Human Rights in Modern China

Dr. Shana J. BrownDepartment of History

University of Hawai’i, Manoa

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Intellectual history of human rights in China

Discourse and concept of human rights – when did it enter China, and in what political and cultural context?

As human rights became encoded in international law, what was China’s role and attitude?

How has the discourse and practice of human rights protection evolved in China since the reform period (beginning in the late 1970’s)?

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948:

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Part I: Historical dimensions

China before human rights

“The Qianlong Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour,” 1770, by Xu Yang

Scroll Six: Entering Suzhou along the Grand Canal

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Chinese imperial government:

Officials protected Confucian cultural norms

Stable, prosperous, and ethnically / religiously diverse

Voltaire and Leibniz praised Chinese secularism

Human Rights in Modern China

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(Some) central ideas of Chinese political culture:

1. No conflict between interests of ruler & ruled

2. Inherent hierarchies in social life; these need to be maintained by rulers

3. The key to avoiding tyranny is a sense of benevolence

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Qing Dynasty robe with twelve imperial symbols, symbolizing emperor’s authority and his harmony with cosmic forces

1.No conflict between interests of ruler & ruled

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Confucian “five relationships”(wŭlún 五倫 ):

1) Father and son 2) Husband and wife3) Elder and younger brothers 4) Ruler and subject 5) Friend and friend

2. Inherent hierarchies in social life; these need to be maintained by rulers

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3. The key to avoiding tyranny is a sense of benevolence (rén 仁 )

Concept of “benevolence” or “humaneness”: mutual responsibility & interconnectedness, as opposed to inherent privileges granted to the liberal self

Part II: Human rights discourse enters China

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Imperialism & international law Beginning of rights

discourse: use language of international law to help China become “rich and strong” like Japan & the West

Liang Qichao (1873-1929): modern nations gain strength from their development of rights or power (quan 權 )

Human rights (renquan 人權 ) can also translate as “people power”

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1. More power for both state and citizens

2. Once a constitutional monarchy was established, people would no longer feel alienated by or oppressed by the government – there would be no conflict of interest between the rulers & the ruled

3. Problems: little distinction between rights and “power”; little emphasis on need to safeguard natural rights from the government

Liang Qichao’s rights

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Rights & the new nation

After the 1911 Revolution overthrows Qing Dynasty, concern to find new national development model

Sun Yatsen prioritizes anti-imperialism, national development (socialism), and democracy – in that order

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Opera from the late 1920’s: a young revolutionary confronts Yuan Shihkai

Failure of the new Republic, ongoing problem of imperialism

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The May Fourth Movement, 1919: Students and young radicals protest China’s treatment by the allies at the Versailles Peace Conference

Rights discourse still focuses on national strength

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Emerging discourse: civil rights and the rights of the individual

In 1918, prominent liberals establish New Youth magazine

The watchword: “Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy,” i.e., Western liberalism

Issues included articles on Nietzsche, Ibsen, and Marx

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Further support for liberal discourse

Chen Duxiu (1879-1942): “If we want to build a

new society according to the Western model in order to survive in this world, the basic task is to import the foundation of the Western society, that is, the new belief in equality and human rights.” (1916)

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But Chinese definitions of “human rights” still differed in some ways from the natural rights of the Western liberal individual:

1. Civil rights2. Social rights

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1. “Civil rights” Right of political participation Right of free speech Chinese Alliance for the Protection of

Human (Civil) Rights, founded January, 1933

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2. “Social rights” Right to basic subsistence Sun Yatsen’s “Three Principles of the People,”

which argued for “nationalism, people’s power [civil rights], and livelihood”

When the magazine “Human Rights” was founded in 1925, the basic definition of human rights included three subsidiary rights: subsistence; freedom; and equality

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1948: Chinese participation in the drafting of the UDHR

China’s delegate is Dr. P.C. Chang (Zhang Pengjun), B.A. Clarke University, Ph.D. Columbia University

Meant to show that “human rights” not simply a Western concept

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Which is the Dr. Chang’s version…? (Article 1 of UDHR)

“All men are brothers. Being endowed with reason, they are members of one family. They are free and possess equal dignity and rights.”

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

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The second… key is “brotherhood”

Benevolence (inclusion of “brotherhood”), as well as Enlightenment liberalism

Reluctant to include economic rights – concerns about Communism

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Communists enter Beijing, 1949

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Communists and Nationalists divide “human rights” between them:

Nationalists maintain importance of civil rights (at least in theory)

Communists maintain importance of subsistence rights (at least in theory)

Both lay claim to nationalism (at least until Taiwan’s independence movement)

Post-1949 interpretations

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Within the PRC, rights discourse (to the extent that it exists) focuses on economic & subsistence rights

Communist rhetoric allows for no legitmate conflict between the state and citizens

Feb. 7, 1949

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The discourse of “human rights” largely absent from mainland China between 1949-1970’s….

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Cultural Revolution violence: burning Buddhist statues in China; Red Guards attacking a Tibetan girl carrying a ghau, or traveling shrine

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Worst legacies of the Maoist system?

The hukou or household residency system – limits ability of individuals (particularly with limited resources) to move residence

The “one-child” policy – particularly during first decade of implementation (1979-1989), led to forced abortions and sterilizations

Discourse of state-society unity (the “mass line”): no sympathy for political activities that imply a separation or conflict of interest between individual citizens and the state

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Positive legacies of the Maoist system?

Faith in efforts of private citizens to contribute to national betterment

Sense that the promises of the PRC state – including nationalism, economic development, and human self-betterment – are still valuable and possible

Part III: Human rights discourse after the

reform period

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“Human Rights” reemerges as an issue in the mid-1970’s, during the Democracy Wall protests

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For Wei Jingsheng, what were (are) human rights?

Linked to political freedoms – democracy and equality

Limit the reach of the state Provide basic protections of the liberal

individual

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China signs on to international human rights treaties

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1980, 2006)

International Convention for Elimination of Racial Discrimination (1981, 2001)

Convention Against Torture (signed 1986, reviewed 2008)

Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990, 2005) International Covenant on Economic, Social, and

Cultural Rights (1997, 2005)

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The international human rights community in China

Treaty associations send special rapporteurs to visit China, investigate conditions, provide recommendations

Some of their key findings: China needs to provide more disaggregated statistics, clarify legal terminologies, establish a national commission on human rights

Freedom of religion, education, expression Rights of refugees (particularly from DPRK)

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Tiananmen Square, 1989

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A particularly nasty intersection of lack of religious rights, separation of judicial powers, oversight of police work

Anti-Falun Gong propaganda poster

Falun Gong persecutions

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Criminal law in China

Police remain one of the most significant forms of government presence in rural and small urban areas

Criminal procedures assume guilt until innocence is proved

Criminal prosecutors and judges are police positions Vaguely-defined offenses allow political crimes to be

treated within criminal justice system Reform Through Labor (RTL) regulations allow

police to imprison anyone for up to four years of RTL without trial or formal charge

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While the PRC was still socialist, the state emphasized economic rights, not civil rights

As PRC has become capitalist, state emphasizes… nationalism

Human rights activists, on the other hand, have increasingly addressed both civil and economic rights, especially in rural China

Ongoing issues with subsistence rights

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Emerging target of rights complaints -- corruption

New discourse of human rights (both civil & subsistence rights) focuses on problems of official corruption

Just as “subversion” is a blanket term that the state uses to define dangerous activities, “corruption” is a broad category of abuses that includes criminal activity and personal gain, mismanagement, and lack of official accountability

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Sichuan Earthquake, 2008

After devastating earthquake in Sichuan, parents ask state to investigate construction of school buildings, claiming that corrupt officials signed off on shoddy materials & construction standards, which made buildings more vulnerable to collapse during earthquake

A collapsed “tofu-dreg schoolhouse” ( 豆腐渣校舍 )

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In December 2008, intellectuals and human rights leaders sign Charter 08

Separation of powers Legislative democracy An independent judiciary Public control of public

servants Guarantee of human rights Election of public officials Abolition of Hukou (household

residency) system Freedom of association Freedom of assembly Freedom of expression

Freedom of religion Civic education Free markets and protection of

private property, including privatizing state enterprises and land

Financial and tax reform Social security Protection of the environment A federated republic (more

power to local governments) Establishing a truth in

reconciliation process

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High-profile dissidents

Liu Xiaobo – prominent Tiananmen Square dissident & signatory to Charter 08; currently under 11-year sentence

Gao Zhisheng – Christian attorney, defended Falun Gong practitioners; disbarred and detained several times before disappearing in 2010.

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Ran Yunfei – well-known writer and editor (and member of Tu minority), arrested in Feb., 2011 for trying to organize Jasmine Spring protests

Ai Weiwei – noted artist and architect, helped investigate government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal. Arrested in April, and held for over two months without any official charge

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Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds, 2010. The installation placed 100 million realistic porcelain sunflower seed husks in the Tate Modern galleries, each hand-crafted in small workshops in Jingdezhen, to symbolize deaths from Sichuan earthquake and other calamities

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A Jasmine Revolution in China?

Protestors outside Wangfujing, Beijing, February 2011

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The future of Chinese human rights?

As problems in China develop, so does rights discourse – it is a fungible field that covers a wide variety of issues related to state control and social protest

Discourse continues to focus on elements of both civil & social rights, i.e. reflecting both China’s unique historical introduction to rights discourse and its modern economic history