, realities, and the development demands of the times. To follow a Chinese path of human rights development and promote all-around advancement of human rights, we must resolutely uphold and comprehensively implement the Constitution on a long-term basis.

 

The development and practice of democratic governance in human society show that a constitution establishes a certain political system and maintains a certain social order. Its fundamental purpose is to continuously improve the status and role of people in political and social relations through the overall social development, to enrich the contents and forms of human rights, and empower the people. Ultimately, the constitution is an important legal form that emerged at a certain stage in the historical development of people fighting for their rights and realizing their values. The constitution serves the realization of the core value of human rights. The main goal of a constitution is protecting rights and limiting power. The constitution stipulates the fundamental rights of citizens comprehensively and systematically and, as the basic law, provides the basis for the legal protection of citizens’ fundamental rights. The Constitution of China explicitly states, “All power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people”, which means the state is required to adhere to a people-centered philosophy and exercise power for the people, with the ultimate aim of achieving universal and free development of all people and empowering people with their inherent rights as human beings. Thus, respecting and protecting human rights has become the basic principle guiding the implementation of the Constitution. Moreover, the other values of the Constitution must be realized based on the state’s respect for and protection of human rights. The Constitution has many values in affirming and regulating state power, safeguarding the unity of the country’s legal system, affirming the economic system to promote economic development, and safeguarding national unity and world peace, while these values must be realized based on the full realization of all human rights. If the human rights of citizens cannot be fully realized and protected, the political order established according to the Constitution can only be a violence-based autocratic rule, under which social development will lack fundamental motivation and practical significance, and it won’t be easy to realize other values of the Constitution. Only when human rights are truly respected and fully protected can the other values of the Constitution be truly realized and promoted. 

 

 

“No state is forever strong or forever weak. If those who uphold the law are strong, the state will be strong; if they are weak, the state will be weak.”² General Secretary Xi Jinping has always attached importance to the important role the rule of law plays in governing the country and has repeatedly emphasized that Party organizations at all levels and Party members and leading officials should take the lead in implementing the rule of law and continuously improve their ability and level of law-based governance. In particular, the key to improving such ability and level of law-based governance lies in the cultivation of the constitutional way of thinking. The Constitution is China’s fundamental law and provides a general charter for governing the country. It has supreme legal status, authority and force and plays a fundamental role in national governance, social development and the construction of socialist democracy. The law-based governance involves two core requirements: First, state power shall be exercised within the framework of the rule of law. The rule of law is, first and foremost, the rule of the Constitution, and the key to law-based governance is Constitution-based governance. Second, the economic, cultural, social and other rights of all citizens shall be realized, and citizens are guaranteed to enjoy extensive rights under the law. Accordingly, the essence of the rule of law is the rule of the Constitution, and the rule of the Constitution is the logical starting point for promoting the rule of law in an all-around way. Therefore, the constitutional way of thinking is an important concept for promoting the comprehensive development of human rights.

 

The constitutional way of thinking is using the Constitution and its basic theories to analyze and solve problems, which is a kind of concept and consciousness with power limitation and human rights protection as its normative core. China’s current Constitution clearly stipulates the principle that “The state shall respect and protect human rights”. With the fundamental rights and obligations of citizens as its core content, the Constitution provides the fundamental guarantee for every citizen to enjoy their rights and fulfill their obligations. The CPC has always attached great importance to the important role of the Constitution in governing the country and has repeatedly emphasized the necessity to resolutely uphold the sanctity and authority of the Constitution and facilitate its improvement and development. This is the root cause of the vitality of the Chinese Constitution. Thus, to promote all-around development of the human rights cause, we must fully utilize the constitutional way of thinking. First, using the constitutional way of thinking is conducive to combining the principle of universality of human rights with China’s realities. By stipulating the fundamental principle that “The state shall respect and protect human rights”, the Constitution requires that the principle of protecting human rights shall be implemented in all aspects of state governance and that the state shall promptly resolve the most pressing and immediate problems of the greatest concern to the people and safeguard the wellbeing of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. Second, using the constitutional way of thinking is conductive to adhering to the people-centered approach and promoting all-around development of human rights. The Constitution stipulates the fundamental principle that “All power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people”, so efforts must be made to uphold the principal position of the people, support and ensure that the people exercise state power through the system of people’s congresses, and guarantee that as stipulated by law, people enjoy a full range of human rights that are genuine, specific, effective, and functional. Last but not least, using the constitutional way of thinking is conducive to the continuous development of the connotation of human rights, the coordination and promotion of the economic, political, social, cultural and environmental rights of all people, and the promotion of all-around development of human beings. By stipulating the fundamental rights of citizens, the Constitution realizes the protection of human rights as the supreme and fundamental law and, at the same time, provides political and legal conditions for the realization of human rights. Where human rights conflict with other values of the Constitution, the protection of human rights and the safety and health of the people should be given top priority.

 

 

First, uphold and strengthen the CPC’s leadership in the human rights cause. Leadership by the CPC is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is the CPC leadership. The CPC is the leader, advocate, promoter and practitioner of China’s human rights cause. The leadership of the CPC is the distinct feature and political advantage of the human rights development path with Chinese characteristics, and also provides the fundamental guarantee for China’s human rights cause. When the current Constitution was amended for the fifth time in 2018, “Leadership by the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics” was added to the Constitution. This has established the Party’s leading position in governing the country from the height of the essential attributes of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, providing a clear constitutional basis for upholding the Party’s overall leadership in all aspects of state governance, and also for upholding the Party’s leadership in promoting the overall development of the human rights cause. To this end, in the process of promoting all-around development of the human rights cause, it is necessary to ensure that the Party plays the core leadership role in overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all parties, and further strengthen the Party’s leadership in the human rights cause at the political, ideological, and organizational dimensions.

 

Second, adhere to the people-centered approach to human rights development. The Chinese Constitution features rich connotations of human rights protection. This is reflected not only in the detailed text of the Constitution, which stipulates the fundamental rights of citizens, but also in the concrete practice of the principles of people’s sovereignty and human rights protection through the construction of the legal system. The Constitution specifies the goals and also lays an institutional foundation for the development of China’s human rights cause. In carrying out specific work to protect human rights, the state shall respect the principal position of the people, serve the people wholeheartedly, and actively solve problems closely related to their lives, such as education, employment, medical and health care, social security and social stability, so as to give people a stronger, more assured, and more sustainable sense of gain, fulfillment, and security. 

 

Third, fully and strictly enforce the Constitution and ensure that state organs earnestly fulfill their constitutional responsibility of respecting and protecting human rights. China has promoted the enforcement of the Constitution and fully implemented the fundamental principle that “The state shall respect and protect human rights” through improving laws, regulations and institutional systems and developing various undertakings of the state. To use the constitutional way of thinking to ensure that state organs actively fulfill their constitutional responsibility of respecting and protecting human rights, it should be guided by the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on the Constitution, continuously improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics centered on the Constitution, so as to transform the Constitution from text into practice through a well-established legal system, and improve the level of respecting and protecting all fundamental rights of Chinese citizens. Meanwhile, it should strengthen oversight and inspection of the legal enforcement of the Constitution, advance the inspection of constitutional compliance, improve the mechanism to interpret the Constitution, and earnestly uphold the sanctity of the Constitution. The Constitution’s ultimate goal of realizing all-around development of people shall remain the guiding value of system construction, to enhance the efforts to protect and improve the people’s wellbeing, and allow the achievements of reform and development to benefit all the people in a more extensive and more equitable manner. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish the authority of the Constitution, nhance the public officials’ awareness of the Constitution, implement the institutionalized arrangements for the publicity and education of the rule of law, innovate the publicity and education of the Constitution, and make the Constitution deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so that all the people will become loyal advocates, consciously abide by, and resolutely defend the Constitution.

 

Fourth, strengthen the legal protection of human rights to ensure that people enjoy extensive rights and freedom in accordance with the law. China is the only major country in the world that has formulated and implemented four successive national human rights action plans. The principle of human rights protection in the Constitution runs through all aspects of building a law-based country, fully covering the whole process of legislation, law enforcement, administration of justice, and observance of the law. In advancing law-based governance, sound legislation has created a legal system to protect human rights, strict law enforcement has fostered a good law-based environment for human rights protection, and judicial justice has provided an effective channel for a judicial remedy in the field of human rights. In the meantime, China has also formed a sound system of intra-Party regulation based mainly on the Party constitution and supplemented by other intra-Party rules, which is most effective in fighting corruption and safeguarding people’s interests. To further strengthen the lawbased guarantee for the comprehensive development of the human rights cause, it is necessary to comprehensively promote sound legislation, further promote law-based governance, and accelerate the construction of a law-based government; State organs shall exercise the functions and powers as prescribed by laws and administrative regulations, and they may not exercise any function or power that is not authorized by laws or administrative regulations, and no organization or individual shall have any privilege beyond the law. Besides, it is also necessary to comply with the rising expectations of the people for judicial justice and protection of rights and interests, deepen the reform of the judicial system and mechanisms, work to ensure that the people feel fairness and justice prevail in every judicial case, and gradually realize the rule of law in all aspects of human rights protection in China.

 

* DAI Jitao ( 戴激涛 ), Professor, School of Law, the Guangdong University of Finance & Economics.

 

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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

2. Han Feizi, On Having Standards.

 

 

GONG Xianghe*

 

On February 25, 2022, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, delivered an important speech at the 37th group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the focus of which was steadfastly following the Chinese path of human rights development. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed: “In advancing the human rights cause, we have combined the Marxist outlook on human rights with China’s specific realities and the best of traditional Chinese culture, reviewed our Party’s successful experience of leading the people in respecting and protecting human rights, and learned from the outstanding achievements of other civilizations. This has allowed us to forge a path that is in keeping with the times and the conditions of China.” General Secretary Xi Jinping further addressed in the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress: “We will follow a Chinese path of human rights development, actively participate in global human rights governance, and promote all-around advancement of human rights”. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s discourses on the Chinese path of human rights development have pointed out the direction for the development of human rights with Chinese characteristics for a new era and successfully shaped the model of human rights development with Chinese characteristics. It has distinct political logic, historical logic, and theoretical logic, and features a clear economic logic. The Chinese path of human rights development has always taken human rights protection and economic development as the core subjects in the process of China’s human rights cause, which has facilitated coordinated common progress of human rights protection and economic development and presented a unique logic of evolvement. It has properly handled the tension between human rights protection and economic development, which the United States and other Western countries have failed to do.

 

 

The most salient feature of human rights in China is the people-oriented nature. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that we must respect the principal position of the people in an important speech on human rights: “We have safeguarded the people’s democratic rights, given full play to their enthusiasm, initiative and creativity, and ensured that in advancing human rights, the people are the main contributors, promoters, and beneficiaries. We have made concrete efforts to promote the well-rounded development of the individual and to achieve substantial progress in common prosperity.” This has explicitly expressed the people-centered philosophy of human rights and that human rights are the goal and purpose of economic development. With the people-centered philosophy of human rights, especially in the face of COVID-19, which threatened both people’s lives and economic development, China chose without any hesitation to putting people and human life above all else and protect the health and safety of the people to the greatest extent possible by doing the utmost to prevent the spread of the pandemic and sparing no effort to save people’s lives, hence protecting people’s rights of life and health.

 

In contrast, the United States and other Western countries faced with choosing between human rights and economy during the COVID-19 pandemic put economic recovery first, giving more priority to economic development rather than the rights of life and health, and tried to resume economic development at the expense of people’s life and health, crossing the moral line by treating people as a means of economic growth. The article “Human Lives Must Be Put Before Economic Development in Pandemic”, published in Russia Today on March 30, 2022, provides a fair commentary on this: From the very beginning, China has truly understood the human rights that would actually affect people’s lives, rather than the rigid and superficial concept of “human rights” constructed by the West.

 

Human rights are the purpose of economic development and provide endogenous factors that drive economic development. The people-oriented outlook on development, the new development concept featuring innovation, coordination, environmental protection, openness and sharing, as well as the acceleration of the construction of a new development pattern and promotion of high-quality development, all of these integrate the factors of human rights into the process of economic development, highlighting the leading role of human rights in economic development. Therefore, economic development acquires new endogenous factors and endogenous growth forces.

 

 

To steadfastly follow the Chinese path of human rights development, it is required to focus on basic human rights, primarily the rights to subsistence and development, promote human rights through development, apply the new development philosophy in full, pursue a people-centered development approach, and uphold the principle that development is for the people and by the people and that its fruits should be shared by the people. The resolution on “the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights” submitted by China was adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) three times, and China’s philosophy of “promoting human rights through development” has been widely recognized and supported by the global community. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress also stated: “We must ensure and improve the people’s wellbeing in the course of pursuing development and encourage everyone to work hard together to meet the people’s aspirations for a better life.”¹ Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, China has upheld the people-centered philosophy of human rights and coordinated the pandemic prevention and control and economic and social economic development to maximize the protection of the people’s right to development. Lay a solid material foundation for the protection of human rights with high-quality and high-efficiency economic development.

 

The Chinese path of human rights development, based on China’s realities, unifies the state’s strategies with the people’s fundamental interests, rights and obligations, the “governance rights” and the right to development, and creates a governance system and human rights protection path with Chinese characteristics.² Human rights protection requires a certain economic foundation, while high-quality and high-efficiency economic development is an important prerequisite and basis for continuous improvement of human rights protection. The Chinese economy, which has been in a stage of rapid growth for a long time, has entered a “new normal” where China is paying more attention to the quality of economic development and the overall coordination of quality and efficiency and is focused on the coordinated development of all aspects that are related to economic development. Economic development is the top priority, but its fundamental purpose is to guarantee the realization of human rights. China has also formulated national development strategies and national economic and social development plans in order to fully realize the role of economic development as a material guarantee for human rights. Since the reform and opening-up, the CPC has proposed the “three-step” development strategy for modernization and the strategic task of building a “moderately prosperous society in all respects”, so as to achieve boost people’s living standards, from having access to basic material needs to moderate prosperity, and then to common prosperity, while ensuring the rapid economic development.³

 

 

Human rights protection and economic development are closely interdependent and mutually reinforcing, which requires us to establish a proper concept: Economic development provides the material basis for human rights protection. The growth of the economy must also drive the improvement of human rights protection. They must achieve coordinated and compatible development without emphasizing the former or ignoring the latter. To this end, China has established an institutional guarantee for the coordinated and compatible development of human rights and economic development through the Constitution, laws, and national economic and social development plans, which clearly stipulate that the level of human rights protection must be compatible with the level of economic development. For example, Article 14 of the Constitution clearly states: “The state shall appropriately handle accumulation and consumption, give due consideration at once to the interests of the state, collectives and individuals and, based on the development of production, gradually improve the material and cultural wellbeing of the people. The state shall establish a sound social security system compatible with the level of economic development.” Article 46 of the Labour Law of the People’s Republic of China provides that: “The distribution of wages shall follow the principle of distribution according to work and equal pay for equal work. The level of wages shall be gradually raised on the basis of economic development.” Besides, we should also pay attention to the fact that insufficient or excessive protection of human rights will hinder economic development. Insufficient protection of human rights will dispel the positive momentum of economic development to a large extent and become a “weak” element in the process of economic development, making it incompatible with other high-input resource elements; excessive protection of human rights will lead to idle and surplus human resources, which will fail to lead economic development in a steady manner, thus restricting the sound development of the economy.

 

All in all, the Chinese path of human rights development has rationally clarified the internal relationship between human rights protection and economic development from a conceptual point of view, scientifically constructed a complete system of human rights protection and economic development from an institutional point of view, and facilitated coordinated development of human rights and economy from a practical point of view. The adherence to the coordinated advancement of human rights protection and economic development is formed on the basis of China’s historical experience and practice in continuous progress in human rights. It embodies the characteristics of the times in China’s human rights development and scientifically constructs the dynamic relationship between human rights protection and economic development, thereby substantially transcending the traditional concept regarding the conflict between human rights and economic development. The adherence to the coordinated advancement of human rights protection and economic development will better serve the practice of the Chinese path of human rights development. Meanwhile, it will also contribute the Chinese experience and wisdom to the construction and development of human rights globally.

 

* GONG Xianghe ( 龚向和 ), Professor, Institute for Human Rights, Southeast 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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

2. Li Long and Ren Ying, “On National Governance and Human Rights Protection”, Wuhan University Journal (Philosophy & Social Sciences) 5 (2014).

 

3. In the early 1980s, the CPC proposed the “three-step” development strategy: First, to double the 1981 GNP and ensure the provision of basic material needs by 1990; second, to double the 1991 GNP by the end of the 20th century and bring people’s living standards to a level of “reasonable prosperity”; and third, to quadruple that new GNP to the level of moderately developed countries by the mid-21st century, and provide the Chinese people an affluent life. At the 15th CPC National Congress in 1997, the third step was made more specific, and a new “three-step” strategy for the first half of the 21st century was put forward: First, in the first decade of the 21st century, to double GNP compared to the 2000 level, raise levels of prosperity, and form a relatively complete socialist market economy; second, with 10 more years’ hard work, to further develop the economy and improve various institutions by the centenary of the founding of the CPC; and third, to achieve basic modernization and complete the building of a socialist country that is prosperous, democratic, and culturally advanced by the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in the mid-21st century. After entering the 21st century, the CPC set itself the strategic task of building a “moderately prosperous society in all respects.” See the white paper titled The Right to Development: China’s Philosophy, Practice and Contribution.

 

 

HE Zhipeng*

 

Human rights have always been a key aspect of the development of Chinese society and civilization. In summarizing the achievements and experiences of the first decade of the new era, the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress stated: “Over the past decade, we have...secured historic achievements and seen historical changes in the cause of the Party and the country, and taken China on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects.”¹ These achievements include: “We have kept to the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics... We have provided better protections for human rights.”² In the future-oriented vision, the report stressed: “We will follow a Chinese path of human rights development, actively participate in global human rights governance, and promote all-around advancement of human rights.”³ In analyzing the nature of China’s human rights cause and the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese path of human rights development, the following elements are worthy of attention.

 

 

The human rights cause led by the CPC differs significantly from the traditional Western human rights in terms of operation, structure and mechanism because the CPC is the leader of the people and upholds the principle of putting the people first. In the process of protecting and realizing human rights, the CPC plays a leading role. When planning undertakings, it first considers the needs of the people and serves their needs for a better and happy life. Furthermore, in the process of advancing and implementing the cause, the CPC also constantly examines how to pay attention to the voice of the people and improve their sense of gain, and how to make the people feel care and warmth in their daily lives, and feel fairness and justice prevail in the legal system. In contrast, the traditional human rights mechanism in the West puts the people and the government in an opposing position, where people challenge the government and demand the government restrict its governing behavior so that the people can freely enjoy their corresponding rights. Under such circumstances, the government is not an actor actively planning the rights and exercising all efforts to realize such rights, but a respondent constantly responding to the demands of the people. There are many differences in attitudes and practices toward human rights between a leader and a respondent. The CPC’s “leadership paradigm” features an advantage that the governing party and government have a stronger sense of responsibility and need to manage a large number of resources to achieve a series of social goals, including human rights. The potential risk is that the public welfare for the people conceived in advance and the efforts made to meet the needs of the people in operation may not necessarily reflect the actual needs of the people, which may lead to a “planned society” similar to the “planned economy”, thus forming a situation that the people are not actually satisfied with. To avoid such a situation, the CPC advocates paying full attention to investigation and research, knowing the conditions and opinions of the people, to prevent blind planning and wrong decisions; meanwhile, the CPC actively engages in criticism and self-criticism, promotes the self-revolution of the Party organizations and members through intra-Party democracy and Party regulations, and maintains smooth information communication between Party organizations and the people. The advantage of the “responsive government” in the West is that the government does not need to carry out comprehensive and proactive human rights planning, but only needs to respond in an effective way when the people are in need. Despite the low resource input, it features the shortcoming of insufficient overall planning, so the development of human rights is scattered. When people’s awareness is not refreshed or improved, the protection of human rights will remain at a relatively low level.

 

From the point of view of the constitutional system, China is a country with a prominent center and a clear core leadership, and the political, economic, cultural and social aspects of the entire country are highly centralized. As the overall center of modernization, the CPC has the overall task of planning, designing, leading the actions and supervising the protection of the state, the government, and social democracy. The Party and governments at all levels have complied with the will and leadership of the CPC Central Committee and built a beautiful society in which the people feel and experience democracy, the rule of law and moderate prosperity. Although political scholars often believe that the mechanism of a country should be centralized, in real political life, the political power of many countries is not centralized. For example, the “separation of powers” or “division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions” advocated by many Western countries is a kind of power division at the central government level; and some other countries adopt a federal system under which each region has a high degree of autonomy and its own constitution while the central government features relatively weak power. China is a typical centralized country, and its human rights cause must be interpreted based on the centralized structure of the state.

 

As a political party, the CPC differs from political parties in other countries in many ways. As a long-term governing party, the CPC does not need to take turns with other parties, so it can plan long-term construction and development goals. While political parties in many countries try to eliminate competing parties, deliver some speeches to please voters, and make promises that may never be fulfilled in the actual process of governance, the CPC can focus on how to establish a good governance system, how to promote the whole-process people’s democracy better, and how to build a legal framework for people’s happy life, how to enhance the governance ability of the Party and government, so as to realize human rights in a more effective way. This is a very difficult task to accomplish in the two- and multi-party systems. Therefore, the Chinese government and society under the leadership of the CPC can make more far-reaching plans for people’s happy life and realize human rights, establishing the structural characteristics of the Chinese path of human rights development.

 

 

China adheres to a people-centered stand on human rights and has made iconic efforts in terms of people’s wellbeing and democracy, which have been highly recognized by the people. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress has established the significant role of the people in terms of the system, process and philosophy of development: “Applying a people-centered development philosophy. We must protect the people’s fundamental interests, improve their wellbeing, and work tirelessly to ensure that development is for the people and by the people and that its fruits are shared by the people. We must do a better job of seeing that the gains of modernization benefit all our people fairly.”⁴ This has shaped a people-centered philosophy of development in all aspects of undertakings: “We will continue to follow a people-centered approach to developing education, move faster to build a high-quality educational system, advance students’ well-rounded development, and promote fairness in education.”⁵ This is true not only in the field of education, but also in the field of culture: “We will encourage people-centered cultural creation and production of more outstanding works that inspire the people, and we will nurture a great number of writers and artists of both moral and artistic stature as well as a large contingent of talented personnel in culture and the arts.”⁶ These expositions, in a highly compelling way, illustrate the characteristics of the philosophy and direction of China’s human rights cause.

 

China regards the people’s aspiration for a happy life as the biggest human right and a better life for the people as the main content of human rights. The Chinese people’s definition of a happy life and their planning for a better life are constantly advancing with the development and changes of the times. Thus, in the context of China’s governance and development, the extension of human rights is obviously also expanding. In the 1970s, people only expected a “moderately prosperous family”, but by the beginning of the 21st century, it has become a more refined expectation for a “moderately prosperous society in all respects”. The constituent factors and key content of a moderately prosperous society are also constantly expanding with the development and advancement of society. By the second decade of the 21st century, China has been able to propose building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and then securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. In the context of China, the concept of a moderately prosperous society can be compared with the concept of human rights cause, to indicate considerable coordination between the two. In other words, the moderately prosperous society and the human rights cause in China are characterized by coupling.

 

If we use the moderately prosperous society to define and analyze China’s human rights development, we can see that China’s human rights in its primary stage presented a system centered on people’s livelihood, namely, requiring to promote people’s living standards to access basic material needs and actively alleviate poverty. As people have achieved complete success in poverty alleviation, the pace of building a moderately prosperous society has also accelerated. Therefore, the performance of people’s livelihood is the initial requirement of China’s human rights cause and also the main task of China’s human rights development in its initial stage. The CPC and the Chinese government have made a lot of solid efforts to meet the basic material needs of more than one billion people. The secret of success lies in the active efforts of Party members and officials. Whether it is on their initiative or driven by the Party’s policy planning, people’s subjective initiative and work enthusiasm have been well stimulated. Meanwhile, Party members and officials serve as the foundation to engage the people who are living at a lower standard to seek opportunities to develop and prosper in the face of difficulties, so as to break away from poverty on the whole. This method of starting from policy planning and using Party members and officials as the core force to drive all the people to achieve common prosperity is a replicable and exemplary model of human rights development. However, in order to truly achieve such a situation and alleviate poverty, it requires arduous efforts, which will not happen overnight.

 

In the 1990s, China clearly stated that the rights to subsistence and development are the primary and basic human rights and has made great efforts to realize such rights in practice. “We have implemented a people-centered philosophy of development. We have worked continuously to ensure people’s access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance, thus bringing about an all-around improvement in people’s lives.”⁷ Under such circumstances, some Western people mistakenly believe that China’s development path is “all about economic development” and China’s human rights development path is “only about people’s livelihood”. And by extension, they believe that China does not care about political rights, especially democratic rights. This clearly indicates a lack of understanding of China’s modern and contemporary history. As early as when Mao Zedong had a dialogue with Huang Yanpei in 1949, the CPC proposed a new path to break the historical cycle of rise and fall, that is, people’s democracy. After more than 70 years of efforts, the CPC and the Chinese government have made unremitting explorations in the area and process covered by people’s democracy, and put forward the important proposition of “the whole-process People’s democracy”. This not only indicates the running of the country by the people and the realization of democracy guaranteed by the rule of law, but also that democracy is reflected in all areas of legislative, administrative and social decision-making, national congress, and even the 14th Five-Year Plan and the draft speeches of the CPC National Congress have a solid basis for democratic suggestions. China pays special attention to enhancing the people’s right to supervision. In sharp contrast to the West, where all the rights of the people are used at once during election, after which the only way for them to express their concerns about politics and the country is through marches and demonstrations, China relies on the people to provide clues and suggestions in the legislative, judicial and administrative departments to enhance China’s governance structure and system, and improve the community governance, ultimately to reassure and satisfy the people. As a result, democracy has deeply and widely existed in all fields and aspects of Chinese society, and has become a common phenomenon in China’s political, economic, cultural and social communities, enabling democracy to truly play its role, achieve goals, and protect human rights.

 

Human rights are a set of real rights. Whether such rights are interpreted as claims, interests, or qualifications, they all have clear directions, and the targets they point to require society to provide certain resources. Human rights, as the basic rights that people enjoy in society, naturally feature the attributes of all rights, requiring society to provide corresponding resources as a guarantee and basis. For example, freedom of expression requires a relatively relaxed social mentality; prohibition of torture requires society to provide proper resources for obtaining evidence, conducting legal reasoning and trial; the right to vote requires a sound electoral system. The enjoyment of human rights is closely related to resources, so the institutions and forces capable of organizing society to supply such resources become critical. Some cultural and political systems are merely superficial slogans and fantasies about power without actually providing the resources to realize them. The CPC leads the Chinese people through real efforts and down-to-earth struggles to enrich relevant social resources and gradually improve the supply of human rights.

 

 

The rule of law brings hope to the nation, provides direction for the governance of the state, and secures human rights protection for the people. In the process of historical development, it becomes more and more clear that people have increasingly realized that distinct and stable development of rights relies only on the model of the rule of law. Without well-established legal norms, even if a good mechanism for protecting human rights is formed at some point in a society, it is likely to be marginalized, weakened and eventually eroded in practice. If legal norms are established in the process of acquiring rights, it can define the scope of rights that the people may enjoy, especially the positive list for government power, allowing the government to exercise its power within a clear and limited range; it can also define the negative list for people’s rights, namely, people’s freedom is restricted only in designated areas. This will help build a good government image and create a high-level human rights protection mechanism.

 

Many historical lessons in China strongly demonstrate that without adherence to the philosophy of the rule of law and law-based governance people’s rights are likely to be brutally violated in real life, no matter how many rights are prescribed for people in the written law, or no matter how people’s access to human rights is thoroughly and beautifully described at the policy level. Rights may be violated by those with power and by those with ideological or political positions, especially through raising certain slogans. If such problems cannot be effectively resolved, they will obviously have an extremely negative impact on the cause of human rights in society. The rights can only be real and reliable when the scope and content of the rights are specified in the law, and the ways and means of protecting the rights are specified in the operation of legal norms, especially the relief measures for the situation where the rights are violated.

 

The CPC has found the second answer to the question of how to escape the historical cycle of rise and fall, and that answer is self-reform. In order to truly achieve the effective self-reform of the Party, we cannot rely on determination, attitude, or campaigns to reach the ideal goal. The proper way is to establish a good rule of law system. This explains why China has given higher priority to the socialist rule of aw system in the new era. Meanwhile, active efforts have been made in terms of intra-Party regulations, and practical and effective measures have been taken to promote the construction of the legal system of the CPC and the operating procedures of the legal system, which have achieved satisfactory results. Therefore, as China is getting closer to the rule of law since the reform and opening-up, it also manifests a process of continuous improvement of human rights protection. China’s ability to protect human rights is constantly improving with the advancement of the rule of law.

 

 

The 20th CPC National Congress has incorporated human rights into the overall cause of people’s democracy, and proposed: “We must firmly stay on the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics, uphold the unity between Party leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance, and ensure the principal position of the people, so as to give full expression to their will, protect their rights and interests, and spark their creativity.” These are the key to success for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the core elements for more extensive, more stable and more robust development of China’s human rights cause.

 

* HE Zhipeng ( 何志鹏 ), Professor and Executive Director of Jilin University Human Rights Institute.

 

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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

2. Ibid.

 

3. Ibid.

 

4. 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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

5. Ibid.

 

6. Ibid.

 

7. Ibid.

 

 

— Based on the “Human Rights” Discourses in the Reports to the CPC National Congress After “Respect and Protect Human Rights” Being Written into the Constitution

 

HUA Guoyu*

 

On March 14, 2004, the Second Session of the 10th National People’s Congress adopted the Amendment to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and officially added the line “The state shall respect and protect human rights” into the Constitution, marking that “human rights” has been elevated from a political concept to a legal concept in China, and that respecting and protecting human rights has risen from a political concept to the will of the people and the country. Since then, the reports to the CPC National Congress have made profound expositions on the protection of human rights. Sorting out and studying the human rights discourses in these reports will help us gain a clearer understanding of the logic of human rights development in contemporary China.

 

 

Looking back at the history of China’s human rights development, “China has put the people first during its development, increasing their benefits, ensuring the people are their own masters and supporting development in an all-around way. These are both the starting points and the goals of development. China has effectively protected the people’s right to development and carved out a human rights development path with Chinese characteristics.”¹ For a fairly long period after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), China never included the human rights concept in the Constitution and law, with human rights being considered taboo in ideological and theoretical research. In practice, however, the CPC has been committed to developing and protecting the rights of the overwhelming majority of the people and has made world-renowned achievements in human rights. On November 1, 1991, the State Council Information Office published a white paper titled China’s Human Rights Situation, which made clear to the world China’s basic position and policies on human rights issues, as well as the facts on China’s human rights situation. China has raised high the banner of human rights. After the “Respect and Protect Human Rights” was written into the Chinese Constitution, the CPC purposefully included human rights development in the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The 17th CPC National Congress amended the Party constitution, and for the first time, “respect and protect human rights” was written into the constitution of the CPC. Respecting and protecting human rights has become an important political ideas and value goals for the Party and the country. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, we have continued to regard respect and protection for human rights as a priority of national governance and have attained historic progress in advancing human rights. According to the Report to the 18th CPC National Congress, people’s democracy should be expanded, the rule of law should be fully implemented as a basic strategy, and human rights should be fully respected and protected. The 19th CPC National Congress proposed: “Strengthen legal protection for human rights to ensure that the people enjoy extensive rights and freedoms as prescribed by law.” The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress in 2022 reviewed the achievements of China’s human rights development in the first decade of the new era, indicated that China has “provided better protections for human rights”, and concluded that “We will follow a Chinese path of human rights development, actively participate in global human rights governance, and promote all-around advancement of human rights.” At the 37th group study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed: “In advancing the human rights cause, we have combined the Marxist outlook on human rights with China’s specific realities and the best of traditional Chinese culture reviewed our Party’s successful experience of leading the people in respecting and protecting human rights, and learned from the outstanding achievements of other civilizations. This has allowed us to forge a path that is in keeping with the times and the conditions of China.” He summarized the defining features and valuable experience of China’s human rights development from six aspects: First, upholding CPC leadership; second, respecting the principal position of the people; third, proceeding from China’s realities; fourth, focusing on basic human rights, primarily the rights to subsistence and development; fifth, protecting human rights according to the law; sixth, taking an active part in global governance on human rights. This presents the logic of China’s practice of human rights development, and also provides the action guide for China’s human rights practice and the foundation for the innovation of human rights theory. China’s human rights cause must unswervingly adhere to this path.

 

 

With the continuous improvement of China’s national strength, people’s lives are improving day by day, posing more and more extensive demands for the protection of their rights. From citizens’ political rights to their economic, social and cultural rights, the breadth and depth of China’s human rights protection are constantly expanding. The Report to the 17th CPC National Congress stated the progress in improving democracy and the legal system, and proposed that “the cause of human rights witnessed sound development”; the Report to the 17th CPC National Congress said that new progress was made in developing democracy and the legal system and indicated that “human rights should be fully respected and protected”, and further proposed the goal that “We must respect and safeguard human rights, and ensure the equal right to participation and development for all members of society in accordance with the law”; on this basis, the Report to the 19th CPC National Congress further proposed to “ensure that the people enjoy extensive rights and freedoms as prescribed by law”; the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress proposed to “promote all-around advancement of human rights”. The changes from “sound development” to “all-around development” in the discourses on the human rights cause reflect the continuous progress of China’s human rights cause, the continuous enrichment of the connotation of human rights, the adequate protection of rights, and the transformation of the goal of human rights protection from a single one to a multi-dimensional one. This is in line with the historical law of the development of human rights, and also the law of the development of socialism.

 

Advancing the overall development of human rights cause is an inevitable requirement for the practice of the Marxist theory of “free and comprehensive development of people”. In the Marxist view, the communist society in its essence is an association in which “the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all”². Promoting all-around development of human rights is also an inherent requirement for building a modern socialist country in all aspects. “The modern state power based on the value of human rights ultimately relies on fully realizing human rights”,³ and “all-around development” is the Chinese way of expressing the full realization of human rights. The term “all-around” features a twofold meaning: the comprehensive, coordinated development and the comprehensive, sustainable development. For the comprehensive, coordinated development: First, in terms of the subject of right, it attaches importance to the protection of traditional collective rights in China, and also values the protection of individuals’ rights, including the human rights of vulnerable groups; second, in terms of the content of specific rights, it attaches importance to traditional political, economic, social and cultural human rights, and also values the new rights such as digital human rights and the right to live in harmony; third, in terms of human rights protection, it features the economic condition for material support, the core socialist values for moral and ethical support, and the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics for legal guarantee. As for the comprehensive, sustainable development, nowadays, sustainable development has become an important issue concerning the whole human community, that is, the relationship between mankind and nature. Human rights cannot be sustained without a sound ecological natural environment. The Report to the 17th CPC National Congress proposed to “promote a conservation culture” for the first time and also indicated that it should be given prominence in China’s strategy for industrialization and modernization. The Report to the 18th CPC National Congress gave high priority to promoting ecological progress and incorporated it into the overall plan for promoting economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress for advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Besides, “The Communist Party of China shall lead the people in building a socialist ecological civilization” was written into the constitution of the CPC. The Report to the 19th CPC National Congress proposed “Speeding up Reform of the System for Developing an Ecological Civilization, and Building a Beautiful China”; further on, the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress proposed that “It (Chinese modernization) is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature”, and stressed that “we must remember to maintain harmony between humanity and nature when planning our development”. The CPC has established a new ecological view of harmony between humanity and nature. A good ecological environment is the fairest public good and most common public welfare. It is an important part of human rights, and also an important condition for fully realizing human rights in other fields and ensuring sustainable development of human rights. The CPC has established the policy of “respecting, adapting to, and protecting nature”, proposing to improve the protection of human rights in all aspects based on coordinated progress in the economic, political, cultural, social, and eco-environmental fields.

 

 

From the “Respect and Protect Human Rights” being written into the Constitution to the 20th CPC National Congress, China’s human rights practice has constantly been adapting to the needs and demands of new types of human rights and continuously expanding the field of human rights development. The focus of human rights protection is shifting to the bigger vision and picture, expanding from one country to the whole world, to commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

 

From “Unswervingly Following the Path of Peaceful Development” proposed in the Report to the 17th CPC National Congress, to the call to “raise awareness about human beings sharing a community of common destiny” and “boost the common interests of mankind” proposed for the first time in the Report to the 18th CPC National Congress, and then to the concept of “promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind” repeatedly stressed in the reports to the 19th and 20th CPC National Congress, China has been firmly committed to promoting the common value of all human beings, practicing the true multilateralism, actively participating in the reform and construction of global governance systems, including human rights, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. No country can address alone the many challenges facing mankind; no country can afford to retreat into self-isolation. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress also stated: “Building a community with a shared future for mankind is the way forward for all the world’s people. An ancient Chinese philosopher observed that ‘all living things may grow side by side without harming one another, and different roads may run in parallel without interfering with one another.’ Only when all countries pursue the cause of the common good, live in harmony, and engage in cooperation for mutual benefit will there be sustained prosperity and guaranteed security.”

 

The concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” is a global version of the “people -centered” development philosophy of the CPC. The CPC strives for both the wellbeing of the Chinese people and human progress. With the mind and vision of a Marxist party, the CPC places China’s development in the coordinate frame of human development and closely links its own destiny with the destiny of the rest of the world⁴, and contributes Chinese input to the global human rights governance. Promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind includes at least the basic content of respecting and safeguarding the national sovereignty of all countries, safeguarding shared security, adhering to win-win cooperation to promote global development, and actively participating in global human rights governance. As summarized by some scholars, it is the recognition of the right to peace, the advocacy for economic cooperation development model, the leadership in building an ecologically efficient world, as well as the rejection of cultural hegemony and the promotion of cultural diversity.”⁵ To further trace its cultural roots, the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind contains the traditional Chinese Confucian concept of “benevolence (ren)” and the Confucian world outlook of “the world (tianxia)”. Confucianism stressed that “the benevolent regards all beings of the universe as a whole”, so they pursue the harmony between people and people, countries and countries, as well as people and nature. Confucianism believed in the dynamic relationships of the individual (self), family, country, and the world, namely, to cultivate oneself, put the family in order, govern the country, and pacify the world, indicating a progressive and interconnected process. The close connection between individual and collective human rights shows the development and progress of China’s human rights cause should have a global vision.

 

 

In terms of the discourse on human rights, China has gone through three stages. From the early days of the PRC to the late 1970s, China adopted passive discourses on human rights in response to the struggle for human rights in the international community; from the early 1980s to the new century, China adopted a more active strategy and began to integrate with the universal human rights discourses⁶; since “respect and protect human rights” was written into the Constitution, especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping published a series of important expositions on respecting and protecting human rights, forming a contemporary Chinese view of human rights, and a Chinese human rights discourse system featuring self-consistency, substantial content, and strong explanatory power. In these important expositions, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward and deeply explained the people-centered philosophy of human rights, reaffirmed the rights to subsistence and development as the basic human rights of paramount importance, regarded the people’s aspiration for a happy life as the biggest human right, stressed promoting all-around development of the human rights cause, advancing free and comprehensive development of people, and actively participating in global human rights governance. These have delivered the strongest voice of China in respecting and protecting human rights.⁷

 

For a long period of time, Western countries have been actively exporting their human rights discourse with their political, economic, military and cultural strengths⁸ and constantly criticizing other countries as patronizing lecturers with their double standards for human rights. In terms of human rights discourse, China is in a weak position with insufficient discourse power, outputting limited discourses despite its great input in human rights development. The reason lies in the prominent imbalance between the construction of human rights discourse and the reality of human rights development due to the lack of a well-established human rights discourse system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Some scholars pointed out that the construction of Chinese human rights discourse is facing multiple pressures: the convergence and conflict between tradition and modernity, the dynamics and pressures between the domestic community and the international community, the push-and-pull between political discourse and “depoliticization”, the tension between different trends and schools of thoughts on shaping human rights discourse⁹. Despite the many pressures for establishing and improving the human rights discourse system, China has always been committed to the self-exploration of human rights practice and continuously institutionalized the experience of human rights protection. During this process, China has summarized the characteristics and traits of Chinese human rights, proposed new concepts, new scopes and new expressions of human rights that can be easily understood and accepted by the international community, and constructed the discourse of human rights with Chinese characteristics yet resonating with all mankind. Thus, China’s human rights discourse system, which is original yet available for international exchange and mutual learning, national yet universal, has gradually taken shape. The Chinese view of human rights clarified by the Chinese human rights discourse is a human rights view based on Chinese experience as a method and standpoint under the guidance of Marxism. It clarifies the inherent flaws and dilemmas in the human rights development in Western countries, and disenchants the civilizational superiority in the Western-centric human rights discourse. Following the “inter-civilizational approach to human rights”, it adjusts the relationship between the universality and particularity of human rights, and provides an important reference for different civilizations to truly realize human rights development and solve human rights problems. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress stated that China calls upon “all countries to hold dear humanity’s shared values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom; to promote mutual understanding and forge closer bonds with other people; and to respect the diversity of civilizations. Let us allow cultural exchanges to transcend estrangement, mutual learning to transcend clashes, and coexistence to transcend feelings of superiority. Let us all join forces to meet all types of global challenges.” The “people-centered” philosophy of human rights in contemporary China is increasingly demonstrating its vigorous vitality on the international stage of human rights, leading the practice of human rights issues and protection in the international community.

 

 

The all-around development of human rights is a utopia that requires constant exploration and practice. It has been faced with many paradoxes between ideal and reality, and relies on continuous innovation of human rights theory and practice to solve the actual and potential pre-modern, modern and post-modern problems at present and in the future. China’s human rights cause has followed the process of two-way interaction and spiral advancement, in which the people’s human rights needs are incorporated into the policies and systems of the Party and the state, and the top-level design of human rights is implemented in practice at primary levels. During this course, the state’s human rights system has continuously improved, and the people’s enjoyment of human rights has been strengthened and consolidated. The great achievements China has made in its human rights cause fully demonstrate that China has embarked on a path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times and suits China’s national conditions. China has created a new form of human rights civilization and provided more Chinese insight, better Chinese input and greater Chinese strength to help enhance the diversity of human rights civilization.

 

* HUA Guoyu ( 化国宇 ), Associate Professor, the People’s Public Security University of China. This paper is a phased achievement of the “Research on Adhering to and Developing ‘Fengqiao Experience’ in the New Era” (21AZD083) — a key project of the National Social Science Fund of China and the “Research on the Xi Jinping Thought on Rule of Law” (2022FZS01) — a special research project commissioned by the People’s Public Security University of China.

 

1. Xi Jinping, “Xi Jinping’s Congratulatory Letter to the International Symposium Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Adoption of the United Nations’ ‘Declaration on the Right to Development’”, People’s Daily Overseas Edition, December 5, 2016.

 

2. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works of Marx and Engels, volume I (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), 422.

 

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

 

4. “Striving Together Toward the Noble Cause of Peace and Development for Humanity”, People’s Daily, June 26, 2021.

 

5. He Zhipeng, “The Contribution of the Concept of Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind to the Human Rights Theory”, Human Rights 5 (2017).

 

6. In this stage, the integration of China’s human rights with the world was mainly manifested by the fact that China valued the important role of international instruments on human rights in promoting and protecting human rights. From becoming a state party to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1982, until “respect and protect human rights” was written into the Constitution, China has actively acceded 20 international conventions and protocols on human rights, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

 

7. Lu Guangjin, “On the New Form of Chinese-Style Human Rights Civilization”, Jilin University Journal Social Sciences Edition 3 (2022).

 

8. Mao Junxiang, “On the Internationalization of Chinese Human Rights Discourse based on the Expansion of Western Human Rights Discourse”, Legal Forum 2 (2021).

 

9. Wang Liwan, “China as Method in the Construction of Human Rights Discourse System”, Chinese Journal of Human Rights 1 (2021).

 

 

LI Chaoqun*

 

The “people-centered” approach is a socialist philosophy of human rights with Chinese characteristics in the new era. It was first introduced in the white paper titled Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China published in 2019. Since socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, we can clearly sense that China’s human rights discourse is deeply bound and closely connected with the people’s discourse. In the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress, the concept of human rights was clearly stated in the section of “strengthening the institutions through which the people run the country”, that is, “We will follow a Chinese path of human rights development, actively participate in global human rights governance, and promote all-around advancement of human rights.”¹

 

In order to promote the sustainable development of China’s human rights cause and fully demonstrate China’s achievements in human rights and human rights philosophy with Chinese characteristics, it is necessary to construct a human rights discourse system that matches China’s human rights practice. A scientifically established view of human rights is of great importance for the construction of human rights discourse system. The term “people-centered” directly indicates a human rights subject, that is, “people”. Therefore, for the construction of the socialist human rights discourse system with Chinese characteristics in the new era, the interpretation of the “people-centered” human rights discourse should be an important topic at present and in the future.

 

 

The subject of right is a key issue in human rights discourse. How to interpret and express the “image of people”, and to confirm the status of people as the subject based on such an image, should be the most basic problem for generating and developing all human rights concepts and corresponding discourses. The “people-centered” discourse is an innovation based on the classic Marxist theory of human nature and the concept of the people. Based on the realities of contemporary Chinese social development, it accurately expresses the image and status of the people as the subject of the fundamental and realistic characteristics of human beings.

 

Marxism emphasizes the realistic and social nature of people. On this basis, the “people-centered” discourse delivers abundant, accurate expressions regarding the realistic attributes, extension and core components of people.

 

First, “people” is a social whole with realistic nature, which is the organic unity of individuals and collectives. As a social collective, people are not an abstract concept and cannot exist in isolation from real individuals. “The people are not an abstract symbol but real persons, with flesh, blood, emotions, love and hate. They have dreams. Sometimes they argue among themselves, and sometimes they struggle to break free from a situation.”² This recognizes the subject status of each real person and takes the real persons as the foundation of the collective people. Meanwhile, the “people” is not a simple sum of “real persons”, but an organic whole formed by people with a public spirit based on the needs of common life and public interests.

 

Second, the “people” is a highly extensive social whole. As far as Chinese practice is concerned, the simple concept of “people” as social class identification is actually the product of the emphasis on “class struggle” in the revolutionary context of a particular historical period. Since the reform and opening-up, with the change of the main contradiction in Chinese society, “reform” and “construction” have provided the basic context for China’s political and legal discourses, and the extension of the “people” concept has constantly been expanding. In particular, with the socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a new era, the scope of “people” has been defined in a most extensive manner in the Preamble of the Chinese Constitution, including “all socialist working people, people involved in building socialism, patriots who support socialism, and patriots who support China’s reunification and are dedicated to the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. When General Secretary Xi Jinping expresses the concept of “people”, he often expresses it as “the overwhelming majority of the people” to indicate the whole country, the whole Chinese society, and the whole Chinese nation. For example, in the specific interpretation of the core principle of “adhering to the people-centered approach” in Xi Jinping’s thought on the rule of law, the phrase “protect people’s rights and interests in accordance with the law” is expressed as “safeguard the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people”.³ This is the recognition and affirmation of the extensiveness of “people” in the “people-centered” discourse.

 

Third, the core component of “people” will always be “ordinary working people”. The extensiveness of people and the diversity of social life in reality determine that “people” must be a whole composed of various social groups or classes. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Understanding of and desires for social fairness and justice may differ when there are differences in development levels and historical periods, and people’s outlook and social background. When we speak of social fairness and justice, we mean to proceed from the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and view and address this problem from the larger picture of social development, social harmony and the people as a whole.”⁴ This indicates that the “people-centered” discourse, while acknowledging the diversity of interests of all classes and individuals, lays more emphasis on the expression of the core element of the people, that is, ordinary working people who constitute “the overwhelming majority of the people”. The “people-centered” discourse expresses that the human rights cause should focus on the comprehensive care for the fundamental wellbeing of all members of society, and also lay more emphasis on respecting and valuing the demands of ordinary working people as the subject of right.

 

 

For the practice of socialist human rights with Chinese characteristics in the new era, the upholding of the “people-centered” concept of human rights subjects should emphasize the reality and organic unity of individuals and collectives, should uphold and improve the extensiveness of human rights subjects, and on the most fundamental level, should respect and give play to the creativity and subjectivity of the people.

 

First, people are the subject and fundamental source of human rights development, and it should be ensured that all people participate in the whole process of human rights development. It should be ensured that the people can equally and fully participate in national construction, social governance, and social reform and development through important institutional arrangements such as the continuously improving socialist democratic system, the fair system for the distribution of social wealth and benefits, as well as the cooperation mechanism for a higher degree of social solidarity, to fully mobilize the enthusiasm and creativity of the people in the cause of human rights development and advance the human rights cause with joint efforts of all the people.

 

Second, the people are the ultimate goal of the human rights cause, and the people should be the final judge of the effectiveness and robustness of the cause. Taking the people as the subject of human rights, it requires preventing the alienation of creation from its creator. The actual beneficiaries of the human rights cause must be all the people. The fruits of social development must be distributed in an equitable manner so that they benefit all social classes, all groups, and all individuals. The development of the human rights cause should be implemented for the people’s actual enjoyment of practical benefits. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We should take the support, approval, satisfaction, and consent of the people as the fundamental criteria for appraising all of our initiatives; address the most pressing and relevant problems that are of the utmost concern to the people.”⁵ This exposition shows that the key to the people’s evaluation of the progress of human rights is whether the most pressing and immediate problems of the greatest concern to the people are addressed, such as life and health, property safety, transaction convenience, personal dignity, educational equity, employment equality, prosperous living, adequate social security, improved healthcare, and livable environment. In terms of the most fundamental vision, the development of human rights cause should take “universal and free development of all people” as its ultimate goal, focus on creating opportunities for people’s self-development, and fully empower their development capacity.

 

Last, the different identities of the people should be well connected, both as the “sovereign” and the “subject of rights”. If the people are only regarded as the “sovereign” or the subject of “constituent power”, it would address only the problem of the ownership of public power, leaving the principal position of the people merely an abstract concept that keeps a distance from real-life experience. Therefore, it is necessary to effectively transform “the people as the sovereign” into “the people as the subject of rights” in order to truly realize the power of the people prescribed in the constitutional text, and to truly reflect the “people-centered” philosophy of human rights subjects in human rights practice. We should recognize and protect the people’s full enjoyment of political rights, continuously advance the construction of the whole-process people’s democracy, and realize the transformation of people’s “sovereign” identity from a theoretical concept to a concrete reality. More importantly, people’s dual identity of“sovereign” and “subject of rights” lies in the realization of people’s fundamental interests. Ultimately, these should be embodied in the inviolability of their personal rights, property rights, personality rights and basic political rights, the higher level of realization and protection of their rights in economic, cultural, social and other aspects, as well as the effective solution of the problems of the greatest concern to the people such as public security, right protection, and fair justice.

 

 

The process of depicting the “image of people” to establish the subject view of human rights is also about defining the value of the “people” as the subject of human rights. The reason why the subject of human rights is the primary issue of human rights theory is precisely that the image of the human rights subject determines the demands for human rights. These demands, internally, are expressed as the value targets of human rights; externally, exist as the contents of human rights.

 

People’s pursuit of happiness and a better life is actually the “big question” stretching through the ancient and modern civilizations of mankind. Engels stated: “The urge towards happiness is innate in man, and must therefore form the basis of all morality.”⁶ In this regard, ancient and modern Chinese and Western civilizations present different answers, such as the concept of “human perfection” in Western classical political philosophy, the presumption of “self-preservation” in modern natural rights theory, and the pursuit of “paradise” and “great harmony” in the Chinese classical tradition. This means, in order to express the fundamental value of “happiness” fully and unbiasedly in a human community, it is necessary to use a highly generalized concept to cover its diversity. The concept of “a better life” is highly inclusive and scalable because of its abstraction, allowing it to include the fundamental aspirations of different subjects, different civilizations, and different times and spaces for a human community.

 

In its most critical sense, “people’s better life” is the contemporary expression of the Marxist value pursuit of “comprehensive development of people”, and promotes the transformation of the latter into the realistic value of people. In Marxism, “the comprehensive development of people” indicates a high level of value, and a strong “future” orientation. The “comprehensive development of people” requires the realization of the universality of subject scope, comprehensiveness of subject attributes, the integrity of human life, and people’s fundamental freedom. The universality of the subject scope requires the realization of the most extensive scope of the concept of “human” or “people”, to include all members of the human race in the extensional coverage of “people”. The comprehensiveness of subject attributes requires that all attributes and appeals of “people” be recognized in an all-around way. It needs the realization of the material benefits necessary for people to exist and requires the satisfaction of people’s demands in spiritual, cultural, aesthetic, environmental, and public affairs and other aspects. The integrity of human life requires the organic unity of private life and social life. The value of people is not confined to the needs of private life, and it is also necessary to fully realize the social essence of people in public life. On the basis of acknowledging private life, the “comprehensive development of people” pays more attention to public social life, requires breaking the isolation of private life, and promotes the comprehensive development of human life as a whole on the premise of universal communication between individuals. As far as “freedom” is concerned, the “comprehensive development of people” needs the universal and true realization of the freedom of each individual in their interactive relationship with others and requires the realization of the most fundamental freedom in the identity of “creator”. Realizing this kind of freedom means that people truly and consciously control their own material and spiritual activities, and transform all material forces created by themselves from alien forces of domination into living conditions that human society consciously controls.

 

The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress stated that “the immutable goal of our modernization drive is to meet the people’s aspirations for a better life”, and further proposed that “we will thus promote all-around material abundance as well as people’s well-rounded development.”⁷ The concept of “a better life” maps the comprehensiveness and integrity required by the “comprehensive development of people” to people’s real life, which, specifically, is expressed as “the ever-growing economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological needs of our people”, integrating all aspects in people’s material life, spiritual life, private life and community life. The idea of “a better life” also reflects that the reality of the people requires continuous improvements toward the “comprehensive development of people”. These are reflected in various aspects, including the improvements: from the basic satisfaction of material rights to the realization of high-quality material and cultural life, from the satisfaction of external material needs to the inner spiritual satisfaction, from valuing material subsistence security to pursuing good law and good governance, benefiting an individual self to actively participating in public affairs and realizing the value of life.

 

It can be seen that the discourse of “a better life” should be the core expression of human rights values because it expresses the common and ultimate value pursuit of human society, so as to guide various specific values such as subsistence, freedom, equality, security, and dignity, thus making the “comprehensive development of people” the ultimate orientation of the human rights cause at a fundamental level.

 

 

The “people-centered nature” and “a better life for the people” should not just remain in the abstract discourse expression, but should be transformed into reality in the practice of the socialist human rights cause with Chinese characteristics. The principal contradiction facing Chinese society is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. To meet people’s needs for a better life, we must address the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development from the “supply side”. People’s life needs and comprehensive development fundamentally depend on the overall development of society. General Secretary Xi Jinping said that the people’s aspiration for a better life can only be satisfied through development.⁸ Therefore, the fundamental way to realize the human rights value of “a better life” is to promote all-around development of society and solve the dilemma of unbalanced and inadequate development.

 

To fulfill the fundamental human rights obligation of “advancing balanced and adequate development of society”, we must adhere to the human rights development model that features the leadership of the Party and the state. The “ruling party and state-led” human rights protection model actually puts forward higher requirements for the ruling party and the state to fulfill their obligations in human rights protection. It requires the Party and the state to fulfill negative duties, that is, to guard against improper interference of state power and social power in individuals’ lives. More importantly, it requires the Party and the state, as fundamental and obligatory subjects, conscientiously fulfill their positive duties in human rights protection, that is, to advance balanced and adequate development in all aspects of society through various means, to continuously improve people’s wellbeing through adequate public services, and to provide adequate guarantee for the comprehensive development of people.

 

In the meantime, it is imperative to establish law-based governance on all fronts as the fundamental institutional guarantee for the human rights cause. As the two principles of the legitimacy of modern political and legal theory and practice, human rights and the rule of law feature a close and unified relationship. Human rights itself is the core value of modern law and also the symbolic element of the modern rule of law. The practice of the rule of law is also an inevitable requirement for the realization of the value, content and objectives of human rights. Taking the rule of law as the fundamental institutional guarantee for the human rights cause is an important consensus of the socialist cause of human rights with Chinese characteristics. As the guiding ideology of law-based governance on all fronts in the new era, Xi Jinping thought on the rule of law has a distinct people-oriented nature, and “adhering to the people-centered approach” is one of its core principles. It can be said that the people discourse forms the underlying logic shared by the human rights discourse and the rule of law discourse in China. The path of rule of law for human rights protection is the choice of the Chinese people taken shape in history and a scientific path formed by the people under the Party’s leadership in the historical process of developing the human rights cause in China. To improve human rights protection and advance the progress of human rights cause on the path of rule of law is not an abstract value declaration but a concrete practice through all aspects of the rule of law. As far as all aspects of law-making and operation are concerned, the law-based “people-centered” principle of human rights should be fully reflected in the whole process and the results. It is also necessary to strengthen a sound social environment for human rights protection under the rule of law, to enhance the people’s awareness of the rule of law and human rights protection, and to make the ideal of the legal protection of human rights the internal spirit shared by the whole community.

 

 

To sum up, the “people-centered” discourse collectively expresses the discourse of socialist human rights with Chinese characteristics in the new era, which presents an answer to the question of human rights and a “new question” about the times and the people. These questions will continue to expand with the development of practice, and the discourse will not simply remain in words. China’s human rights cause should actively accept and respond to the people discourse, and the people discourse is bound to demonstrate its practical power in China’s human rights development.

 

* LI Chaoqun ( 李超群 ), Research Fellow at Human Rights Institute, and Associate Professor, School of Administrative Law, the Southwest University of Political Science and Law. Doctor of Laws.

 

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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

2. Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, volume 2 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2017), 317.

 

3. Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Office of the Commission for Overall Law-based Governance, Study Outline on Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2021), 34.

 

4. Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, volume 1 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2014), 96.

 

5. Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, volume 2 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2017), 40.

 

6. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works of Marx and Engels, volume IV (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), 244.

 

7. 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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

8. Xi Jinping, “Seek Common and Sustainable Development and Forge a Partnership of Win-win Cooperation — Speech at the UN Sustainable Development Summit”, People’s Daily, September 27, 2015.

 

 

YANG Bochao*

 

Human rights are the symbol of the progress of human civilization. It is the common pursuit of the human community to protect people’s life, value and dignity and advance the full realization of all human rights. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has issued a series of important expositions on respecting and protecting human rights. In the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly stated: “We will follow a Chinese path of human rights development, actively participate in global human rights governance, and promote all-around advancement of human rights.”¹ These important expositions are based on the valuable experience gained in the practice of China’s human rights cause, draw on the outstanding achievements of human civilization, present a profound explanation of the important value and basic connotation of human rights, scientifically summarize the main characteristics of the Chinese path of human rights development, and demonstrate the profound cultures and values of the times underlying the view of human rights in contemporary China.

 

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights is a historical, concrete and realistic view of human rights based on China’s social and political conditions, as well as its historical and cultural traditions. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Throughout its century-long history, the Party has united the people and led them in a tireless effort to fight for and to respect, protect, and advance human rights.”² From the century of humiliation to standing tall and firm in the East, from the suffering of the people to the prosperity for all, from the marginalized civilization to create a new form of human civilization, the CPC has always taken the people’s aspirations for a better life as its mission. In the historical process of advancing China’s human rights cause, it has continuously deepened its understanding of the rules of respecting and protecting human rights and formed the contemporary Chinese view of human rights.

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights inherits the philosophy of respecting and caring for people in the outstanding traditional civilization. “A decision can be properly made after taking into account the past, the future and the normal practice.”³ The civilization of each country and nation is rooted in its soil, with its own characteristics and virtues. Human rights are a product of history. Through exchanges and mutual learning, the Eastern and Western civilizations have discovered and inspired each other, forming diversified expressions of respect and concern for people. For one thing, there is an emphasis on the nature of “people” as the subject. No matter whether Protagoras’ “man is the measure of all things” or Confucius’ “caring for the people was the most important part of running a country in ancient times”, they all present the simple belief that “man is the intelligent part of the universe”. For another thing, the different civilizations in the world have endowed “man” with different connotations, which also reflects the differences between different types of civilizations. The Western civilizations highlight the individual self in “man”, while the Chinese civilization emphasizes the collective “people”. Therefore, the West has relied on the “individual” basis of human rights that is based on abstract human nature to advance its human rights development in modern times, regarding negative rights such as civil rights and political rights as the standard while denying the historical, social, and class nature of human rights, then evolving into the dogmatic way of thinking, such as “Western centralism”. The contemporary Chinese view of human rights continues the historical and cultural traditions of China, integrating the past experience with the present realities. It is based on the real value pursuit of people around the world, and forms a special spirit of respecting, appreciating and absorbing different human rights cultures on the basis of the common rationality regarding the value of human rights. As a correct guiding concept, it gives equal priority to the promotion of positive human rights and the respect and protection of negative human rights, forming a path of dual guarantee of “collective” and “individual” for the human rights cause and transcending and sublating the Western view of human rights.

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights makes creative use of the Marxist outlook on human rights and continuously advances the localization of the Marxist outlook in China, so as to empower the coordination and unity of cultural traditions and social forms. Marx stated, “Right can never be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural development conditioned thereby.”⁴ Different from the revolutionary, antagonistic and critical logic underlying Western human rights, the contemporary Chinese view of human rights is not a transplant or variant of the Western view of human rights, but is constructed on the basis of social realities, social actions and social relations. The contemporary Chinese view of human rights, combining the Marxist outlook on human rights with China’s specific realities and the best of traditional Chinese culture, has continuously enriched and developed the Marxist outlook on human rights, and persistently advanced the localization of the Marxist outlook in China, so as to empower new awakening and transformation of the human rights elements in traditional Chinese culture, and gradually form a human rights development path with Chinese characteristics, in line with practical logic, and capable of solving practical problems, to guarantee that as stipulated by law, people enjoy a full range of human rights that are genuine, specific, effective, and functional.

 

 

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “The most salient feature of human rights in China is the people-oriented nature.”⁵ Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, has attached great importance to strengthening social construction and upholding the people-centered philosophy of development, so as to give people a stronger, more assured, and more sustainable sense of gain, fulfillment, and security.

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights upholds the people-centered position, adheres to the fundamental pursuit of “people’s happiness as the biggest human right”, and insists that human rights are enjoyed by all people on an equal basis, which has enabled China to promote the comprehensive development of all human rights and to better realize, safeguard, and advance the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. It is the CPC’s leadership and China’s socialist system which have determined the socialist nature of human rights in China and which have ensured that the people run the country, allowing our people to enjoy more extensive and substantive democratic rights and extensively participate in the state affairs.

 

Sharing is the essence of Chinese-style socialism. We must ensure that development is for the people, that it is reliant on the people, and that its fruits are shared by the people, to enable the people to have a greater sense of benefit as they contribute to development and share fruits, thus helping them move steadily toward common prosperity. Common prosperity is the basic goal in Marxism for a proletarian party, and it is also the firm plan and unswerving goal of the CPC. It is a response to the longterm common aspirations of the people and clearly reflects the people-oriented nature of the contemporary Chinese view of human rights and its practice of respecting and protecting human rights.

 

The comprehensiveness and integrity of the contemporary Chinese view of human rights have actively promoted economic development and social progress and also have paid close attention to people’s livelihoods, to continuously improve people’s lives and social security. It stresses the coordinated advancement of all rights and is committed to promoting the comprehensive development of people, to realize the unity of rights and obligations in human rights. In the process of promoting human rights development, China has established logical and practical connections for various human rights. Thus, it values not only collective human rights, but also individual human rights; it values not only the paramount importance of the rights to subsistence and development, but also the coordinated development of the economic, social, cultural rights and the civil rights and political rights.

 

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights upholds the common values of humanity, which include peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom. Faced with the turbulent international situation, the difficult post-pandemic recovery, and the increasingly severe global problems such as ecological, climate and terrorist attacks, the world calls for a human rights model that brings fundamental changes to the capitalist model featuring the absolute pursuit of profit, beggar-thy-neighbor policies and the law of the jungle. China advocates the common values of humanity, stands for the common interests of mankind, and views mankind as a whole with a shared future. China is keenly aware of the interdependence of countries and the coexistence of diverse civilizations, transcends the differences in ideology, social system, and development, and on the basis of mutual respect, condenses the common values of different countries, nations, and cultures, and explores the “biggest concentric circle” among different civilizations. The contemporary Chinese view of human rights goes beyond the confrontational thinking in the Western theory of international relations, under which the value of a dominant country is promoted as a “universal” value that is expected to be accepted by all countries. Just as General Secretary Xi Jinping stated: “The prosperity of civilization and the progress of mankind cannot do without openness, tolerance, exchanges, and mutual learning. Different civilizations should coexist in harmony and complement each other as to provide spiritual strength for human development.”⁶

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights conforms to the trend of the times for peace and development, and pursues the concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits in global governance, dedicated to promoting the common development of all countries. The right path will take us further in a shared world for all. General Secretary Xi Jinping gave a vivid remark: “Countries around the world are like passengers aboard the same ship who share the same destiny. For the ship to navigate the storm and sail toward a bright future, all passengers must pull together. The thought of throwing anyone overboard is simply not acceptable.”⁷ China has creatively put forward the rights to subsistence and development as the primary basic human rights, using development as the key to fixing global deficits in peace, development, trust, and governance. China seeks to integrate its own development with that of the world, stands on the right side of history and the side of human progress, advocates promoting the realization of human rights in an active and shared manner, calls on the people of all countries to work together to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity, so as to promote development through cooperation and human rights through development, to realize more comprehensive and practical human rights, and better protection of the fundamental interests of the people. Since 2017, the UNHRC has adopted the resolution on “the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights” submitted by China three times, fully demonstrating that the logic of China’s human rights development has been widely recognized in the global community.

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights has overcome the challenge of “clashes of civilizations” with the qualities such as inclusiveness and cooperation by working with all parties for fairer and more equitable, reasonable and inclusive global governance on human rights. “Constant piling up of earth makes Mount Tai great; ceaseless inflow of rivers makes the ocean deep.”⁸ General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We should respect the diversity of civilizations. In handling relations among civilizations, let us replace estrangement with exchange, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with coexistence.” Human beings have formed various forms of human civilization in the mutual promotion of multiple civilizations, and material and spiritual civilization has become the “historical existence of the world”. “All living things should flourish without harming each other; all ways of life should thrive without hindering each other.”⁹ Harmony without uniformity is the law of all living things. Inclusiveness, shared benefits and win-win outcomes are what we should pursue. China maintains that all civilizations should conduct exchanges and cooperation on the premise of mutual respect and equality, that different civilizations should have dialogues and exchanges instead of trying to exclude or replace each other, and that differences in history, culture and the social system should not be an excuse for antagonism or confrontation. China maintains when it comes to human rights issues; there is no such thing as an ideally perfect country, still less a one-size-fits-all human rights development path. Some Western countries ignore the history and reality of other countries, forcefully export their views of human rights through “human rights diplomacy”, and promote their own national narratives of human rights to be the global narrative logic of human rights protection. With the “power is truth” belief in Western civilizations, an “ontological hierarchy of values” is implicit in their discourse pattern, which excludes the genes of different civilizations, leading to confusion in the human discourse system, and to some extent, obscuring the nature of human rights.

 

The contemporary Chinese view of human rights, characterized by the CPC’s leadership, is rooted in its soil and absorbs the best of Chinese culture, integrates the outstanding achievements of global civilizations, and combines the Marxist outlook on human rights with China’s specific realities. It sheds light on the internal logic of the Chinese path of human rights development, and also offers a new choice for the international community to break free from the dilemma of fragmentation. The Chinese path of human rights development suits the national conditions of China and also conforms to the trend of the times. China advocates the establishment of the awareness of building a community with a shared future for mankind and the concept of win-win cooperation in the process of human rights development, breaking free from ideological arguments, overcoming the challenge of “clashes of civilizations”, respecting the paths and models of human rights development independently chosen by respective countries, and promoting the common values of humanity. The contemporary Chinese view of human rights, characterized by the people-centered philosophy, the equality and inclusiveness in existence pattern, and the coordinated and balanced path of implementation, will help to overcome the clashes of human rights concepts caused by differences of civilizations and provide the international community with a new outlook and a new way of thinking on human rights.

 

* YANG Bochao ( 杨博超 ), Lecturer, Institute for Human Rights, the China University of Political Science and Law.

 

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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022.

 

2. Xi Jinping, “Xi Jinping Stressed ‘Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights’ at the 37th Group Study Session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee”, People’s Daily, February 27, 2022.

 

3. “Decision-Making (Jue)”, in Guiguzi.

 

4. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works of Marx and Engels, volume III (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), 305.

 

5. Xi Jinping, “Xi Jinping Stressed ‘Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights’ at the 37th Group Study Session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee”, People’s Daily, February 27, 2022.

 

6. Xi Jinping, “Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era — Delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 28, 2017.

 

7. Xi Jinping, “Rising to Challenges and Building a Bright Future Through Cooperation — Keynote Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2022”, People’s Daily, April 22, 2022.

 

8. Li Si, Admonition Against Ordering Guests to Leave.

 

9. Doctrine of the Mean: Chapter 30.

 

 

ZHANG Aining*

 

Grounding the universality of human rights within the Chinese context has always been the guiding principle of China’s human rights development. On February 25, 2022, at the 37th group study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed: “Human rights are concrete, rooted in history, and based on current realities. We cannot mouth empty words on human rights regardless of the social and political conditions and the historical and cultural traditions of a country”, and emphasized “grounding the universality of human rights within the Chinese context”, and that we should “maintain a steadfast commitment to the Chinese path to promote further progress in human rights.”¹ At the recent 20th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping announced: “From this day forward, the central task of the Communist Party of China 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.”² Interpreted in terms of human rights discourse, this central task of the CPC contains two core elements: first, the CPC will continue to uphold development as its top priority in governing and rejuvenating China; second, the CPC will continue to follow the development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress once again reflects China’s consistent position on advancing the human rights cause: upholding that the right to development is the primary basic human right, grounding the universality of human rights within the Chinese context.

 

 

Every system has its limitations, and the international human rights protection system established under the leadership of the United Nations is no exception. When the international human rights protection system was first established, a large number of colonial countries had yet to gain independence. Even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted “as a common standard of achievement for all people and all nations”.³ It did not adequately reflect the legitimate demands of these countries. As a matter of fact, the international human rights protection system has been in constant development and improvement since its birth. The Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1986 added substantive content to human rights. Article 1 of the Declaration stated: “The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all people 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.”⁴ Regarding the right to development as a human right was quite different from the dominant Western view of human rights at the time. Western countries emphasize the civil and political rights, and individual freedoms, but pay insufficient attention to economic, social and cultural rights as well as collective human rights; while some Western countries refuse to recognize the right to development as a human right.⁵ China made an important contribution to the drafting and adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development. China participated in all the previous meetings of the Group of Governmental Experts of the UNCHR for drafting the Declaration on the Right to Development. China has always been a co-sponsor of UNCHR resolutions on the right to development, supporting UNCHR’s global debate on realizing the right to development, and consenting to the deliberation of the right to development by the UNCHR as a separate issue.⁶ At the 40th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in February 1984, the Chinese delegation stated in the speech: “China...hoped for an early declaration on the right to development. The right to development was an inalienable human right, and that point should be stressed in the declaration.”⁷ The Chinese delegation said: “The right to development was a natural extension of the right to self-determination, itself an essential precondition of the right to development. Without economic development, a country’s political independence could not be consolidated; similarly, a country and its people could not enjoy any right to economic, social and cultural development if the country was deprived of its right to self-determination. Without the development of States and nations, there could be no development of individuals.”⁸ The above proposition of the Chinese delegation was later written into the Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by the United Nations in 1986. Since the founding of the UNHRC in 2006, China has been elected to serve as a member four times, contributing Chinese input and strength for the right to development to become a major human right.⁹

 

 

Indivisibility and interdependence are commonly recognized principles of human rights, which have been repeatedly restated for the protection of human rights.¹⁰ This means all human rights are equally important and essential to the protection of human dignity and values. However, the international human rights protection system does not object to governments making priority-based choices and strategic arrangements in the process of promoting human rights development based on their realities, as long as such choices and arrangements are not used as an excuse to deprive of or ignore other human rights. For the vast number of developing countries, to respect and protect human rights is, first and foremost, to ensure the full realization of the rights to 

subsistence and development.¹¹ Poverty is the greatest obstacle to providing human rights. It would be well-nigh impossible for humanity to ensure any right without the production and supply of goods and materials. The effective guarantee of the right to subsistence and the steady improvement of living standards are the preconditions and foundations for fulfilling and developing all other human rights.¹² At the beginning of reform and opening-up, Chinese leaders saw the huge gap in economic and social development between China and developed countries in the West and had a profound reflection on it. Deng Xiaoping talked about the issue of development many times and stated: “Development is the overriding principle.”¹³ He pointed out that socialism is about liberating and developing productive forces, eliminating exploitation and polarization. Deng Xiaoping stressed: “Development is the key we depend on to solving problems for China.”¹⁴ In 1991, the Chinese government issued the first white paper on human rights and pointed out: “...the right to subsistence is the most important of all human rights, without which the other rights are out of the question”.¹⁵ In 1993, the Chinese delegation stated in a speech at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna: “For the vast number of developing countries to respect and protect human rights is, first and foremost, to ensure the full realization of the rights to subsistence and development. The argument that human rights are the precondition for development is unfounded. When poverty and lack of adequate food and clothing are commonplace, and people’s basic needs are not guaranteed, priority should be given to economic development. Otherwise, human rights are completely out of the question.”¹⁶

 

 

Promoting human rights through development is a “development-based path of human rights” proposed by China; that is, given the basic fact that China is the largest developing country in the world, China is committed to addressing the problem of “development” — a global issue, and also China’s top priority. This has changed the stereotype of “human rights-based development” that human rights come first and then development, and also broadened the way for developing countries to achieve modernization.¹⁷ On July 1, 2021, at the Ceremony of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping addressed the world that China has realized the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China.¹⁸ The building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects in China, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, has provided important inspiration and also a huge incentive for the development of human rights in other countries.¹⁹ In the course of achieving its success in realizing moderate prosperity, China’s approach and experience in respecting and protecting human rights have provided a distinctive path forward for human progress.²⁰ In June 2017, the 35th Session of the UNHRC adopted the resolution on “the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights” submitted by China, and for the first time, the philosophy of “promoting human rights through development” was introduced into the international human rights system.²¹ In July 2021, the 47th session of the UNHRC adopted the resolution submitted by China again, reaffirming the important contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights.²² This was the third time that the UNHRC adopted the resolution on “the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights” submitted by China.²³ The realization of human rights is a gradual process, and the responsibility of the states lies in constantly expanding the scope of application and enjoyment of human rights. The building of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects of China has laid a solid material foundation for the overall systematic advancement of all human rights, marking that China’s human rights cause has entered a new stage of development. As far as the realization of human rights is concerned, economic development is of paramount importance, but political democracy and modernization of state governance are equally important. If a country only pursues economic development without strengthening political democracy and modernization of state governance, it may lead to excessive concentration of power, weakening democracy and deteriorating the conditions of human rights. Thus, while a country strives to realize economic, social and cultural rights, it should also try to improve the protection of civil and political rights. Only on the basis of economic development, political democracy, and modernization of state governance system and governance capabilities can human rights be ultimately respected, guaranteed, and realized. In this sense, the State Council Information Office published a white paper in 2019 titled Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China, which stated: “Overall progress in all rights is a major principle of realization of human rights. All human rights are interdependent and inalienable. China coordinates the planning and promotion of all rights and endeavors to achieve a balanced development of economic, social, and cultural rights and civil and political rights.”²⁴ In 2021, Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the high-level meeting of the 46th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council and stated China’s view on systematically advancing all aspects of human rights: “Human rights are an all-encompassing concept. They include civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Among them, the rights to subsistence and development are the basic human rights of paramount importance. We should take coordinated, integrated and multipronged steps to advance all aspects of human rights in all dimensions and fields throughout the whole process.”²⁵

 

 

Building a community with a shared future for mankind is about realizing common development and turning the aspirations of people around the world for a better life into reality.²⁶ In 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and pointed out: “We stand for the sharing of the fruits of development by all countries and people in the world. Every country, while pursuing its own development, should actively facilitate the common development of all countries. There cannot be an enduring development in the world when some countries are getting richer and richer while others languish in prolonged poverty and backwardness. Only when all countries achieve common development can there be better development in the world.”²⁷ At the General Debate of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly in 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Development is meaningful only when it is inclusive and sustainable. To achieve such development requires openness, mutual assistance and win-win cooperation.”²⁸ In December 2016, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development, the State Council Information Office issued a white paper titled The Right to Development: China’s Philosophy, Practice and Contribution. In the white paper, China calls on all countries to pursue equal, open, all-around and innovative common development, promote inclusive development, and create conditions for all people to share the right to development. Global economic governance must be based on equality. It must better reflect the new world economic pattern, give an enhanced voice and representation to emerging markets and developing countries, ensure that all countries enjoy equality of rights, opportunities and rules in international economic cooperation, and ensure the right to development is shared. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress once again demonstrated China’s responsibility as a major country in the international community. The report stated: “Today, our world, our times, and history are changing in ways like never before. The historical trends of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit are unstoppable. The will of the people and the general trends of our day will eventually lead to a bright future for humanity. And yet, the hegemonic, high-handed, and bullying acts of using strength to intimidate the weak, taking from others by force and subterfuge, and playing zero-sum games are exerting grave harm. The deficit in peace, development, security, and governance is growing. All of this is posing unprecedented challenges for human society. The world has once again reached a crossroads in history, and its future course will be decided by all the world’s people. For its part, China has always been committed to its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development, and it is dedicated to promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.”²⁹

 

 

The exposition on the central task of the CPC in the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress shows that the practice of the right to development in China has entered a new and more advanced stage. The report makes clear China’s views on the realization of the right to development at this stage: It is the development of common prosperity for all 1.4 billion people, the development of material and cultural-ethical advancement in all aspects, the development of harmony between humanity and nature, and the development of peace with the sense of duty as a responsible major country.³⁰ The report also pointed out the essential requirements of China’s practice of the right to development at this stage, which are: upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics, pursuing high-quality development, developing whole-process people’s democracy, enriching the people’s cultural lives, achieving common prosperity for all, promoting harmony between humanity and nature, building a community with a shared future for mankind, and creating a new form of human advancement.³¹ China’s theory and practice of the right to development, grounding the universality of human rights within the Chinese context, provide the Chinese input for advancing the cause of global human rights development.

 

(Translated by JIANG Yu)

 

* ZHANG Aining ( 张爱宁 ), Professor of Law, Director of the Human Rights Studies Center of China Foreign Affairs University.

 

1. Xi Jinping, “Xi Jinping Stressed ‘Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights’ at the 37th Group Study

Session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee”, People’s Daily, February 27, 2022.

 

2. 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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022. 

 

3. Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, para. 5.

 

4. The United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development (1986), Article 1.

 

5. Zhang Aining, “A Commentary on the Evolution of Human Rights Policies in the Diplomacy of the Communist Party of China Over the Century”, Human Rights 4 (2021): 109.

 

6. State Council Information Office, “The Right to Development: China’s Philosophy, Practice and Contribution”, published in December 2016.

 

7. See E/CN.4/I9?4/SR.I6. paras. 55.

 

8. See E/CN.4/I9?4/SR.I6. paras. 57.

 

9. State Council Information Office, “The Right to Development: China’s Philosophy, Practice and Contribution”, published in December 2016.

 

10. The 1968 Proclamation of Teheran stated: “Since human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible, the full realization of civil and political rights without the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights is impossible.” The 1977 UN General Assembly Resolution 32/130 regarding the new concepts of human rights stated: “All human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible and interdependent; equal attention and urgent consideration should be given to the implementation, promotion, and protection of both civil and political, and economic, social, and cultural rights.” The 1986 Limburg Principles on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stated: “As human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible and interdependent, equal attention and urgent consideration should be given to the implementation, promotion and protection of both civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights.” The 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action stated: “All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.”

 

11. Chinese Society of International Law. Chinese Yearbook of International Law (1994), China Translation and Publishing Corporation, 1996, page 387.

 

12. State Council Information Office, white paper titled Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China, published in September 2019.

 

13. Deng Xiaoping, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, volume III (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1993), 377.

 

14. Ibid., 265.

 

15. State Council Information Office, white paper titled China’s Human Rights Situation, published in November 1991.

 

16. Chinese Society of International Law. Chinese Yearbook of International Law (1994), China Translation and Publishing Corporation, 1996, page 387.

 

17. Wang Xigen, “The Human Rights Value of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law”, Oriental Law 1 (2021): 41.

 

18. Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the Communist Party of China”, accessed July 15, 2021.

 

19. “Creating the Miracle of Respecting and Protecting Human Rights”, People’s Daily, August 14, 2021.

 

20. State Council Information Office, white paper titled Moderate Prosperity in All Respects: Another Milestone Achieved in China’s Human Rights, published in August 2021.

 

21. The contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights, Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on June 22, 2017, A/HRC/RES/35/21.

 

22. The contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights, Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on June 22, 2017, A/HRC/47/L.24.

 

23. “Rights to Subsistence and Development as Basic Human Rights of Paramount Importance”, accessed July 15, 2021.

 

24. “Wang Yi’s Remarks on China’s Four Views on Advancing and Protecting Human Rights”, accessed August 10, 2021. 

 

25. Ibid.

 

26. State Council Information Office, white paper titled The Communist Party of China and Human Rights Protection — A 100-Year Quest, published in June 2021

 

27. Selected Important Documents since the 18th CPC National Congress, volume I (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2014), 260.

 

28. Ibid., 524.

 

29. 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 Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, October 26, 2022. 

 

30. Ibid.

 

31. Ibid.

 

 

 

 

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee pointed out: After the promulgation and implementation of the current Chinese Constitution in 1982, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the National People’s Congress made necessary and very important amendments to individual provisions and sections of the Constitution five times. These revisions have played an important role in improving and developing the Chinese Constitution, advancing the socialist rule of law, and enhancing the CPC’s ability to law-based governance. In the past four decades, the Chinese Constitution has undergone changes in terms of text, structure and guiding principles. Accordingly, the implementation of the Constitution has been advanced, and the constitutional study has also obtained significant improvement at the academic level.

 

The development of fundamental rights in practice has been obvious over the past four decades. With the realization of the strategic goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, the Chinese people have made remarkable achievements in the rights to subsistence and development. Academic development in the field of fundamental rights should not be ignored either. The interpretation system of fundamental rights based on the text of the Chinese Constitution has gradually taken shape and improved. The interpretation system includes the general theoretical construction (e.g. dual attributes of fundamental rights, the third-party effect of fundamental rights, limitations of fundamental rights, the scope of protection of fundamental rights, and the principle of proportionality, etc.), and the construction and interpretation of specific fundamental rights (e.g. property right, freedom of speech, privacy right, and right to the protection of personal data, etc.). With “respect and protect human rights” being written into the Constitution in 2004, this interpretation system has been provided with a solid normative foundation, and obtained further development.

 

For reflecting the theoretical and practical achievements in human rights and fundamental rights over the past four decades, four special papers are prepared and presented for the readers. Yan Hailiang’s The Concept of Human Rights in the Constitution and Its Functional Significance provides a new interpretation of the “human rights clause” in the Constitution from the perspective of the common normative foundation of the international community; Du Qiangqiang’s General Rights Clause and Fundamental Rights Restriction System: Another Construction Plan for Article 51 of the Constitution reconstructs Article 51 of the Constitution in a hermeneutic sense, pointing out that Article 51 is not a general restriction clause, but a general right clause, which features the function of interpreting “general freedom of action”; Xi Ruochen and Zhang Xiang’s “Fundamental Rights and Private Law” in China reviews the expositions on “fundamental rights and private law” in the Chinese context, analyzes and points out the underlying historical background; Xu Ruichao’s On the Principle of Consistency of Rights and Obligations in the Constitution reinterprets the “principle of consistency of rights and obligations” in the context of constitutional changes. The above papers show the academic development in the field of fundamental rights from multiple perspectives, hoping to contribute to the further theoretical development of fundamental rights in China.