Human Rights in China

中国的人权状况

【法宝引证码】

Issuing authority： State Council Information Office
Date issued： 11-01-1991


Preface It has been a long-cherished ideal of mankind to enjoy human rights in the full sense of the term. Since this great term human rights was coined centuries ago, people of all nations have achieved great results in their unremitting struggle for human rights. However, on a global scale, modern society has fallen far short of the lofty goal of securing the full range of human rights for people the world over. And this is why numerous people with lofty ideals are still working determinedly for this cause. Under long years of oppression by the "three big mountains" imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism people in old China did not have any human rights to speak of. Suffering bitterly from this, the Chinese people fought for more than a century, defying death and personal sacrifices and advancing wave upon wave, in an arduous struggle to overthrow the "three big mountains" and gain their human rights. The situation in respect to human rights in China took a basic turn for the better after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Greatly treasuring this hard-won achievement, the Chinese government and people have spared no effort to safeguard human rights and steadily improve their human rights situation, and have achieved remarkable results. This has won full confirmation and fair appraisal from all people who have a real understanding of Chinese conditions and who are not prejudiced. The issue of human rights has become one of great significance and common concern in the world community. The series of declarations and conventions adopted by the United Nations have won the support and respect of many countries. The Chinese government has also highly appraised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, considering it the first international human rights document that has laid the foundation for the practice of human rights in the world arena. However, the evolution of the situation in regard to human rights is circumscribed by the historical, social, economic and cultural conditions of various nations, and involves a process of historical development. Owing to tremendous differences in historical background, social system, cultural tradition and economic development, countries differ in their understanding and practice of human rights. From their different situations, they have taken different attitudes towards the relevant UN conventions. Despite its international aspect, the issue of human rights falls by and large within the sovereignty of each country. Therefore, a country's human rights situation should not be judged in total disregard of its history and national conditions, nor can it be evaluated according to a preconceived model or the conditions of another country or region. Such is the practical attitude, the attitude of seeking truth from facts. From their own historical conditions, the realities of their own country and their long practical experience, the Chinese people have derived their own viewpoints on the human rights issue and formulated relevant laws and policies. It is stipulated in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China that all power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. Chinese human rights have three salient characteristics. First, extensiveness. It is not a minority of the people or part of a class or social stratum but the entire Chinese citizenry who constitutes the subject enjoying human rights. The human rights enjoyed by the Chinese citizenry encompass an extensive scope, including not only survival, personal and political rights, but also economic, cultural and social rights. The state pays full attention to safeguarding both individual and collectivrights. Second, equality. China has adopted the socialist system after abolishing the system of exploitation and eliminating the exploiting classes. The Chinese citizenry enjoys all civic rights equally irrespective of the money and property status as well as of nationality, race, sex, occupation, family background, religion, level of education and duration of residence. Third, authenticity. The state provides guarantees in terms of system, laws and material means for the realization of human rights. The various civic rights prescribed in the Constitution and other state laws are in accord with what people enjoy in real life. China's human rights legislation and policies are endorsed and supported by the people of all nationalities and social strata and by all the political parties, social organizations and all walks of life. As a developing country, China has suffered from setbacks while safeguarding and developing human rights. Although much has been achieved in this regard, there is still much room for improvement. It remains a long-term historical task for the Chinese people and government to continue to promote human rights and strive for the noble goal of full implementation of human rights as required by China's socialism. In order to help the international community understand the human rights situation as it is in China, we present the following brief account of China's basic position on and practice of human rights.		前　言享有充分的人权，是长期以来人类追求的理想。从第一次提出“人权”这个伟大的名词后，多少世纪以来，各国人民为争取人权作出了不懈的努力，取得了重大的成果。但是，就世界范围来说，现代社会还远没有能使人们达到享有充分的人权这一崇高的目标。这也就是为什么无数仁人志士仍矢志不渝地要为此而努力奋斗的原因。旧中国长期处于帝国主义、封建主义、官僚资本主义压迫之下，广大人民群众没有人权可言。深受其苦的中国人民，一百多年来，一直把推翻“三座大山”的压迫，争得人权作为自己的目标，为此前赴后继，不惜流血牺牲，进行了长期的艰苦卓绝的斗争。中华人民共和国成立后，中国的人权状况得到了根本的改变。中国政府和中国人民十分珍惜这一来之不易的胜利成果，为维护人权和不断改善人权状况不遗余力，并取得了显著成绩。世界上真正了解中国情况和不存偏见的人士，对此都给予充分肯定和公正评价。当前，人权已成为国际社会普遍关心的重大问题之一联合国通过的有关人权的宣言和一些公约，受到许多国家的拥护和尊重。中国政府对《世界人权宣言》也给予了高度的评价，认为它“作为第一个人权问题的国际文件，为国际人权领域的实践奠定了基础”。但是，人权状况的发展受到各国历史、社会、经济、文化等条件的制约，是一个历史的发展过程。由于各国的历史背景、社会制度、文化传统、经济发展的状况有巨大差异，因而对人权的认识往往并不一致，对人权的实施也各有不同。对于联合国通过的一些公约，各国基于本国的情况，态度也不尽一致。人权问题虽然有其国际性的一面，但主要是一个国家主权范围内的问题。因此，观察一个国家的人权状况，不能割断该国的历史，不能脱离该国的国情；衡量一个国家的人权状况，不能按一个模式或某个国家和区域的情况来套。这是从实际出发，实事求是的态度。中国人民从自己的历史和国情出发，根据长时期实践的经验，对人权问题形成了自己的观点，并制定了相应的法律和政策。《中华人民共和国宪法》规定，中华人民共和国的一切权力属于人民。中国的人权具有三个显著的特点：一是广泛性。享受人权的主体不是少数人，也不是某些阶级和阶层的一部分人，而是全体中国公民。中国公民报享受的人权范围是广泛的，不仅包括生存权、人身权和政治权利，而且包括经济、文化、社会等各方面的权利。国家不仅十分注重保障个人人权，而且注重维护集体人权。二是公平性。中国实行社会主义制度，消灭了剥削制度和剥削阶级，各项公民权利不受金钱和财产状况以及民族、种族、性别、职业、家庭、出身、宗教信仰、教育程度、居住期限的限制，为全社会的公民平等地享有。三是真实性。国家为人权的实现从制度上、法律上、物质上给予保障。宪法和法律中规定的各种公民权利，同人们在现实生活中报享受的权利是一致的。中国的人权立法和政策，受到全国各民族各层人民和各党派、各团体以及实会各界的拥护和支持。中国是发展中国家，在维护和发展人权的实践中，也曾发生珲种种挫折。现在，虽然在维护和促进人权上已取得了巨大的成就，但是还存在许多有待完善的地方”继续促进人权的崇高目标，仍然是中国人民和政府的一项长期的历史任务。现将中国有关人权的基本立场和实践扼要地作一介绍，以有助于国际社会正确地了解中国的人权状况。
I. The Right to SubsistenceThe Foremost Human Right The Chinese People Long Fight for It is a simple truth that, for any country or nation, the right to subsistence is the most important of all human rights, without which the other rights are out of the question. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person. In old China, aggression by imperialism and oppression by feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism deprived the people of all guarantee for their lives, and an uncountable number of them perished in war and famine. To solve their human rights problems, the first thing for the Chinese people to do is, for historical reasons, to secure the right to subsistence. Without national independence, there would be no guarantee for the people's lives. When imperialist aggression became the major threat to their lives, the Chinese people had to win national independence before they could gain the right to subsistence. After the Opium War of 1840, China, hitherto a big feudal kingdom, was gradually turned into a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country. During the 110 years from 1840 to 1949, the British, French, Japanese, US and Russian imperialist powers waged hundreds of wars on varying scales against China, causing immeasurable losses to the lives and property of the Chinese people. The imperialists massacred Chinese people in untold numbers during their aggressive wars. In 1900, the troops of the Eight Allied Powers Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia, France, the United States, Italy and Austria killed, burned and looted, razing Tanggu, a town of 50,000 residents, to utter ruins, reducing Tianjin's population from one million to 100,000, killing countless people when they entered Beijing, where more than 1,700 were slaughtered at Zhuangwangfu alone. During Japan's full-scale invasion of China which began in 1937, more than 21 million people were killed or wounded and 10 million people mutilated to death. In the six weeks beginning from December 13, 1937, the Japanese invaders killed 300,000 people in Nanjing. The imperialists sold, maltreated and caused the death of numerous Chinese laborers, plunging countless people in old China into an abyss of misery. According to incomplete statistics, more than 12 million indentured Chinese laborers were sold to various parts of the world from the mid-19th century through the 1920s. Coaxed and abducted, these laborers were thrown into lockups, known as "pigsties," where they were branded with the names of their would-be destinations. During the 1852-58 period, 40,000 people were put in such "pigsties" in Shantou alone, and more than 8,000 of them were done to death there. Equally horrifying was the death toll of ill-treated laborers in factories and mines run by imperialists across China. During the Japanese occupation, no less than 2 million laborers perished from maltreatment and exhaustion in Northeast China. Once the laborers died, their remains were thrown into mountain gullies or pits dug into bare hillsides. So far more than 80 such massive pits have been found, with over 700,000 skeletons of the victims in them. Under the imperialists' colonial rule, the Chinese people had their fill of humiliation and there was no personal dignity to speak of. The foreign aggressors enjoyed "extraterritoriality" in those days. On December 24, 1946 Peking University student Shen Chong was raped by William Pierson, an American GI, but, to the great indignation of the Chinese people, the criminal, handled unilaterally by the American side, was acquitted and released. Imperialist powers exercised administrative, legislative, judicial, police and financial powers in the "concessions" they had set up in China, turning them into "states within a state" that were thoroughly independent of the Chinese administrative and legal systems. In 1885, foreign aggressors put up a signboard at the entrance of a park in the French concession; in a blatant insult to the Chinese people, it read, "Chinese and dogs not admitted." Forcing more than 1,100 unequal treaties on China, the imperialists plundered Chinese wealth on a large scale. Statistics show that, by way of these unequal treaties, the foreign aggressors made away with more than 100 billion taels of silver as war indemnities and other payments in the past century. Through the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking, the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki, the International Protocol of 1901 and five other such treaties alone, 1,953 million taels of silver in indemnity were extorted, 16 times the 1901 revenue of the Qing government. The Treaty of Shimonoseki alone earned Japan 230 million taels of silver in extortion money, about four and a half times its annual national revenue. The losses resulting from the destruction and looting by the invaders in wars against China were even more incalculable. During Japan's full-scale war of aggression against China (1937-45), 930 Chinese cities were occupied, causing US$62 billion in direct losses and US$500 billion in indirect losses. With their state sovereignty impaired and their social wealth plundered or destroyed, the Chinese people were deprived of the basic conditions for survival. In face of the crumbling state sovereignty and the calamities wrought upon their lives, for over a century the Chinese people fought the foreign aggressors in an indomitable struggle for national salvation and independence. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Boxers Movement and the Revolution of 1911 which overthrew the Qing Dynasty broke out during this period. These revolutionary movements dealt heavy blows to imperialist influences in China, but they failed to deliver the nation from semi-colonialism. A fundamental change took place only after the Chinese people, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, overthrew the Kuomintang reactionary rule and founded the People's Republic of China. After its birth in 1921, the Communist Party of China set the clear-cut goal in its political program to "overthrow the oppression by international imperialism and achieve the complete independence of the Chinese nation" and to "overthrow the warlords and unite China into a real democratic republic"; it led the people in an arduous struggle culminating in victory in the national democratic revolution. The founding of the People's Republic of China eradicated the forces of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism in the Chinese mainland, put an end to the nation's history of dismemberment, oppression and humiliation at the hands of alien powers for well over a century and to long years of turbulence characterized by incessant war and social disunity, and realized the people's cherished dream of national independence and unification. The Chinese nation, which makes up one-fourth of the world's population, is no longer one that the aggressors could kill and insult at will. The Chinese people have stood up as the masters of their own country; for the first time they have won real human dignity and the respect of the whole world. The Chinese people have won the basic guarantee for their life and security. National independence has protected the Chinese people from being trodden under the heels of foreign invaders. However, the problem of the people's right to subsistence can be truly solved only when their basic means of livelihood are guaranteed. To eat their fill and dress warmly were the fundamental demand of the Chinese people who had long suffered cold and hunger. Far from meeting this demand, successive regimes in old China brought even more disasters to the people. In those days, landlords and rich peasants who accounted for 10 percent of the rural population held 70 percent of the land, while the poor peasants and farm laborers who accounted for 70 percent of the rural population owned only 10 percent of the land. The bureaucrat-comprador bourgeoisie who accounted for only a small fraction of the population monopolized 80 percent of the industrial capital and controlled the economic lifelines of the country. The Chinese people were repeatedly exploited by land rent, taxes, usury and industrial and commercial capital. The exploitation and poverty they suffered were of a degree rarely seen in other parts of the world. According to 1932 statistics, the Chinese peasants were subjected to 1,656 kinds of exorbitant taxes and levies, which took away 60-90 percent of their harvests. The people's miseries were exacerbated and their lives made all the harsher by the reactionary governments who, politically corrupt and impotent, surrendered China's sovereign rights under humiliating terms and served as tools of foreign imperialist rule, and by the separatist regime of warlords who were embroiled in endless wars. It was estimated that 80 percent of the populace in old China suffered to varying degrees of starvation and tens of thousands hundreds of thousands in some cases died of it every year. A major natural disaster invariably left the land strewn with corpses of hunger victims. More than 3.7 million lives were lost when floods hit east China in 1931. In 1943, a crop failure in Henan Province took the lives of 3 million people and left 15 million subsisting on grass and bark and struggling on the verge of death. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the reactionary Kuomintang government launched a civil war, fed on the flesh and blood of the people and caused total economic collapse. In 1946, 10 million people died of hunger countrywide. In 1947, 100 million, or 22 percent of the national population then, were under the constant threat of hunger. Ever since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have always placed the task of helping the people get enough to wear and eat on the top of the agenda. For the first three years of the People's Republic, the Chinese people, led by their government, concentrated their efforts on healing the wounds of war and quickly restored the national economy to the record level in history. On this basis, China lost no time to complete the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry and capitalist industry and commerce, thus uprooting the system of exploitation, instituting the system of socialism and, for the first time in history, turning the people into masters of the means of production and beneficiaries of social wealth. This fired the people with soaring enthusiasm for building a new China and a new life, emancipated the social productive forces and set the economy on the track of unprecedented growth. Since 1979, China has switched the focus of its work to economic construction, begun reform and opening to the outside world, and set the goal of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. This has further expanded the social productive forces and enabled the nation to basically solve the problem of feeding and clothing its 1.1 billion people. Tilling 7 percent of the world's total cultivated land averaging only 1.3 mu (one mu equals one-fifteenth of one hectare) per capita as against 12.16 mu in the United States and the world's average of 4.52 mu China has nevertheless succeeded in feeding a population that makes up 22 percent of the world's total. Contrary to some Western politicians' prediction that no Chinese government could solve the problem of feeding its people, socialist China has done it by its own efforts. The past 40-odd years have witnessed a marked increase in the average annual per-capita consumption of major consumer goods despite a yearly average population increase of 14 million. A survey shows that the daily caloric intake of food per resident in China was 2,270 in 1952, 2,311 in 1978 and 2,630 in 1990, approaching the world's average. The life-span of the Chinese people has lengthened and their health improved considerably. According to statistics, the population's average life expectancy increased from 35 years before liberation to 70 years in 1988, higher than the average level in the world's medium-income countries, while the death rate dropped from 33 per thousand before liberation to 6.67 per thousand in 1990, which was one of the lowest death rates in the world. China's 1987 infant mortality of 31 per thousand approached the level of high-income countries. The health of the Chinese people, especially the physical development of youngsters, has greatly improved as compared with the situation in old China. An average 15-year-old boy in 1979 was 1.8 centimeters taller and 2.1 kilograms heavier than his counterparts living during the 1937-41 period; and an average girl of the same age in 1979 was 1.3 centimeters taller and 1 kilogram heavier. Since 1979, the health of the Chinese people has improved further. The label on old China, "sick man of East Asia," has long been consigned to the dustbin of history. The problem of food and clothing having been basically solved, the people have been guaranteed with the basic right to subsistence. This is a historical achievement made by the Chinese people and government in seeking and protecting human rights. However, to protect the people's right to subsistence and improve their living conditions remains an issue of paramount importance in China today. China has gained independence, but it is still a developing country with limited national strength. The preservation of national independence and state sovereignty and the freedom from imperialist subjugation are, therefore, the very fundamental conditions for the survival and development of the Chinese people. Although China has basically solved the problem of food and clothing, its economy is still at a fairly low level, its standard of living falls considerably short of that in developed countries, and the pressure of a huge population and relative per-capita paucity of resources will continue to restrict the socio-economic development and the improvement of the people's lives. The people's right to subsistence will still be threatened in the event of a social turmoil or other disasters. Therefore it is the fundamental wish and demand of the Chinese people and a long-term, urgent task of the Chinese government to maintain national stability, concentrate their effort on developing the productive forces along the line which has proven to be successful, persist in reform and opening to the outside world, strive to rejuvenate the national economy and boost the national strength, and, on the basis of having solved the problem of food and clothing, secure a well-off livelihood for the people throughout the country so that their right to subsistence will no longer be threatened.		一、生存权是中国人民长期争取的首要人权对于一个国家和民族来说，人权首先是人民的生存权。没有生存权，其他一切人权均无从谈起。这是最简单的道理。《世界人权宣言》确认，人人有权享有生命、自由和人身安全。在旧中国，由于帝国主义的侵略，封建主义和官僚资本主义的压迫，人民的生命毫无保障，因战乱饥寒而死者不计其数。争取生存权利历史地成为中国人民必须首先要解决的人权问题。国家不能独立，人民的生命就没有保障。危害中国人民生存的，首先是帝国主义的侵略。因此，争取生存权首先要争取国家独立权。自1840年鸦片战争以后，中国一步一步地由一个封建大国沦为半殖民地半封建的国家。从1840年到1949年的110年间，英、法、日、美、俄等帝国主义列强先后对中国发动过大小数百次侵略战争，给中国人民的生命财产造成了不可估量的损失。 ——帝国主义者在因次侵略战争中，大规模地屠杀中国人民。1900年八国联军烧杀抢掠，将5万多人的塘沽镇变成空无一人的废墟，使拥有100万人的天津在烧杀之后仅存10万人，进入北京后，杀人不计其数，仅庄王府一处就杀死1700多人。在1937年开始的日本帝国主义的全面侵华战争中，2100余万人被打死打伤，1000余万人被残害致死。其中，在1937年12月13日后的6个星期内，日本侵略军在南京就杀害了30万人。 ——帝国主义者大肆贩卖和虐杀华工，使旧中国无数生灵惨遭涂炭。据不完全统计，从十九世纪中叶到二十世纪二十年代，被贩卖到世界各地的华工多达1200万人。这些被绑架、被欺骗去的华工囚禁在“猪仔馆”，被烙上贩卖目的地的字号。1852—1858年间，仅汕头一地“猪仔馆”中的4万华工，就有8000多人被折磨致死。列强在中国各地开办的工程和矿山中，肆意虐杀华工的记录骇人听闻。日本帝国主义侵华期间，仅东北地区就有不下200万劳工被折磨致死。华工被迫害致死后，被扔进山沟或乱石坑。现已发现的这种“万人坑”就有80多处，埋有劳工尸骨70多万具。 ——帝国主义在中国实行殖民统治，使中国人民备受凌辱，毫无人格尊严可言。那时，外国侵略者享有不受中国法律官辖的“治外法权”。1946年12月24日，北平发生美国士兵皮尔逊强奸北京大学女生沈崇的暴行，激起全国人民的极大愤慨，但是，罪犯却由美国单方面处理，被宣布无罪释放。列强在中国设立的“租界”，拥有行政、立法、司法、警察和财政大权，成为完全独立于中国的行政和法律制度之外的“国中之国”。1885年，外国侵略者甚至在上海法租界公园门口公然竖起“华人与狗不得入内”的牌子，肆无忌惮地侮辱中国人的人格。 ——帝国主义强迫中国签订了1100多个不平等条约，对中国的财富进行了大规模的疯狂掠夺。据统计，近百年来，外国侵略者通过这些不平等条约掠去战争赔款和其他款项达白银1000亿两。其中《南京条约》、《马关条约》、《辛丑条约》等8个不平等条约就勒索赔款19.53亿两白银，相当于清政府1901年收入的16倍。而日本仅通过《马关条约》勒索的赔款2.3亿两白银，就相当于当时日本国家财政四年半的收入。侵略者在战争中的破坏和抢劫造成的损失，更是难以估算。日本全面侵华战争期间(1937—1945年)，中国有930余座城市被占领，直接经济损失达620亿美元，间接经济损失过5000亿美元。国家主权丧失，社会财富遭洗劫，使中国人民失去了最起码的生存条件。面对国家主权的沦丧和人民生命的浩劫，中国人民为救亡图存，争取国家独立，同外国侵略者进行了一个多世纪不屈挠的斗争。在这期间，中国爆发了太平天国运动、义和团运动以及推翻了封建清王朝的辛亥革命。这些革命运动虽然沉重地打击了帝国主义在中国的势力，但终究没有能使中国摆脱半殖民地的地位。直到中国共产党领导全国人民推翻了国民党的反动统治，建立了中华人民共和国之后，这种状况才发生根本的变化。中国共产党自1921年诞生后，就在政治纲领中明确地提出，“推翻国际帝国主义的压迫，达到中华民族的完全独立”，“打倒军阀，统计表中国为真正民主共和国”，并领导人民进行了艰苦卓绝的斗争，取得了民族民主革命的胜利。中华人民共和国的建立，在中国大陆上铲除了帝国主义、封建主义和官僚资本主义势力，结束了中国一百多年来任人宰割、受尽欺凌的屈辱历史和长期战乱、一盘散少的动荡局面，实现了人民梦寐以求的国家独立和统一。占人类总数近四分之一的中华民族再也不是侵略者可以任意屠杀侮辱的民族，中国人民以国家主人的姿态站立起来，第一次真正享有了应有的人格尊严，赢得了全世界的尊敬。中国人民的生命安全从此获得了根本保障。国家的独立虽然使中国人民的生命不再遭受外国侵略者的蹂躏，但是，还必须在此基础上使人民享有基本的生活保障，才能真正解决生存权问题。吃饱穿暖，这是长期陷于饥寒交迫困境的中国人民的最低要求。旧中国的历代政府不仅没有能解决这一问题，反而加重了人民的灾难。在旧中国，只占农村人口10%的地主和富农占有70%的土地，而占农村人口70%的贫雇农却只占有10%的土地；占人口极少数的官僚买办资产阶级垄断着80%的工业资本，操纵着全国的经济命脉。中国人民遭受着地租、赋税、高利贷和工商资本的层层盘剥，其所受的剥削和贫困的程度是世界上罕见的。据统计，1932年，仅苛捐杂税的名目就多达1656种，捐额约占农民收获量的60%至90%。加上反动政府在政治上腐败无能，丧权辱国，充当帝国主义的统治工具，大小军阀割据，长期战乱不已，使人民灾骏深重，生存维艰。据估算，旧中国有80%的人长期处于饥饿、半饥饿状态，几乎每年都有几万到几十万人因饥饿而死。一遇自然灾害，更是饿殍遍野。1931年，华东地区水灾，造成370多万人死亡。1943年，仅河南省饿死者就达300万人，另有1500万人靠啃草根、吃树皮度日，濒临死亡边缘。抗日战争胜利后，国民党反动政府发动内战，榨取民脂民膏，造成经济全面崩溃。1946年，各地饿死1000万人。1947年，全国饥民竟达1亿多人，占当时全国人口的22%。 1949年新中国建立以来，中国共产党和中国政府始终把解决人民的温饱问题作为自己的头等大事和最紧迫的任务。人民政府领导全国人民用了三年时间，集中精力医治战争创伤，使国民经济迅速恢复到历史的最高水平。在此基础上，中国又不失时机地实现了对农业、手工业烽资本主义工商业的社会主义改造，从根本上消灭了剥削制度，实行了社会主义制度，使中国人民在历史上第一次成为生产资料的主人和社会财富的享有者。这就极大地激发了人民群众建设新中国和新生活的积极性，解放了社会生产力，使社会经济以中国历史上空前的速度心。1979年以后，中国以经济建设为中心，实行改革开放，建设有中国特色的社会主义，进一步促进了社会生产力的心，从而基本解决了11亿人口的吃饭、穿衣问题。中国耕地只占世界耕地的7%，人均占有量只有1.3亩，比美国的人均12.16亩和世界平数4.52亩低得多，却养活了占世界人口22%的人。西方某些政治家曾经断言：中国没有一个政府能够解决人民的吃饭问题。但是，社会主义中国依靠自己的力量解决了这一历史难题。40多年来，虽然中国平每年净增1400多万人口，但是主要生活消费品人均攫消费量却有很大提高。根据抽样调查，中国居民每人每天从食品中摄取的热量，1952年为2270千卡，1978年为2311千卡左右，1990年达到2630千卡左右，已接近世界平均水平。中国人民的寿命和健康水平有了很大提高。据统计，中国人口平均预期寿命已从解放前的35岁提议到1988年的70岁，超过世界中等收入国家水平。人口死亡率从解放前高达33‰下降到1990年的6.67‰，成为世界上死亡率最低的国家之一。1987年，中国的婴儿死亡率为31‰，已接近高收入国家水平。中国人口的体质特别是青少年的身体发育状况，也比旧中国有很大提高。1979年同1937—1941年相比，15岁的男孩身高增加1.8厘米，平均体重增加2.1公斤；15岁的女孩身高增加1.3厘米，体重增加1公斤。从1979年至今，中国人民的体质又有了明显的提高，彻底甩掉了旧中国“东亚病夫”的帽子。人民的温饱问题基本解决了，人民的生存权问题也就基本解决了。这是中国人民和中国政府在争取和维护人权方面取得的历史性的成就。在中国，维护人民的生存权利，改善人民的生存条件，至今仍然是一个首要问题。虽然中国已取得了独立，但中国仍然是发展中国家，国力有限，维护中国的独立与主权，保证中国不再受到帝国主义的欺凌，仍然是中国人民生存和发展的基本条件。虽然中国已经基本解决了温饱问题，但是，经济发展水平还比较低，人民的生活水平与发达国家相比还有较大的差距，人口的压力和人均资源的相对贫乏还将制约着社会经济的发展和人民生活的改善。一旦发生动乱或其他灾难，人民的生存权还会受到威胁。所以，保持国家稳定，沿着已取得成功的路线，集中精力发展生产力，坚持改革开放，努力把国民经济搞上去，增强国力，使全国人民的生活在温饱的基础上进一步达到小康水平，从而使人民的生存权不致受到威胁，这是中国人民最根本的愿望和要求，也是中国政府一项长期而紧迫的任务。
II. The Chinese People Have Gained Extensive Political Rights While struggling for the right to subsistence, the Chinese people have waged a heroic struggle for democratic rights. The people did not have any democratic rights to speak of in semi-feudal, semi-colonial China. The Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the great forerunner of bourgeois-democratic revolution, overthrew the feudal Qing Dynasty and gave rise to the Republic of China. He hoped to establish a Western-style democratic system in China, but the fruits of the revolution were snatched by Yuan Shikai, a feudal warlord. Then parliament became a mere instrument for warlords in power struggle, and there occurred the scandal of the "parliament of pigs" and bribery in electing a president. His dream unfulfilled, Dr. Sun died in sorrow and indignation, which found expression in his famous admonition: "The revolution has not yet succeeded." Many Chinese had cherished illusions about the US-supported Chiang Kai-shek government. However, Chiang turned out to be just another warlord under whose fascist rule millions of democracy-seeking people perished in bloody massacres. He adopted a non-resistance policy towards the Japanese invasion while stepping up the civil war, ignoring opposition from the Chinese Communists, patriots and democrats from all walks of life and the broad masses of the people. He launched the all-out civil war after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, again violating the ardent wish for peace, democracy and reconstruction of the Communist Party, the democratic parties and the people throughout China. Driven beyond the limits of forbearance, the people rose up in arms and in the end toppled Chiang's reactionary rule. Since the very day of its founding, the Communist Party of China has been holding high the banner of democracy and human rights. It encouraged and assisted Dr. Sun in reorganizing the Kuomintang, effected the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and launched the Northern Expedition against the reactionary rule of the warlords. After Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the democratic revolution, the Party united all patriots and democrats and led the people in a struggle against civil war, hunger, autocracy and persecution. In the liberated areas it established democratic governments, drew up laws which guaranteed the people's democratic rights and resolutely implemented its own democratic program. The democratic system in the liberated areas attracted numerous patriotic and democratic fighters and became the hope of the entire people. Under the Party's leadership, the Chinese people overthrew the Kuomintang reactionaries' dictatorial rule and founded the democratic and free People's Republic of China. The Chinese people gained real democratic rights after the founding of New China. In explicit terms the Constitution stipulates that all power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. That the people are masters of their own country is the essence of China's democratic politics. By stating that the People's Republic of China is a socialist state of the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants, the Constitution has established the status of the workers, peasants and other working people as masters of the country and thus invested the laboring people who were at the bottom rung of the social ladder in old China with lawful democratic rights. Equality of men and women, as provided by the Constitution, has enabled women, who account for half of the Chinese population, to gain the same rights as men in politics, economy, culture, society and family life. The stipulation that all nationalities in China are equal has ensured that all the nation's minority nationalities enjoy equal democratic rights with the Han people. To guarantee that the people are the real masters of the country with the right to run the country's economic and social affairs, China has adopted, in light of its actual conditions, the people's congresses as the state's basic political system. Deputies to the people's congresses at all levels are chosen through democratic elections. The Constitution stipulates that all citizens of the People's Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of nationality, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status, or length of residence, with the exception of persons deprived of their political rights by law. Taking into consideration its vast territory, large population, inconvenient transportation and relatively low economic and cultural development, China has adopted an election system appropriate to its actual conditions. That is, deputies to people's congresses at the county level or below are elected directly, while those to people's congresses above the county level are elected indirectly. This election system makes it possible for the people to choose deputies whom they know and trust. The election system has been improved in recent years on the basis of past experience. For instance, more candidates are posted than the number of deputies to be elected, instead of an equal number as before. The right to vote has been widely exercised by the Chinese people. According to statistics from the 1990 county- and township-level direct elections, 99.97 percent of the citizens at 18 years of age or above enjoyed the right to vote. Generally speaking, upwards of 90 percent of the voters participate in the elections held in the various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The most striking characteristic of China's electoral system is that elections are not manipulated by money and that deputies are not elected on the basis of boasting and empty promises but according to their actual contributions to the country and society, their attitude in serving the people and their close relations with the people. It is clear from the election results that the elected are broadly representative, that is, representative of people of all social strata and all trades and professions. Of the 2,970 deputies to the Seventh National People's Congress, 684, or 23 percent, are workers and farmers; 697, or 23.4 percent, are intellectuals; 733, or 24.7 percent, are government functionaries; 540, or 18.2 percent, are democratic party members and patriots with no party affiliations; 267, or 9 percent, are from the People's Liberation Army; and 49, or 1.6 percent, are returned overseas Chinese. The National People's Congress is the supreme organ of state power. It has legislative power. It elects or removes president and vice-president of the People's Republic of China, chairman of the Central Military Commission, president of the Supreme People's Court and procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate; and appoints or removes premier, vice-premiers, state councilors, ministers, ministers in charge of commissions, auditor-general and secretary-general. All administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the state are created by the National People's Congress, responsible to it and supervised by it. Following the principle of democratic centralism, the National People's Congress adopts major policy decisions after full airing of opinions; and once adopted, these policies are carried out in a concerted effort. In this way, the People's Congress can not only represent the people's common will but also become instrumental for the people in running state, economic and social affairs. Coming from among the people, the people's deputies are responsible to the people and supervised by the people; their close contact with the masses and wide knowledge of the actual situation enable them to fully reflect the people's wishes, formulate laws suited to reality and supervise the work of government organs. The Chinese Communist Party is the ruling party of socialist China and the representative of the interests of the people throughout the country. Its leadership position has been the result of the historical choice made by the Chinese people during their protracted and arduous struggle for independence and emancipation. The leadership of the Party is mainly an ideological and political leadership. The Party derives its ideas and policies from the people's concentrated will and then turns them into state laws and decisions which are passed by the National People's Congress through the state's legal procedures. The Party does not take the place of the government in the state's leadership system. The Party conducts its activities within the framework of the Constitution and the law and has no right to transcend the Constitution and the law. All Party members, like all citizens in the country, are equal before the law. The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party is the basic political system that gives expression to people's democracy. It guarantees that all social strata, people's organizations and patriots from various quarters can express their opinions and play a role in the country's political and social life. There are in China eight democratic parties apart from the Communist Party; they are the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the China Democratic League, the China Democratic National Construction Association, the China Association for Promoting Democracy, the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, the China Zhi Gong Dang (Party for Public Interest), the Jiu San Society (September 3rd Society) and the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League. Cooperation between the Communist Party and these democratic parties took shape during the democratic revolution before 1949, the year New China was founded. The leading role of the Communist Party in the cooperation is recognized by the democratic parties as it has been evolved in long years of common struggle. These democratic parties shared with the Communist Party the same basic political ideas whether in the struggle for overthrowing the "three big mountains" or during the period of building New China. Enjoying political freedom and organizational independence, all these democratic parties have developed greatly. They are neither parties out of office nor opposition parties, but parties participating in state affairs. As China's ruling party, the Communist Party repeatedly asks these democratic parties for their opinions on every major state affair and consult with them for solutions. Relations between the Communist Party and the democratic parties follow the guideline of "long-term coexistence and mutual supervision, treating each other with full sincerity and sharing weal or woe." Full play has been given to the role of the democratic parties in participating in and discussing state affairs, democratic supervision and uniting all the people. Many members of the democratic parties have assumed leading posts in organs of state power, government departments and judicial organs. Of the 19 vice-chairmen elected by the Seventh National People's Congress at its First Session, seven are members of democratic parties. Nearly 1,200 members of the democratic parties and personages with no party affiliations are holding leading posts in governments above the county level. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) consists of representatives of all the political parties and people's organizations and from among patriots and democrats who support socialism and the reunification of the motherland. New China's first Central People's Government was elected by the First Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After the establishment of the National People's Congress as the supreme organ of state power, the CPPCC became an organization of the patriotic united front. It provides a forum for discussions on major state policies and principles and big issues in social life and plays a supervisory role through suggestions and criticisms. The CPPCC usually convenes simultaneously with the people's congress at the corresponding level. The system of political consultation has played an important role in promoting democracy. China attaches great importance to the promotion of democracy at the grass-roots level so as to guarantee that citizens can directly exercise their political rights. Neighborhood Committees are the grass-roots democratic organizations in urban areas, and their counterparts in rural areas are Village Committees. As self-governing organizations established by the people, these committees deal with matters concerning public welfare and residents' well-being while assisting local governments in mediating family and neighborhood disputes, conducting ideological education and maintaining public order. Most Chinese enterprises have adopted the system of workers' congress, which is the basic form of democratic management through which workers participate in the decision-making and management of the enterprises and supervise the enterprise leaders. Over the last few years, virtually all directors and managers of large and medium-sized state enterprises have been examined and their work appraised with the participation and supervision of the workers' congresses. The Constitution provides for a wide range of political rights to citizens. In addition to the right to vote and to be elected mentioned above, citizens also enjoy freedoms of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession and demonstration. There is no news censorship in China. Statistics show that of all the newspapers and magazines in China, only one-fifth are run by Party and state organizations, and the others belong to various democratic parties, social organizations, academic associations and people's organizations. By law citizens have the right to intellectual property, such as copy-right, and the right to publication, patent, trademark, discovery, invention and scientific and technological achievement. It is a matter of personal freedom for a citizen to decide what book he will write, what point of view he will use in writing it and which publishing house he will choose to have his book published. Statistics show that an overwhelming majority of the 80,224 titles of books printed in 1990 with a total impression of 5.64 billion copies were signed by individual authors. As to the freedom of association, the 1990 statistics showed that there were 2,000 associations, including societies, research institutes, foundations, federations and clubs. All these associations operate freely within the framework of the Constitution and the law. The Constitution also rules that citizens have the right to criticize and make suggestions regarding any state organ or functionary and the right to make to relevant state organs complaints or charges against, or exposures of, any state organ or functionary for violation of the law or dereliction of duty. The Constitution provides that freedom of the person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. Unlawful detention or deprivation of citizens' freedom of the person by other means and unlawful search of the person of citizens are prohibited; the personal dignity of citizens is inviolable, and insult, libel, false accusation or false incrimination directed against citizens by any means is prohibited; the residences of citizens are inviolable and unlawful search of, or intrusion into, a citizen's residence is prohibited; freedom and privacy of correspondence are protected by law, and those who hide, discard, damage or illegally open other people's letters, once discovered, shall be seriously dealt with, and grave cases shall be prosecuted. The Constitution provides that China implements the system of people's democratic dictatorship, which combines democracy among the people and dictatorship against the people's enemies. To guarantee the people's democratic rights and other lawful rights and interests, China pays great attention to improving its legal system. It has promulgated and put into effect a series of major laws, including the Constitution, the Criminal Law, the Law of Criminal Procedure, the General Provisions of the Civil Law, the Law of Civil Procedure and the Law of Administrative Procedure. During the 1979-1990 period, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committees made 99 laws and 21 decisions on legislative amendments and passed 52 resolutions and decisions on legal matters; the State Council formulated more than 700 administrative laws and regulations; and the people's congresses and their standing committees of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and provincial capital cities formulated numerous local laws and administrative rules and regulations, of which more than 1,000 were about human rights. The unity between rights and duties is a basic principle of China's legal system. The Constitution stipulates that every citizen is entitled to the rights prescribed by the Constitution and the law and at the same time must perform the duties prescribed by the Constitution and the law, and that in exercising their freedoms and rights, citizens may not infringe upon the interests of the state, of society or of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens. Legally citizens are the subjects of both rights and duties. Everyone is equal before the rights and duties prescribed by the Constitution and the law. No organization or individual may enjoy the privilege of being above the Constitution and the law. Practice of the past 40-odd years since liberation proves that the socialist democracy and legal system adopted by China are suited to the country's actual conditions and that the people is satisfied with it. It goes without saying that the building of this democratic politics and this legal system is no smooth sailing. There were times when democracy and law were seriously violated, such as happened during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Nevertheless, the Communist Party, backed by the people, corrected these mistakes and set the nation's socialist democracy and legal system back to the course of steady development. Upholding the general policy of reform and opening to the outside world and giving great attention to building socialist democratic politics, China is striving to improve and strictly enforce the socialist legal system and continuing the work to reform and improve the political system all for the purpose of ensuring that the people can fully enjoy their civic rights and better exercise their political right of running the country.		二、中国人民获得了广泛的政治权利中国人民在争取生存权的同时，为争取民主权利进行了可歌可泣的斗争。在半封建、半殖民地的旧中国，广大人民毫无民主权利可言。伟大的资产阶级民主革命先行者孙中山领导的辛亥革命推翻了封建清王朝，建立了中华民国。他曾希望在中国实行西方的民主制度，但是革命果实被封建军阀袁世凯窃取。以后，议会成为军阀争权夺利的工具，发生了被长征饭店作“猪仔议会”的贿选总统的丑闻。孙中山终究未能实现他的理想，在“革命尚未成功”的忧愤中病逝。许多中国人也曾对美国支持的蒋介石政府抱有幻想。但是，蒋介石只是又一个军阀，他实行法西斯统治，对争取民主的民众进行血腥暑杀，使千百万人倒在血泊之中。他不顾中国共产党、各界爱国民主人士和广大人民的反对，对日本帝国主义的侵略实行不抵抗政策，加紧内战。在抗日战争胜利后，他又违反中国共产党、各民主党派和全国人民要求和平民主建设的迫切愿望，发动大规模内战。广大人民忍无可忍，奋起斗争，终于推翻了蒋介石的反动统治。中国共产党从成立之日起，就高举争民主、争人权的旗帜。它推动和协助孙中山改组国民党，实行国共合作，发动反对军阀统治的北伐战争。在蒋介石背叛民主革命后，中国共产党联合各界爱国民主人士，领导全国人民开展反内战、反饥饿、反独裁、反迫害的斗争；在解放区建立了民主政府，制定了保障人民民主权利的法律，坚决实行了自己的民主纲领。解放区的民主制度吸引了全国千千万万爱国民主志士，成为全国人民的希望所在。在中国共产党的领导下，人民推翻了国民党反动派在中国的独裁统治，建立了一个民主的、自由的中华人民共和国。新中国成立后，全国人民获得了真正的民主权利。中国宪法明确规定，中华人民共和国的一切权力属于人民。人民当家作方，这是中国民主政治的实质。宪法还规定，中华人民共和国是工人阶级领导的、以工农联盟为基础的人民民主专政的社会主义国家。这就确定了工人、农民和其他劳动者在国家中的主人翁地位，使旧中国处在社会最低层的劳动人民获得法定的民主权利。宪法规定男女平等，使占中国人口一半的妇女在政治、经济、文化、社会和家庭生活等各方面，获得与男子平等的权利；规定中国各民族一律平等，使中国各少数民族享有同汉族同等的民主权利。为了保障人民真正成为国家的主人，保障人民行使管理国家经济和社会事务的权利，中国根据自己的国情，采取人民代表大会作为国家的根本政治制度。各级人民代表大会的代表由民主选举产生。宪法规定，中华人民共和国年满18周岁的公民，不分民族、种族、性别、职业、家庭出身、宗教信仰、教育程度、财产状况、居住期限，都有选举权和被选举权，依照法律被剥夺政治权利的人除外。中国根据土地辽阔、人口众多、交通不便、经济文化发展水平还比较低等条件，确定了适合自己国情的选举制度，即对县级及其以下人民代表大会的代表实行直接选举，对县级以上的人民代表大会的代表实行间接选举。这种选举制度，有利于人民真正能选举出自己了解的、信得过的代表。这些年来，在总结经验的基础上，对选举办法又作了改进，如改变等额选举办法，实行差额选举等。中国人民普遍行使了自己的选举权利。据1990年全国县、乡直接选举统计，享有这种权利的人占18岁以上公民人数的99.97%。各省、自治区、直辖市的参选率一般都在90%以上。中国选举制度最显著的特点是，选举不受金钱的操纵，代表当选与否，不是靠吹嘘、许愿，而是看其对国家对社会实际贡献的大小、为人民服务的态度和与人民群众的联系如何。从选举的结果可以看出，当选代表具有广泛性，代表着各阶层各行各业的广大人民。第七届全国人民代表大会共有代表2970名，其中工农684名，占23%；知识分子697名，占23.4%；国家公务人员733名，占24.7%；民主党派和无党派爱国人士540名，占18.2%；人民解放军267名，占9%；归侨49人，占1.6%。全国人民代表大会是最高国家权力机关。它拥有立法权。国家主席、副主席，中央军委主席，最高人民法院院长，最高人民检察院检察长由它选举产生或者罢免；政府总理、副总理、国务委员、各部部长、各委员会主任、审计长、秘书长的人选由它决定或者罢免。国家行政机关、审判机关、检察机关，都由它产生，对它负责，受它监督。人民代表大会实行民主集中制原则，在决定大政方针时充分发表意见，决定后即共同贯彻执行。这既能集中人民的意志，又能使人民通过它管理国家、经济和社会事务。人民代表来自人民中间，对人民负责，受人民监督。他们密切联系群众，广泛了解实际情况，有利于充分反映人民的意愿，制定切合实际的法律和监督国家机关的工作。中国共产党是社会主义中国的执政党，它是全中国人民利益的集中代表。它的领导地位，是中国人民在争取独立和解放的长期艰苦斗争中所作出的历史性选择。党的领导主要是思想政治的领导。党集中人民的意志，形成自己的主张和政策，然后通过国家的法定程序，经人民代表大会决定，成为国家的法律和决定。在国家领导体制中，党不代替政府的职能。党在宪法和法律的范围内活动，没有超越宪法和法律的任何权力。任何党员，同每个公民一样，在法律面前人人平等。实行共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度，是体现人民民主的一项基本政治制度。它保障各社会阶层、各人民团体和各界爱国人士，都能在国家政治生活和社会生活中表达自己的意见和发挥作用。中国除了共产党外，还有8个民主党派。它们是：中国国民党革命委员会、中国民主同盟、中国民主建国会、中国民主促进会、中国农工民主党、中国致公党、九三学社和台湾民主自治同盟。这些民主党派同中国共产党的合作，在建国以前的民主革命中即已形成。中国共产党在合作中的领导作用，也是在长期共同斗争中形成而为各党派所公认的。无论是在推翻“三座大山”的斗争中，还是在建设新中国时期，这些民主党派根本的政治主张同中国共产党是一致的。各民主党派享有政治自由、组织独立的权利。各党派都获得很大发展。中国的各民主党派不是在野党、反对党，而是参政党。有关国家的重大问题，作为执政党的中国共产党都要反复向各民主党派征求意见，协商解决办法。共产党同各民主党派之间，实行“长期共存、互相监督、肝胆相照、荣辱与共”的方针。各民主党派充分发挥了其参政议政、民主监督、团结群众的作用。有许多民主党派人士担任了国家权力机关、政府部门和司法机关的领导职务。七届人大一次会议选出的19位副委员长中，民主党派成员占7位。目前担任县以上人民政府领导职务的民主党派、无党派人士已有近1200人。政治协商会议是由各党派、各人民团体和拥护社会主义、拥护祖国统一的爱国民主人士的代表组成的。新中国第一届中央民政府就是由第一届全国政治协调会议选举产生的。以后成立了作为国家最高权力机关的全国人民代表大会，政协即成为爱国统一战线组织，对国家大政方针和社会生活的重大问题进行协商，并通过建议和批评发挥监督作用。各级政协会议通常与全国和各级人大同时召开。正当协商制度对发扬民主起了重要作用。中国十分重视基层民主建设，以保障公民能直接行使公民政治权利。城市的基层民主组织是居民委员会，在农村是村民委员会。这些委员会是群众自己建立的自治组织，一方面办理群众自身和公益、福利事业，一方面协助基层政权调解民间纠纷，进行思想教育，维护社会治安。中男的企业普遍建立了职工代表大会制度。职工代表大会是企业实行民主管理的基本形式，是职工群众参加企业的决策和管理以及监督企业领导干部的组织。近几年，几乎所有大中型国营企业的厂长、经理都在职工代表大会的参与和监督下接受了考核和评审。中国宪法规定了广泛的仅供参考民政治权利。除了上述的选举权和被选举权之外，公民有言论、出版、集会、结社、游行、示威的自由。在中国，没有新闻检查制度。据统计，在全国各类报刊中，属于共产党机关和国家机关的报刊，只约占报刊总数的五分之一，其余都属各民主党派、社会团体、学术机构和群众组织。公民依法享有著作权和发表权以及专利权、商标专用权、发现树林、发明权、科技成果权等知识产权。公民用什么观点撰写什么著作，选择什么出版社出版，都是公民个人的自由。据统计，1990年全国出版图收80224种，印数达56.4亿册，其中绝大多数是个人署名发表的著作。在结社自由方面，据1990年统计，全国有各类社团近2000个，包括各种协会、学会、研究会、基金会、联合会、联谊会等，这些社团都在宪法和法律的范围内自主地开展活动。宪法还规定，公民对于任何国家机关和国家工作人员，有提出批评和建议的权利；对于任何国家机关和国家工作人员的违法失职行为，有向有关国家机关提出申诉、控告或者检举的权利。宪法规定，中华人民共和国公民的人身自由水受侵犯。禁止非法拘禁和以其他主法非法剥夺或者限制公民的人身自由，禁止非法搜查俊民身体；公民的人格尊严不受侵犯，禁止用任何方法对公民进行侮辱、诽谤和诬告陷害；公民的住宅不受侵犯，禁止非法搜查他人住宅或者非法侵入他人住宅；公民的通信自由和通信秘密受法律保护，对于陷匿、毁弃和非法开拆他人信件的人，一经发现，要作出严肃处理，情节严重的将受到法律制裁。宪法规定中国实行人民民主专政制度。这就是在人民内部实行民主和对人民的敌人实行专政的结合。为了保障人民的民主权利和其他合法权益，中国十分注意健全法制，颁布和实施了宪法、刑法、刑事诉讼法、民法通则、民事诉讼法、行政诉讼法等一系列重要法律。1979攫至1990年，全国人大及其党委会已制定99个法律、21个有关修改补充法律的决定和52个有关法律问题的决议、决定，国务院制定了700多件行政法规，各省、自治区、直辖市以及省会市等的人民代表大会及其常委会了制定了许多地方性法规和行政规章，其中有关人权立法的，约有1000多件。强调权利与义务的统一，是中国法制的一项基本原则。中华人民共和国宪法规定，任何公民享有宪法和法律规定的权利，同时必须履行宪法和法律规定的义务；公民在行使自由和权利的时候，不得损害国家、社会的、集体的利益和其他公民的合法的自由和权利。公民在法律上既是权利的主体，也是义务的主体。人人在宪法和法律规定的权利和义务面前一律平等。任何组织或者个人都不得有超越宪法和法律的特权。建国40多年的实践证明，中国实行的社会主义民主和法制是适合中国国情的，人民是满意的。当然，中国社会主义民主政治和法制的建设也不是完全一帆风顺的，在历史上甚至出现过“文化大革命”那样严重破坏民主与法制的现象。但是，中国共产党在人民的支持下，纠正了这些错误，使中国的社会主义民主和法制不断地向前发展。当前，中国在坚持改革开放的总方针下，高度重视社会主义民主政治建设，努力健全和严格实行社会主义法制，继续改革和完善国家的政治体制，以保证人民能够充分地享有公民权和更好地行使管理国家的政治权利。
III. Citizens Enjoy Economic, Cultural and Social Rights The human rights advocated by China encompass not only the right to subsistence and the civic and political rights, but also economic, cultural and social rights. The Chinese government pays due attention to the protection and realization of the rights of the country, the various nationalities and private citizens to economic, cultural, social and political development. Socialist China eliminated the system of exploitation of man by man, thus making it possible for the first time in history for all working people to secure the right to equal economic development. China upholds the socialist system of public ownership of the means of production as the mainstay while at the same time permitting and encouraging the appropriate development of other economic sectors as supplements to the socialist economy. It will neither adopt a unitary public ownership system, which is divorced from the nation's current level of development of productive forces, nor practice privatization, which tends to shake the dominant position of public ownership in the national economy. Public ownership of the means of production constitutes the basis of China's socialist economic system. It guarantees that the major means of production in society are possessed by all the working people through the ownership by the whole people and the collective ownership by the laboring masses. The working people enjoy the right to manage, control and use the means of production. According to statistics, the total social investment in fixed assets in China came to 444.9 billion yuan in 1990, of which 291.9 billion yuan, or 65.6 percent, was invested in units owned by the whole people, and 52.9 billion, or 11.9 percent, in collectively-owned units. That is to say, the bigger share (77.5 percent) of the social investment in fixed assets is owned by the state and the collectives of the laboring masses. The distribution system adopted in China is mainly based on the principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his work." At the same time, the government allows and encourages some people to become rich first by the sweat of their brow and though legitimate business activities. Those who get rich first can then help others, so that common prosperity can be achieved. This brings into play the enthusiasm of the laboring masses and at the same time prevents polarization. China is one of the nations that register the lowest income gap in the world. According to 1990 statistics, the 20 percent of urban dwellers with the highest spendable incomes earn only 2.5 times as much as the 20 percent with the lowest incomes. This very fact has made it possible for China, an economically underdeveloped country, to guarantee the livelihood of its 1.1 billion people and avoid social confrontation resulting from polarization. Economic equality has motivated the laboring people to a great extent and brought about speedy growth of the Chinese economy. Over the past 40-odd post-liberation years and particularly in the past decade and more since the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, China has all along been in the front rank of the world in terms of the rate of economic growth. The annual increase of GNP was 6.9 percent during the 1953-90 period and 8.8 percent during the 1979-90 period. China now leads the world in the output of many important products, including grain, cotton, pork, beef, mutton, cloth, coal, cement and television sets; and it has also emerged as one of the world's biggest producers of steel, crude oil, electricity and synthetic fibers. With the growth of the national economy, the overall living standards of the Chinese people have greatly improved. Statistics show that in 1990 China's national income came to 1,442.9 billion yuan, or 11.9 times the 1952 figure of 58.9 billion yuan calculated according to constant prices. A good part of the national income was spent on consumer goods. In 1990, consumer spending amounted to 944.4 billion yuan, which was 8.4 times the 1952 figure of 47.7 billion yuan according to constant prices. Of the total volume of consumption, 810 billion yuan was spent by individual consumers, which was 7.3 times the 43.4 billion yuan in 1952 according to constant prices. The per-capita volume of consumption for the Chinese residents averaged 714 yuan in 1990, 3.7 times more than in 1952 according to constant prices, despite a 98.9 percent population increase in the intervening years. Now that the Chinese people have solved the basic problems of food and clothing, they are working their way toward a well-to-do life. According to statistics, in 1990 every hundred rural families owned 118.3 bicycles and 44.4 TV sets; and every hundred urban house-holds owned 188.6 bicycles, 111.4 TV sets, 42.3 refrigerators and 78.4 washing machines. In addition, the housing conditions of Chinese residents have improved, with the 1990 average per-capita living space increased to 7.1 square meters from 3.6 square meters in 1978 for urban dwellers and to 17.8 square meters from 8.1 square meters in 1978 for rural inhabitants. The speeds at which the economy grows and the people's living standards improve in New China are not only something inconceivable in old China, but also among the highest in the world community. ．．．．．．		三、公民享有经济、文化和社会权利中国主张的人权，不只是生存权和公民政治权利，而且包括经济、文化和社会等方面的权利。中国政府重视维护和实现国家、民族和个人的经济、文化、社会和政治的发展权。社会主义中国消灭了人剥削人的制度，从而在历史上第一次使全体劳动者获得在经济上平等发展的权利。中国坚持以生产资料社会主义公有制为主体，同时允许和鼓励其他经济成分适当发展，作为社会主义经济的补充。既不脱离中国现阶段生产力发展水平，不搞单一的公有帛，又不动摇公有制经济的主体地位，不搞私有化。中国社会主义经济制度的基础是生产资料的公有制。通过全民所有帛和劳动群众集体所有制，使社会的主要生产资料为劳动人民共同占有。劳动人民享有对生产资料管理、支配和使用的权利。据统计，1990年中国全社会固定资产投资总额为4449亿元，其中全民所有制单位投资为2919亿元，集体所有制单位投资为529亿元，分别占全社会投资总额的65.6%、11.9%。这就是说，社会固定资产投资的大部分(77.5%)为国家和劳动群众集体共同占有。中国实行以各尽所能、按劳分配为主的分配制度，同时允许和支持一部分人通过诚实劳动和合法经营先富起来，先富帮后富，达到共同富裕。这既调动了广大劳动者的积极性，又防止了两极分化。中国是世界上分配差距最小的国家之一。据1990年统计，中国生活费收入最高的20%的城镇居民所得份额，仅相当于收入最低的20%的居民所得份额的2.5倍。这使中国在经济还不甚发达的情况下让11亿人民的生活得到了保障，并避免了因两极分化而使社会陷入对抗。经济上的平等，极大地调动了劳动者的积极性，使中国经济获得迅速发展。建国40多年，特别是改革开放10多年以来，中国经济的发展速度在世界上居于前列。从1953至1990年，国民生产总值年均增长6.9%；从1979至1990年，国民生产总值年均增长8.8%。许多主要产品产量，如谷物、棉花、猪年羊肉、布、原煤、水泥、电视机等，已跃居世界第一位；钢、原油、发电量、化纤等产品的产量，也已跃居世界前列。随着国民经济的发展中国人民的整体生活水平有了很大提高。据统计，1990年国民收入为14429亿元，按可比价格计算，相当于1952年(589亿元)的11.9倍。国民收入的大部分用于消费。1990年的消费额为9444亿元，按可比价格计算，相当于1952年(477亿元)的8.4倍。消费额中，居民消费额为8100亿元，按可比价格计算，相当于1952年增长98.9%，中国居民1990年的人均消费额为714元，按可比价格计算，仍比1952年提高了2.7倍。目前，广大人民群众在解决温饱之后，开始向小康生活迈进。据统计，1990年，农民家庭每百户拥有自行车118.3辆，电视机44.4台；城镇居民每百户拥有自行车188.6辆，电视机111.4台，电冰箱42.3台，洗衣机78.4台。中国居民的人均住房面积，城镇居民由1978年的3.6平方米上升到1990年的7.1平方米；农村居民由1978年的8.1平方米上升到1990年的17.8平方米。新中国的经济发展和人民生活水平提高的速度，不仅是旧中国所根本不可比拟的，而且在国际社会中也是居于前列的。劳动权是公民的一项基本权利。在旧中国，人民没有自主劳动的权利，劳动权操纵在占有生产资料的地主、资本家的手中，劳动人民时刻面临失业的威胁。1949年全国解放初期，城镇失业者达474.2万人，相当于当时职工的60%。建国以后，宪法规定了公民有劳动的权利和义务，政府采取各种措施解决了就业问题，广大劳动人民以主人翁的姿态参加社会主义建设。1979—1990年12年期间，全国城镇新增就业人员9400万人。随着生产力的发展，农村剩余劳动力的问题突出起来。中国政府采取“离土不离乡”的方针，大力发展乡镇企业，发展各种工副业专业户的办法，基本上解决了农村剩余劳动力的出路问题。1985攫以来，城镇待业人员待业率一直保持在2.5%左右，同世界各国相比是很低的。中国宪法明确规定保护公共财产和公民合法财产。水论是全民所有的财产、劳动群众集体所有的财产，还是个人的合法财产，都受法律保护，禁止任何组织或者个人侵占、哄抢、私分、破坏或者非法查封、扣押、冻结、没收。国家保护公民个人的合法收入、储蓄、房屋和其他合法财产的所有权和继承权。全民所有制单位、集体所有制单位和公民个人依法取得的对国有土地、森林、山岭、草原、荒地、滩涂和水面的使用权和承包经营权，受法律保护。侵害使用权和承包经营权的，无论是什么人，都将受到法律追究。中国现有私营企业9万余家。私营企业的合法财产同全民所有和劳动群众集体所有的财产一样，受到法律保护，禁止侵犯、非法查封和没收。对于外商在中国的投资、合资经营和独资经营，中国政府依法予以保护。受教育的权利，是人的全面自由发展的重要前提。在旧中国，绝大多数劳动人民享受不到受教育的权利，全国人口中80%以上是文盲，学龄儿童入学率仅20%左右。新中国成立后，政府采取各种措施，大力发展教育事业，切实保障公民的受教育权利。到1989年，全国城乡已建立各级学校104.5万所，其中普通高等学校1075所。1990年城市学龄儿童入学率达到99.77%，农村达到97.29%。大、中、小学的在校学生数分别为1949年的17.6倍、40.3倍和5倍。1949—1990年累计，普通高等学校培养研究生、本科和专科毕业生共760.82万人，等于旧中国1912年至1948年间毕业生总数的近40倍。中国实行改革开放政策以来，出国留学的人员大量增加。自1978年到现在，中国向外派遣各类留学人员达15万多人，分布在86个国家和地区。这期间学成回国的留学人员近5万人。目前在国外的还有10万多人。1989年发生政治风波后，中男出国留学的人数与往年相比，非但没有减少，且有一定程度的增加。1990年国家公派3000名留学人员的计划已经完成；1990年单位公派留学人员总数约6000人；自费出国留学生近2万人(不包括赴澳大利亚、日本等国的语文就读生)。近两年来，仅据北京、上海、广州等地有关部门统计，回国的留学人员有3000多人，他们都愉快地走上了自己的工作岗位。还有5700多名留学人员先后回国探亲、休假或短期工作，他们都顺利地返回了留学所在国。按照国际惯例，中国公派留学人员有回国服务的义务。中国政府一直重视留学回国人员，为他们回国工作创造条件，并设立了负责接待、安置留学回国人员的专门机构。在中国科学院和各大学建立了70多个博士后科研流动站和短期工作站，为回国留学人员创造良好的科研和生活环境。中国政府有关部门还设立了多种基金，为回国留学人员提供科学研究经费，资助回国留学人员的科研和教学工作。中国公民有进行科学研究、文化艺术创作的自由。中国政府坚持“为人民服务、为社会主义服务”的方向和“百花齐放、百家争鸣”的方针，以推动和繁荣科学研究和文化艺术的发展。新中国成立以来，科技队伍不断壮大。1990年，全民所有制单位的自然科学技术人员达1986年2月成立了国家自然科学基金委员会，共接受科研项目的申请34847项，申请资金金额23.1亿元。科技战线取得了很多突出的成果。例如，生物科学方面的合成牛胰岛素、酵母丙氨酸转移核糖核酸的人工合成，农业科学方面的杂交水稻，高能物理方面的正负电子对撞机，以及原子弹、氢弹和每秒1亿次运算的巨型计算机等的研制，“长征3号”运载火箭的发射，卫星通讯和超导研究等，这些方面都已跃居或接近国际先进水平。在中国，保护知识产权的法律体系已经基本建立。中国先后颁布和实施了商标法和专利法，1991年6月1日又开始实施著作权法。据1990年统计，中国有效注册商标已达27万多件，向中国申请专利的国家和地区达66个。仅美国企业在中国申请的专利，到1990年底已达12528件。卫生事业是保障人的生命健康权的必要条件。在旧中国，卫生机构和卫生技术人员数量少、水平低，绝大部分集中在城市。新中国建立后，逐步建成了一个包括各级各类卫生机构、各种卫生人员组成的、遍布城乡的医疗卫生网。1990年，全国卫生机构已有20.9万个，比1949年增长55.9倍；医院床位262.4万张，增加31.8倍；专业卫生技术人员389.8万人，增国6.7倍。中国人口大部分在乡村。现在全国有乡卫生院47749个，有86.2%的村建立了医疗站和卫生所。全国乡村有医院病床150.2万张，医务人员和专业卫生技术人员123.2万人。在中国，平均每一医生负担人口数为649人，而中等收入国家每一医生的平均负担数是2390人。随着医疗卫生事业的发展，各种传染病、地方病的发病率大幅度下降，麻风、霍乱、鼠疫、天花等烈性传染病基本被消灭；血吸虫病、大骨节病、克山病等地方病的流行得到了控制。医疗卫生和防疫工作的发展极大地提高了中国人民的健康水平。世界卫生组织驻中国代表基恩博士说：“中国保健制度取得了惊人的成就。如果只看预期寿命、婴儿死亡率、死亡原因这些统计数字……几乎不可能看出这是发展中国家。” 尊老是中华民族的优良传统，这一传统在新中国得到发扬光大。年老者有从国家和社会获得物质帮助的权利。截止1990年底，全国领取离休退休工资和退职金的人数已达2301万人，与在职职工之比约为１∶６。1990年支付的离休、退休、退职金，人均为在职职工平均工资的60%，使老年人晚年生活有了可靠的保证。老年人受到社会各界的帮助和爱护。在城镇，居民委员会的主要工作之一，就是帮助孤寡老人，维护老人的各项权益。对无依靠的老人，国家开办社会福利院，集体企业开办敬老院，免费提供食宿和其他服务。对农村无依靠的老年人，由社会和集体对他们实行保吃、保穿、保住、保医、保葬。中国法律保护老年人合法权利，严禁打骂、侮辱、诽谤、虐待、遗弃老年人。成年子女对父母有赡养扶助的义务。．．．．．．
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