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No issue in the relations between China and West in the past decades has inspired so much passion as human rights. Much more is at stake here than moral concerns and hurt national feelings. To many Westerners, the Chinese government appears ultimately untrustworthy on all issues because it is undemocratic. To Beijing, Western human rights pressure seems designed to compromise its legitimacy, and this threat hangs over what might otherwise be considered "normal" disputes on issues like trade and arms sales.

Since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the human rights issue of China has come to the fore. Multiple sources, including the U.S. State Department's annual People's Republic of China human rights reports, as well as studies from other groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have documented the PRC's abuses of human rights in violation of internationally recognized norms.

The PRC government argues that the notion of human rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity, and notes progress in that area.

Controversial human rights issues in China include policies such as capital punishment, their one-child policy and their policy towards Tibet.

The Legal System

The Chinese government recognises that there are problems with the current legal system, such as:

• A lack of laws in general, not just ones to protect civil rights.
• A lack of due process.
• Conflicts of law.

As judges are appointed by the State and the judiciary as a whole does not have its own budget, this has led to corruption and the abuse of administrative power.

Protection from the United States government

In 2003, the United States claimed that despite some positive momentum in that year, and greater signs that the People's Republic of China was willing to engage with the U.S. and others on this topic, there was still serious backsliding. The PRC government has acknowledged in principle the importance of protection of human rights and has purported to take steps to bring its human rights practices into conformity with international norms. Among these steps are signature of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in October 1997 (ratified in March 2001) and signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October 1998 (not yet ratified). In 2002, the PRC released a significant number of political and religious prisoners, and agreed to interact with United Nations experts on torture, arbitrary detention and religion.

Capital punishment

China had the highest number of executions in 2007 and they had the highest number of executions in 2005 at 1770 people executed. Between 1994 and 1999, according to the United Nations Secretary-General, China, which has the world's largest population of 1.3 billion people, was ranked seventh in executions per capita, behind Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan, and Jordan. Amnesty International claims that official figures are much smaller than the real number, stating that in China the statistics are considered State secrets. Amnesty stated that according to various reports, in 2005 3,400 people were executed. In March of that year, a senior member of the National People's Congress announced that China executes around 10,000 people per year.

A total of 68 crimes are punishable by death; capital offenses include non-violent, white-collar crimes such as embezzlement and tax fraud. The inconsistent and sometimes corrupt nature of the legal system in mainland China bring into question the fair application of capital punishment there.

In January 2007, China's state media announced that all death penalty cases will be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court. Since 1983, China's highest court did not review all cases. This marks a return to China's pre-1983 policy. Official figures for 2007-08 suggest death penalties carried out have fallen from over 8000 to around 1000.

Organ harvesting and extrajudicial execution

In March 2006, allegations were made in the Epoch Times, a Falun Gong-associated newspaper, of organ harvesting on living Falun Gong practitioners at the China Traditional Medicine Thrombosis Treatment Center, a Chinese joint-venture company in Sujiatun, Shenyang co-owned by Country Heights Health Sanctuary of Malaysia, and subject to oversight in Liaoning province.

According to two witnesses, internal organs of living Falun Gong practitioners have been harvested and sold, and the bodies have been cremated in the hospital's boiler room. The witnesses allege that no prisoner comes out of the Center alive, and that six thousand practitioners have been held captive at the hospital since 2001, two-thirds of whom have died to date.

On April 14, 2006, the United States Department of State reported the findings of its investigation, stating that: "U.S. representatives have found no evidence to support allegations that Sujiatun has been used as a concentration camp to jail Falun Gong practitioners and harvest their organs." A US Congressional report detailed the State Department's investigation where embassy staff visited the alleged site twice, first time unannounced.

Dissident Harry Wu, who immediately sent in investigators, said that the allegations were just hearsay from two witnesses.

The Chinese government accused Falun Gong of fabricating the "Sujiatun concentration camp" issue, reiterating that as a WHO Member State, China resolutely abides by the WHO 1991 Guiding Principles on Human Organ Transplants and strictly forbids the sale of human organs. It added that Sujiatun District government carried out an investigation at the hospital and invited local and foreign media, including NHK and Phoenix Satellite Network; and two visits were paid by US consular personnel, who confirmed that the hospital was completely incapable of housing more than 6,000 persons; there was no basement for incarcerating practitioners, as alleged; there was simply no way to cremate corpses in secret, continuously, and in large volumes in the hospital's boiler/furnace room.

In July 2006, David Kilgour and David Matas, human rights lawyers, concluded an investigation on behalf of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG). US Congressional researcher Thomas Lum criticized the report as relying "largely upon the making of logical inferences" and "inconsistent with the findings of other investigations". Their report gave credence to the allegations of China's harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners. While the Christian Science Monitor states that the report's evidence is circumstantial, but persuasive, the Ottawa Citizen states that the report is not universally accepted and has been criticized by the Chinese government as well as U.S. Congressional Research Service.

Ethnic minorities

See also: Racism in the People's Republic of China

There are 55 recognized ethnic minorities in China. Article 4 of the Chinese constitution states "All nationalities in the People's Republic of China are equal", and the government has made efforts to improve ethnic education and increased ethnic representation in local government.

Some policies cause reverse racism, where Han Chinese or even ethnic minorities from other regions are treated as second-class citizens in the ethnic region.

There are also wide-ranging preferential policies (i.e. affirmative actions) in place to promote social and economic developments for ethnic minorities, including preferential employments, political appointments, and business loans. Universities typically have quota reserved for ethnic minorities despite having lower admission test scores. Ethnic minorities are also exempt from the one-child policy which is aimed toward Han Chinese.

However, the government is harsh toward those that argue for independence or political autonomy, mainly Tibetans and Uyghurs in rural provinces in the west of China. Some groups have used terrorism to push their agenda.

Five Chinese Uyghur detainees from the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which was itself known for human rights abuses, were released in June, 2007, but the U.S. refused to return them to China citing the People's Republic of China's "past treatment of the Uigur minority".

"Apartheid" toward Tibetans

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This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Human rights in China" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2008)

In 1951, the government of the PRC reclaimed Tibet, and after the failed uprising of 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India. In 1991 he alleged that Chinese settlers in Tibet were creating "Chinese Apartheid":

The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us.

In a selection of speeches by the Dalai Lama published in India in 1998, he refers again to a "Chinese apartheid" which he believes denies Tibetans equal social and economic status, and furthers the viewpoint that human rights are violated by discrimination against Tibetans under a policy of apartheid, which the Chinese call "segregation and assimilation"

According to the Heritage Foundation:

If the matter of Tibet's sovereignty is murky, the question about the PRC's treatment of Tibetans is all too clear. After invading Tibet in 1950, the Chinese communists killed over one million Tibetans, destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, and turned Tibet's northeastern province, Amdo, into a gulag housing, by one estimate, up to ten million people. A quarter of a million Chinese troops remain stationed in Tibet. In addition, some 7.5 million Chinese have responded to Beijing's incentives to relocate to Tibet; they now outnumber the 6 million Tibetans. Through what has been termed Chinese apartheid, ethnic Tibetans now have a lower life expectancy, literacy rate, and per capita income than Chinese inhabitants of Tibet.

In 2001 representatives of Tibet succeeded in gaining accreditation at a United Nations-sponsored meeting of non-governmental organizations. On August 29 Jampal Chosang, the head of the Tibetan coalition, stated that China had introduced "a new form of apartheid" in Tibet because "Tibetan culture, religion, and national identity are considered a threat" to China. The Tibet Society of the UK has called on the British government to "condemn the apartheid regime in Tibet that treats Tibetans as a minority in their own land and which discriminates against them in the use of their language, in education, in the practice of their religion, and in employment opportunities."

Political freedom

The PRC is known for its intolerance of organized dissent towards the government. Dissident groups are routinely arrested and imprisoned, often for long periods of time and without trial. One of the most famous dissidents is Zhang Zhixin, who is known for standing up against the ultra-left. Incidents of torture, forced confessions and forced labour are widely reported. Freedom of assembly and association is extremely limited. The most recent mass movement for political freedom was crushed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the estimated death toll of which ranges from about 200 to 10,000 depending on sources.

Political reforms towards better information disclosure and people empowerment is under way. "The Chinese government began direct village elections in 1988 to help maintain social and political order in the context of rapid economic reforms. Today, village elections occur in about 650,000 villages across China, reaching 75% of the nation's 1.3 billion people." In the year 2008, the city of Shenzhen, which enjoys the highest per capita GDP in China, is selected for experimentation. Over 70% of the government officials on the district level will be directly elected.

Freedom of speech

Although the 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the Chinese government often uses subversion of state power clause to imprison those who are critical of the government. Also, there is very heavy government involvement in the media, with most of the largest media organizations being run directly by the government. Chinese law forbids the advocation of independence or self-determination for territories Beijing considers under its jurisdiction, as well as public challenge to the CCP's monopoly in ruling China. Thus references to democracy, the Free Tibet movement, Taiwan as an independent state, certain religious organizations and anything remotely questioning the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China are banned from use in publications and blocked on the Internet. PRC journalist He Qinglian in her 2004 book Media Control in China examined government controls on the Internet in China and on all media. Her book shows how PRC media controls rely on confidential guidance from the Communist Party propaganda department, intense monitoring, and punishment for violators rather than on pre-publication censorship.

Recently, foreign web portals including Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo! Search, and Google Search China have come under criticism for aiding in these practices, including banning the word "Democracy" from its chat-rooms in China. Some North American or European films are not given permission to play in Chinese theatres, although piracy of these movies is widespread.

Freedom of movement

The Communist Party came to power in the late 1940s and instigated a command economy. In 1958, Mao set up a residency permit system defining where people could work, and classified an individual as "rural" or "urban" worker. A worker seeking to move from the country to urban areas to take up non-agricultural work would have to apply through the relevant bureaucracies. The number of workers allowed to make such moves was tightly controlled. People who worked outside their authorized domain or geographical area would not qualify for grain rations, employer-provided housing, or health care. There were controls over education, employment, marriage and so on. One purpose is to prevent the possible chaos caused by the predictable large scale urbanization. It is alleged that people of Han nationality in Tibet have a far easier time acquiring the necessary permits to live in urban areas than ethnic Tibetans do.

Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens.

An article in The Washington Times, reported in 2000 that although migrants laborers play an important part in spreading wealth in Chinese villages, they are treated "like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid." Another author making similar comparison is Anita Chan, in which she furthers that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in apartheid South Africa, which were designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor.

Abolition was proposed in 11 provinces, mainly along the developed eastern coast. The law has already been changed such that migrant workers no longer faced summary arrest, after a widely publicised incident in 2003, when a university-educated migrant died in Guangdong province. This particular scandal was exposed by a Beijing law lecturer, Mr Xu, who claims it spelt the end of the hukou system. He further believes that, at least in most smaller cities, the system had already been abandoned. Mr Xu continued: "Even in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, it has almost lost its function".

Special administrative regions

Also as a result of the one country, two systems policy initiated in the late 20th century, Chinese citizens must gain permission from the government to travel to the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

Treatment of rural workers

In November 2005 Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said this system has been "one of the most strictly enforced 'apartheid' social structures in modern world history." He stated "Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens."

The discrimination enforced by the hukou system became particularly onerous in the 1980s after hundreds of millions of migrant laborers were forced out of state corporations and co-operatives. The system classifies workers as "urban" or "rural", and attempts by workers classified as "rural" to move to urban centers were tightly controlled by the Chinese bureaucracy, which enforced its control by denying access to essential goods and services such as grain rations, housing, and health care, and by regularly closing down migrant workers' private schools. The hukuo system also enforced pass laws similar to those in South Africa, with "rural" workers requiring six passes to work in provinces other than their own, and periodic police raids which rounded up those without permits, placed them in detention centers, and deported them. As in South Africa, the restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive, and transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences. Anita Chan furthers that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in apartheid South Africa, which were designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor.

David Whitehouse divides what he describes as "Chinese apartheid" into three distinct phases: The first phase occurred during the state capitalist phase of China's economy, from around 1953 to the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The second "neoliberal" phase lasted from 1978 to 2001, and the third lasted from 2001 to the present. During the first phase, the exploitation of rural labor, the passbook system, and in particular the non-portable rights associated with one's status, created what Whitehouse calls "an apartheid system". As with South Africa, the ruling party made some concessions to rural workers to make life in rural areas "survivable... if not easy or pleasant". During the second phase, as China transitioned from state capitalism to market capitalism, export-processing zones were created in city suburbs, where mostly female migrants worked under oppressive sweatshop conditions. The third phase was characterized by the weakening of the hukou controls; by 2004 the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture counted over 100 million people registered as "rural" working in cities.

Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, and Zhang Ping of the Committee for Asian Women argue this system oppresses women more severely than men, and see seven distinct elements giving rise to what they describe as "the regime of spatial and social apartheid" which keeps rural Chinese in their subordinate status:

1. The repressive regime at the factory level;
2. the paramilitary forces at local level;
3. the ‘local protectionism’ of local governments;
4. the fiercely pro-business and pro-government attitude of the local press;
5. the fiercely pro-business and pro-government attitude of the branches of ACFTU;
6. pro-government local courts; and
7. the discriminatory hukou system.

They agree that the gradual relaxation of some of the more repressive aspects of the hukou system since the mid-1990s has largely eliminated the spatial aspect of the apartheid; for example, workers can now buy one year permits to reside in cities, and since 2003 the police no longer jail and deport people who lack local hukou passes. However, they point out the still-hereditary nature of the hukou system, and state that the "substance of the social apartheid in general and the hukou system in particular remains intact." Migrant workers are permanently marked as outsiders and remain second-class citizens, and are denied access to good jobs or upward mobility, thus forcing their eventual return to their place of origin.

Whitehouse sees the analogy to South Africa's apartheid system breaking down in two areas: First, under a system called xia xiang, or "sending down", individuals or even entire factories of urban workers were sometimes re-classified as rural workers and sent to live in the countryside (at lower wages and benefits). By contrast, white workers in South Africa were never sent to work in Bantustans. Second, the ideology driving China's apartheid system was Maoism, not racism, as is South African apartheid. Anita Chan agrees with Whitehouse on this point, noting that while the hukou system shares many of the characteristics of the South African apartheid system, including its underlying economic logic, the racial element is not present.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security justified these practices on the grounds that they assisted the police in tracking down criminals and maintaining public order, and provided demographic data for government planning and programs.

"Pass System" treatment of migrant workers

"Rural" workers would require six passes to work in provinces other than their own, and periodic police raids which rounded up those without permits, placed them in detention centers, and deported them. Restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive, and some transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences. The system, which has targeted China's 800 million rural peasants for decades, has been described by journalists Peter Alexander and Anita Chan as "China's apartheid".

According to Peter Alexander and Anita Chan, China's export-oriented growth has been based on the labor of poorly paid and treated migrant workers, using a pass system similar to the one used in South Africa's apartheid, in which massive abuses of human rights have been observed.

An article in The Washington Times, reported in 2000 that although migrant laborers play an important part in spreading wealth in Chinese villages, they are treated "like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid."

The Chinese embassy in South Africa posted a letter to the editor of The Star dated February 22, 2007 , under the title Article on China presents racism rumours as fact, in which a reader stated that "It's pure incitement to proclaim 'Chinese apartheid' in reference to migrant labour being kept out of the cities."

Religious freedom

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), particularly the Destruction of Four Olds campaign, religious affairs of all types were persecuted and discouraged by the Communists with many religious buildings looted and destroyed. Since then, there have been efforts to repair, reconstruct and protect historical and cultural religious sites. Critics say that not enough has been done to repair or restore damaged and destroyed sites.

The 1982 Constitution technically guarantees its citizens the right to believe in any religion, however this is not to be confused with the general concept of "Freedom of Religion" as is commonly referred to in the West as the right to practice religion in any way you see fit without government interference. This freedom is subject to restrictions, as all religious groups must be registered with the government and are prohibited from having loyalties outside of China. In addition, the communist government continually tries to maintain control over not only religious content, but also leadership choices such as the choosing of bishops and other spiritual leaders. Considering all party leaders must be communist, the ability of such officials to intelligently choose religious leaders is highly questionable. For example, the recently appointed Bishop in China was not appointed by the Pope as has been the Catholic Church's practice up until this time. The government argues that such restriction is necessary to prevent foreign political influence eroding Chinese sovereignty, though groups affected by this deny that they have any desire to interfere in China's political affairs. This has led to an effective prohibition on those religious practices that by definition involve allegiance to a foreign spiritual leader or organization, (e.g. Catholicism - see Catholicism in China) although tacit allegiance to such individuals and bodies inside these groups is not uncommon. "Unregistered religious groups ... experience varying degrees of official interference, harassment, and repression."

Particularly troubling is the lack of transparency involved in recently chosen Tibetan spiritual leaders. China attempts to intervene in the reincarnation of Tibetan spiritual leaders and has indicated it will oversee the search for a new leader after the Dalai Lama passes away. Beijing indicates that spiritual leaders must obtain approval before they reincarnate. Even more troubling is China's dealings with previously identified reincarnations of past leaders. For example, the child who was identified as the new Panchen Lama by Tibetan spiritual leaders was first detained by Chinese authorities and then disappeared. The child has not been seen since, has spent the last 12 years in detention and has effectively been robbed of his childhood. Repeated requests have been made by visitor heads of state, including the Canadian prime minister. Reporters and tourists visiting Tibet note that monasteries are subject to video surveillance. Other examples of the lack of religious freedom are: 1) quotas instituted by Beijing on the number of monks to reduce the spiritual population 2) Forced denunciation of the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader or expulsion 3) Government expulsion from monasteries of unapproved monks 4) Forced recitation of patriotic scripts supporting China or expulsion 5) Restriction of religious study before age 18.

Numerous other instances of detention for unpatriotic acts have also been recorded, an example of this would be the detention of monks celebrating the reception of the Medal of Honor by a Tibetan monk. The effects have been drastic, whereas one large temple in Tibet once was a place of worship for over 10,000 monks, it is now only home to 600 and Beijing now restricts total membership in any monastery to 700.

Another problem is that members of the Communist Party have to be atheists according to the Party's constitution. As Party membership is required for many high level careers, being openly religious can limit one's economic prospects.

The government of the People's Republic of China tries to maintain tight control over all religions, so the only legal Christian Churches (Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) are those under the Communist Party of China control. It has been claimed by many that the teachings in the state-approved Churches are at least monitored and sometimes modified by the Party.

Because Chinese House Churches operate outside government regulations and restrictions, their members and leaders are sometimes harassed by local government officials. This persecution may take the form of a prison sentence or, more commonly, reeducation through labour. Heavy fines also are not uncommon, with personal effects being confiscated in lieu of payment if this is refused or unavailable. Unlike Falun Gong, however, house churches have not officially been outlawed, and since the 1990s, there has been increasing official tolerance of house churches. Most observers believe that the harassment of house churches by government officials arises less from an ideological opposition to religion and support of atheism than out of fears of a center of popular mobilization outside the control of the Communist Party of China. It is important to note that the actions of the PRC are polar to those who follow the Socialist ideology; it is widely believed by citizens and foreigners alike that Chinese Socialism died with Mao.

Falun Gong

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On July 20, 1999, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) banned Falun Gong and began a nationwide crackdown on the practice, except in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The actions taken by the Chinese government against Falun Gong are referred to as "persecution" by some overseas governments, international human rights organizations, and scholars.

The crackdown began following seven years of widespread popularity and rapid growth of the practice within mainland China. A New York Times article reported that there were 70 million practitioners in China in 1998, a figure coming from the Chinese government. A series of appeals and petitions made by practitioners to the authorities in 1999, in particular the 10,000 person gathering at Zhongnanhai on April 25, eventually led to the decision to outlaw and persecute Falun Gong. A World Journal article suggested that certain high-level Party officials had wanted to crack down on the practice for a several years, but lacked sufficient pretext until this time. Jiang Zemin is often considered to be largely personally responsible for the final decision, both by Falun Gong and academics. Possible motives include personal jealously of Li Hongzhi, anger, and ideological struggle. Others implicate the nature of Communist Party rule and a perceived challenge to it as causes for the crackdown. The government explanation for the crackdown was that Falun Gong was "jeopardising social stability," and "engaged in illegal activities." Legislation to outlaw Falun Gong was created and enforced retroactively.

The Party mobilized every aspect of society to become involved in the persecution, including the media apparatus, police force, army, education system, families and workplaces. An extra-constitutional body, the "6-10 Office" was created to do what Forbes describes as "] the terror campaign." The campaign was driven by large-scale propaganda through television, newspaper, radio and internet. Families and workplaces were urged to cooperate with the government's position on Falun Gong, while practitioners themselves were subject to various coercive measures to have them recant their beliefs.

Amnesty International states that the persecution is politically motivated and a restriction of fundamental freedoms. Particular concerns have been raised over reports of torture, illegal imprisonment including forced labour, psychiatric abuses, and since early 2006, allegations of systematic organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Protests in Beijing were frequent for the first few years following the 1999 edict, though these protests have largely been eradicated. Falun Gong practitioners' presence in mainland China has become more low-profile, often involving methods of informing the general populace through overnight letterbox drops of pro-Falun Gong CD-ROMs. Practitioners have occasionally hacked into state television channels to broadcast pro-Falun Gong materials. Outside of mainland China, practitioners are active in appealing to the governments, media, and people of their respective countries about the situation in China.

One-Child Policy

China's birth control policy, known widely as the One-Child Policy, is seen as ineffective or morally objectionable by many. However, the Chinese government argues that this policy is a necessary solution for their overpopulation problem. Such critics argue that it contributes to forced abortions, human rights violations, female infanticide, abandonment and sex selective abortions. These are believed to be relatively commonplace in some areas of the country, despite being illegal and punishable by fines and jail time. This is thought to have been a significant contribution to the gender imbalance in mainland China, where there is a 118 to 100 ratio of male to female children reported. Forced abortions and sterilizations have also been reported.

It is also argued that the one child policy is not effective enough to justify its costs, and that the dramatic decrease in Chinese fertility started before the program began in 1979 for unrelated factors. The policy seems to have had little impact on rural areas (home to about 80% of the population), where birth rates never dropped below 2.5 children per female. Nevertheless, the Chinese government and others estimate that at least 250 million births have been prevented by the policy.

In 2002, the laws related to the One-Child Policy were amended to allow ethnic minorities and Chinese living in rural areas to have more than one child. The policy was generally not enforced in those areas of the country even before this. The policy has been relaxed in urban areas to allow people who were single children to have two children.

Other human rights issues

Worker's rights and privacy are other contentious human rights issues in China. There have been several reports of core International Labor Organization conventions being denied to workers. One such report was released by the International Labor Rights Fund in October 2006 documenting minimum wage violations, long work hours, and inappropriate actions towards workers by management. Workers cannot form their own unions in the workplace, only being able to join State-sanctioned ones. The extent to which these organizations can fight for the rights of Chinese workers is disputed.

Although the Chinese government does not interfere with Chinese people's privacy as much as it used to, it still deems it necessary to keep tabs on what people say in public. Internet forums are strictly monitored, as is international postal mail (this is sometimes inexplicably "delayed" or simply "disappears") and e-mail.

The issue of refugees from North Korea is a recurring one. It is official policy to repatriate them to North Korea, but the policy is not evenly enforced and a considerable number of them stay in the People's Republic (some move on to other countries). Though it is in contravention of international law to deport political refugees, as illegal immigrants their situation is precarious. Their rights are not always protected. Some of them are tricked into marriage or prostitution.

African students in China have complained about their treatment in China, that was largely ignored until 1988-9, when "students rose up in protest against what they called 'Chinese apartheid'". African officials took notice of the issue, and the Organization of African Unity issued an official protest. The organization's chairman, Mali's president Moussa Traoré, went on a fact-finding mission to China. According to a Guardian 1989 Third World Report titled "Chinese apartheid" threatens links with Africa, these practices could threaten Peking's entire relationship with the continent."

In 2005 Manfred Nowak visited China as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. After spending two weeks there, he concluded that torture remained "widespread". He also complained of Chinese officials interfering with his research, including intimidating people he sought to interview.

Counterarguments

China's counterarguments come primarily from the idea of "Asian values" and the need to create a "harmonious society", where the welfare of the collective should always be put ahead of the rights of any individual whenever conflicts between these arise. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that this is achieved and in some cases, even persuade or force individuals to make sacrifices for the greater good. It would require a strong and stable authority to regulate the potentially conflicting interests of the public and enforce a compromise. Governments with curtailed authority would fail to take on such a responsibility.

They point towards the rapid social deterioration, the increasing geographic, religious and racial segregation, the alarmingly rising crime rates, family breakdown, number of industrial actions, vandalism and political extremism in Western societies, which they believe to be a direct result of an excess of individual freedom – “Too much freedom is dangerous.” According to the Chinese government, these issues are all violations of human rights and should be taken account of when assessing a country's human right records. Furthermore, the government criticizes the United States, which publishes human rights reports annually, by insisting that the United States has also caused human rights abuses such as the invasion of Iraq by American troops.

The PRC government also argues that the notion of human rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity.

Reform

In March, 2003, an amendment was made to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, stating "The State respects and preserves human rights." In addition, China was dropped from a list of top 10 human rights violators in the annual human rights report released by the U.S. State Department in 2008, while the report indicated that there were still widespread problems in China.

Further reading

• Cheng, Lucie, Rossett, Arthur and Woo, Lucie, East Asian Law: Universal Norms and Local Cultures, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, ISBN 0-415-29735-4
• Edwards, Catherine, China's Abuses Ignored for Profit, Insight on the News, Vol. 15, December 20, 1999.
• Foot, Rosemary, Rights beyond Borders: The Global Community and the Struggle over Human Rights in China, Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-198-29776-9
• Jones, Carol A.G., Capitalism, Globalization and Rule of Law: An Alternative Trajectory of Legal Change in China, Social and Legal Studies, vol. 3 (1994) pp. 195-220
• Klotz, Audie, Norms in International Relations: The Struggle against Apartheid, Cornell University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-801-43106-9
• Knight, J. and Song, L., The Rural-Urban Divide: Economic Disparities and Interactions in China, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-198-29330-5
• Martin III, Matthew D., "The Dysfunctional Progeny of Eugenics: Autonomy Gone AWOL", Cardozo Journal of International Law, Vol. 15, No. 2, Fall 2007, pp. 371-421, ISSN 1069-3181
• Seymour, James, Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations, in , Kim, Samuel S., China and the World: Chinese Foreign Policy Faces the New Millennium Westview Press, 1984. ISBN 0-813-33414-4
• Svensson, Marina, The Chinese Debate on Asian Values and Human Rights: Some Reflections on Relativism, Nationalism and Orientalism, in Brun, Ole. Human Rights and Asian Values: Contesting National Identities and Cultural Representations in Asia, Ole Bruun, Michael Jacobsen; Curzon, 2000, ISBN 0-700-71212-7
• Wang, Fei-Ling, Organizing through Division and Exclusion: China's Hukou System, Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-804-75039-4
• Zweig, David, Freeing China's Farmers: Rural Restructuring in the Reform Era, M. E. Sharpe, 1997, ISBN 1-563-24838-7
• The silent majority; China. (Life in a Chinese village), The Economist, April, 2005

Notes

1. Wan, M.; et al. (2001). Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations: Defining and Defending National Interests. University of Pennsylvania Press. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
2. ^ "Human rights can be manifested differently". China Daily. 2005-12-12.
3. "Progress in China's Human Rights Cause in 1996". March, 1997. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. "Belkin, Ira" (Fall, 2000). "China's Criminal Justice System: A Work in Progress" (PDF). Washington Journal of Modern China. 6 (2). {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. "Varieties of Conflict of Laws in China". 2002-11-25. Retrieved 2006-08-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. Yardley, Jim (2005-11-28). "A young judge tests China's legal system". Retrieved 2006-08-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. "China leads world in executions, report finds".
8. "Report: China Leads World In Executions".
9. "China 'outstrips world' on executions".
10. "SINGAPORE The death penalty: A hidden toll of executions".
11. "Amnesty International's report on China".
12. "The Death Penalty in 2005".
13. Jakes, Susan. "China's Message on Executions". Time.com.
14. U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alleged Concentration Camp in China, U.S. State Department, April 16, 2006
15. ^ Thomas Lum, Congressional Research Report#RL33437, page CRS-8, Congressional Research Service, August 11 2006 Cite error: The named reference "lum" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
16. Harry Wu challenges Falun Gong organ harvesting claims, South China Morning Post, September 8, 2006
17. The Monitor's View (August 3, 2006)"Organ harvesting and China's openness", The Christian Science Monitor, retrieved August 6, 2006
18. Glen McGregor, "Inside China's 'crematorium'", page 3 of article, The Ottawa Citizen, November 24, 2007
19. 徐明旭. "陰謀與虔誠﹕西藏騷亂的來龍去脈".
20. Sautman, B. (2006). "Colonialism, genocide, and Tibet". Asian Ethnicity. 7 (3). Routledge: 243–265.
21. Mackerras, C. (1998). "The impact of economic reform on China's minority nationalities". Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy. 3 (1). Routledge: 61–79.
22. Tiezhi, W. (2007). "Preferential policies for ethnic minority students in China's college/university admission". Asian Ethnicity. 8 (2). Routledge: 149–163.
23. Christoffersen, G. (2002). "Constituting the Uyghur in US--China Relations: The Geopolitics of Identity Formation in the War on Terrorism". Strategic Insight. 2.
24. "Chinese Leave Guantánamo for Albanian Limbo". The New York Times International. June 10, 2007.
25. "Profile: The Dalai Lama", BBC News, April 25, 2006.
26. United States Congressional Serial Set, United States Government Printing Office, 1993, p. 110.
27. "The Political Philosophy of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. Selected Speeches and Writings". Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)< /br>"Tibet is being colonized by waves of Chinese immigrants. We are becoming a minority in our own country. The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us. The immediate result has been a round of unrest and reprisal." (pp.65) ..."Human rights violations in Tibet are among the most serious in the world. Discrimination is practiced in Tibet under a policy of apartheid which the Chinese call "segregation and assimilation." (pp. 248)
28. Lasater, Martin L. & Conboy, Kenneth J. "Why the World Is Watching Beijing's Treatment of Tibet", Heritage Foundation, October 9, 1987.
29. Goble, Paul. "China: Analysis From Washington -- A Breakthrough For Tibet", World Tibet Network News, Canada Tibet Committee, August 31, 2001.
30. "What do we expect the United Kingdom to do?", Tibet Vigil UK, June 2002. Accessed June 25, 2006.
31. Zheng, Yi. Sym, T. P. Terrill, Ross. 1996 (1996). Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China. Westvuew Press. ISBN 0813326168.
32. List of casualties, Ding Zilin, Retrieved 2007-05-21 Template:Zh icon
33. Timperlake, Edward. 1999 (1999). Red Dragon Rising. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0895262584
34. "Democratic Village Elections in a Communist Country". The Carter Center.
35. . {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
36. "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration."
37. "China jails outspoken activist over Tibet views".
38. Media Control in China published in Chinese in 2004 by Human Rights in China, New York. Revised edition 2006 published by Liming Cultural Enterprises of Taiwan. Accessed February 4, 2007.
39. "The Hijacked Potential of China's Internet", English translation of a chapter in the 2006 revised edition of Media Control in China published in Chinese by Liming Enterprises of Taiwan in 2006. Accessed February 4, 2007
40. "Sanity check: How Microsoft beat Linux in China and what it means for freedom, justice, and the price of software". {{cite web}}: Text "Tech Sanity Check" ignored (help); Text "TechRepublic.com" ignored (help)
41. Associated Press. "China Bans Cartoons With Live Actors". CBS news.
    Susman, Gary. "Banned in Beijing". The Phoenix (Providence).
42. ^ Macleod, Calum. "China reviews `apartheid' for 900 m peasants", The Independent, June 10, 2001.
43. ^ David Pines, Efraim Sadka, Itzhak Zilcha, Topics in Public Economics: Theoretical and Applied Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 334. Cite error: The named reference "Wildasin" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
44. "Racial Discrimination in Tibet (2000)". Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
45. Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", BBC News, November 10, 2005.
46. Macleod, Calum and Macleod, Lijia China's migrants bear brunt of bias, The Washington Times, July 14, 2000.
    "Sending up to 50% of their earnings home, migrants play an important role in spreading wealth down to the villages. Yet they are still treated like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid."
47. ^ Chan, Anita, China's Workers under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy, Introduction chapter, M.E. Sharpe. 2001, ISBN 0-765-60358-6 Cite error: The named reference "Chan" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
48. Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", BBC News, November 10, 2005. Retrieved 5th Aug 2007.
49. ^ "Chinese apartheid: Migrant labourers, numbering in hundreds of millions, who have been ejected from state concerns and co-operatives since the 1980s as China instituted "socialist capitalism", have to have six passes before they are allowed to work in provinces other than their own. In many cities, private schools for migrant labourers are routinely closed down to discourage migration." "From politics to health policies: why they're in trouble", The Star, February 6, 2007.
50. ^ "China's apartheid-like household registration system, introduced in the 1950s, still divides the population into two distinct groups, urban and rural." Chan, Anita & Senser, Robert A. "China's Troubled Workers", Foreign Affairs, March / April 1997.
51. ^ "The application of these regulations is reminiscent of apartheid South Africa's hated pass laws. Police carry out raids periodically to round up those tho do not possess a temporary residence permit. Those without papers are placed in detention centres and then removed from cities." Waddington, Jeremy. Globalization and Patterns of Labour Resistance, Routledge, 1999, p. 82.
52. "HIGHLIGHT: Discrimination against rural migrants is China's apartheid: Certainly, the discrimination against the country-born is China's form of apartheid. It is an offence against human rights on a much bigger scale than the treatment of the tiny handful of dissidents dogged enough to speak up against the state." "Country Cousins", The Economist, April 8, 2000.
53. "...China's apartheid-like system of residency permits." Yao, Shunli. "China's WTO Revolution", Project Syndicate, June, 2002.
54. ^ Whitehouse, David. Template:PDFlink, Paper delivered at the Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature, sponsored by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, March 2, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
55. "We further identify seven elements of the repressive regime at the national, municipal and local levels, and argue that the combined results of these elements have given rise to a kind of spatial and social apartheid which systematically discriminates against the rural population, with women being the most oppressed." Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Template:PDFlink, Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 1.
56. Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Template:PDFlink, Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 20.
57. "Since the middle of 1990’s the hukou system has been gradually relaxed. First, rural residents were permitted to buy a temporary (usually one year) urban residential card, which allowed them to work legally. The fees for such permits gradually decreased to a fairly affordable level. Beginning from 1998, parents have been able to pass down their hukou either through the father’s or the mother’s line, hence the triple discrimination against rural women has been alleviated. In 2003, after the uproar surrounding the death of Sun Zhigang alarmed the authorities, the laws on jailing and repatriating ‘undocumented’ people (those failing to produce local hukou) were abolished. Thus the spatial aspect of the apartheid has now largely been eliminated. However, the substance of the social apartheid in general and the hukou system in particular remains intact. The permanent mark of being an outsider and second class citizen remains, and prevents migrant workers from achieving significant upward mobility in cities. Most decent jobs are still reserved for people who possess local hukou. Migrants can only get badly paid jobs. They still have no future in the cities, and may only work there for some years and then return to their home village." Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Template:PDFlink, Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 11.
58. "The hukou system has been criticized in some quarters and has been called 'the equivalent of and apartheid system between rural and urban residents' (China Labor Bulletin, February 25, 2002). However, the Ministry of Public Security has continued to justify the hukou system as an instrument for keeping public order (the ministry said it allowed the police to track down criminals more easily) and for providing demographic data for planning and program formulation." Laquian, Aprodicio A. Beyond Metropolis: The Planning and Governance of Asia's Mega-Urban Regions, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, pp. 320-321.
59. "Country Cousins", The Economist, April 6, 2000.
60. Alexander, Peter, & Chan, Anita Does China Have an Apartheid Pass System?, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30.4 (2004)
    China's household registration system (HRS) maintains a rigid distinction between China's rural population, that is people who have a rural hukou (household registration), and urban residents, who have an urban hukou. Movement of rural people into the cities is restricted, and they require a permit to stay and work temporarily in any urban area. If caught without these permits, people with a rural hukou could be placed in a detention centre, fined, and deported back to their home village or home town (that is, 'endorsed out', to borrow a South African expression). Those with a rural hukou who obtain a temporary employment permit to work in an urban area are not entitled to the pensions, schooling, unemployment benefits, etc. enjoyed by those who have an urban hukou. There are, in short, some obvious and significant similarities between the two countries, but a closer examination is required before we can consider equating China's pass system with what operated in apartheid South Africa." ..." The combination of these four factors may explain why China has developed a quasi-apartheid pass system. The fact that it has such a system underlines the reality that China's export-oriented economic growth has been built, in large measure, on the labour of poorly paid and appallingly treated migrant workers. In China today, as in apartheid South Africa, the pass system is associated with massive abuses of human rights, and its retention should be opposed."
61. Macleod, Calum and Macleod, Lijia China's migrants bear brunt of bias, The Washington Times, July 14, 2000.
    "Sending up to 50% of their earnings home, migrants play an important role in spreading wealth down to the villages. Yet they are still treated like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid."
62. "Article on China presents racism rumours as fact". Embassy of The People's Republic of China in the Republic of South Africa".
63. "murdoch edu".
64. "Beijing usembassy-china".
65. "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination."People's daily China
66. "The new Bishop of Beijing is elected".
67. "Persecution.com.au".
68. "China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate".
69. "World's youngest political prisoner turns 17".
70. "Icy Wind From Beijing Chills the Monks of Tibet".
71. "Forcing silence in Tibet as Dalai Lama receives US Congressional Gold Medal".
72. Cite error: The named reference icycold was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
73. David Ownby, "The Falun Gong in the New World," European Journal of East Asian Studies, Sep2003, Vol. 2 Issue 2, p 306
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78. Dean Peerman, China syndrome: the persecution of Falun Gong, Christian Century, August 10, 2004
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80. Michael Lestz, Why Smash the Falun Gong?, Religion in the News, Fall 1999, Vol. 2, No. 3, Trinity College, Massachusetts
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References

• "Country Cousins", The Economist, April 8, 2000.
• "Dalai Lama honours Tintin and Tutu", BBC News, June 2, 2006.
• "From politics to health policies: why they're in trouble", The Star, February 6, 2007.
• "Online encyclopedia Misplaced Pages founder raps firms aiding China censorship" , Associated Press Financial Wire, March 8, 2007.
• "Profile: The Dalai Lama", BBC News, April 25, 2006.
• "Tutu calls on China to 'do the right thing' in Tibet", International Campaign for Tibet, June 1, 2006.
• United States Congressional Serial Set, United States Government Printing Office, 1993.
• "What do we expect the United Kingdom to do?", Tibet Vigil UK, June 2002. Accessed June 25, 2006.
• Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Template:PDFlink, Committee for Asian Women, May 2007.
• Chan, Anita. China's Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy, M.E. Sharpe, 2001. ISBN 0765603578
• Chan, Anita & Senser, Robert A. "China's Troubled Workers", Foreign Affairs, March / April 1997.
• Elliott, Mark C. The Manchu Way: The 8 Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China, Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0804736065
• Goble, Paul. "China: Analysis From Washington -- A Breakthrough For Tibet", World Tibet Network News, Canada Tibet Committee, August 31, 2001.
• Laquian, Aprodicio A. Beyond Metropolis: The Planning and Governance of Asia's Mega-Urban Regions, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0801881765
• Lasater, Martin L. & Conboy, Kenneth J. "Why the World Is Watching Beijing's Treatment of Tibet", Heritage Foundation, October 9, 1987.
• Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", BBC News, November 10, 2005.
• Macleod, Calum. "China reviews `apartheid' for 900 m peasants", The Independent, June 10, 2001.
• Neville-Hadley, Peter. Frommer's China, Frommers.com, 2003. ISBN 0764567551
• Robinson, Thomas W. & Shambaugh, David L. Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198290160
• Rosenthal, A.M. "China's 'Apartheid' Taiwan Policy." The New York Times, December 4, 1995.
• Snow, Phillip. "Third World Report: 'Chinese apartheid' threatens links with Africa", The Guardian, January 20, 1989.
• Waddington, Jeremy. Globalization and Patterns of Labour Resistance, Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0720123690
• Whitehouse, David. Template:PDFlink, Paper delivered at the Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature, sponsored by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, March 2, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
• Wildasin, David E. "Factor mobility, risk, inequality, and redistribution" in David Pines, Efraim Sadka, Itzhak Zilcha, Topics in Public Economics: Theoretical and Applied Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0521561361
• Yao, Shunli. "China's WTO Revolution", Project Syndicate, June, 2002

See also

• Human rights in Hong Kong
• Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
• Ecological migration
• The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China
• Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
• Human Rights in China (organization)
• Tangshan Protest
• Laogai

External links

• MacLeod, Calum, China reviews 'apartheid' for 900 m peasants, Jun 10, 2001, The Independent, London
• Human Rights in China by China Internet Information Center, under the administration of the China State Council Information Office.
• Human rights can be manifested differently by XinhuaNet
• UN Human Development Report 2003 on China by the United Nations Development Programme
• 2004 Human Rights Report on China by the United States Department of State
• JURIST China - Chinese law, legal research, human rights
• Olympic Watch: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008 - Campaign for human rights improvements in China before the 2008 Olympic Games
• Human Rights In China - International NGO based in New York and Hong Kong
• Human Rights Watch: China and Tibet
• International Federation for Justice in China
• International Freedom of Expression eXchange - monitors freedom of expression in China
• The China Support Network
• Support Democracy in China
• Status of Chinese People
• China Human Rights
• Wei Jingshen Foundation
• Who shows more respect for human rights? - Editorial published by the People's Daily

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from April 18 2008
• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from April 2008
• Human rights by country
• Politics of the People's Republic of China
• Law of the People's Republic of China
• Political repression in the People's Republic of China
• Human rights in the People's Republic of China