to and acting within the confines of the Constitution and other laws. It continuously strengthens the building of its regulations and institutions, and incorporates its rules and regulations into the orbit of law-based governance and the rule of law. In May 2013, the first “legislation law” in the history of the CPC to regulate CPC was promulgated, i.e. the Provisions on Formation of Party Rules of the Communist Party of China. At the same time, accompanying this law was the Regulations on Putting on Records Party Regulations and Normative Documents of the Communist Party of China, which stipulates the legislative procedures. In August of the same year, the Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Repealing and Announcing the Expiry of a Number of Party Legislations and Normative Documents was released, according to which 300 of the Party’s laws and normative documents formulated since 1978 were annulled and declared invalid, 467 of those remained in force, and 42 would be amended. At the end of 2013, the CPC Central Committee released the Outline of the Five-Year Plan for the Formulation of Regulations within the Central Party (2013–2017). All these have greatly strengthened and standardized the activities for the development of the Party’s rules and regulations, and ensured and promoted the Party’s progress in exercising governance over its members and the country according to law.
2.3.Keeping to the People-Oriented Principle, and Respecting and Safeguarding Human Rights
Human rights are the rights that people enjoy as human beings. Human rights include not only individual rights but also collective rights, and not only civil and political rights but also economic, social, and cultural rights. As a developing country, China gives the highest priority to the people’s rights to subsistence and development. In China, the core principle to advance human rights is to guarantee the equal participation and development of all members of the society.
Adhering to the people-oriented principle and respecting and safeguarding human rights is the bounden duty of the socialist rule of law and the important task of comprehensively promoting the governance of the country according to law. China attaches great importance to respecting and safeguarding human rights. In its course of exploring the socialist path with Chinese characteristics, China not only respects the universal human rights principle, but also opens up a path of human rights development with Chinese characteristics based on the fundamental realities of the country. The 1982 Constitution highlighted the guarantee of the basic rights for citizens and shifted the provision about the “basic rights and obligations of citizens” from the third chapter of the 1954 Constitution to the second chapter, a more prominent position, and the number of the related articles also increased from more than 10 to more than 20. In 1991, the Chinese government released its first white paper on human rights. For the first time in 1997, respecting and guaranteeing human rights was written into the report of the Party’s 15th National Congress. The 2004 constitutional amendment incorporated the provision of “the state’s respect for and protection of human rights” into the Constitution as a constitutional provision, providing the development of human rights with a solid foundation at the constitutional level. The incorporation of “state’s respect for and protection of human rights” into the Constitution marks China’s efforts of holding high the banner of human rights and actively promoting human rights, and embodies the important features of the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.
As a country that has written laws, to safeguard the full realization of human rights, China not only incorporates human rights into the Constitution, but also works hard on bringing into effect the people’s civil, political, economic, cultural, and social rights through legislation, law enforcement, and justice institutions and measures. China’s guarantee of human rights through legislation is mainly realized by constitutionalizing, legalizing, and regulating the content and appeals of human rights to make them enter the national legal protection system and become the objects of constitutional protection according to the Constitution. This thus provides basic conditions of and important foundations for the realization of human rights. The administrative law enforcement in protecting human rights is realized mainly through better performance of statutory duties and responsibilities by administrative organs at all levels, stringent administration of government according to law, and strict enforcement of laws and regulations. This thus ensures that all human rights stipulated in the Constitution can be executed, and every citizen can enjoy the specific rights and interests that constitute socialist human rights. The judicial protection of human rights is an indispensable remedy and the last line of defense in the realization of human rights. It has a unique and important position and role in China’s human rights guarantee system.
Xi Jinping pointed out that China must guarantee that all the citizens can enjoy rights in accordance with the law, that all kinds of rights of the citizens such as personal rights, property rights, and basic political rights must be protected from infringement, that all economic, cultural, and social rights of the citizens must be implemented, that the fundamental interests of the people must be protected, and that the people’s desire for and pursuit of a better life must be safeguarded.
To respect and protect human rights and ensure that all citizens enjoy a wide range of rights in accordance with the law, China not only stipulates in the Constitution the basic rights and freedoms enjoyed by citizens but also details the civil rights and their protection in laws and regulations. China not only protects by substantive law citizens to fully enjoy their substantive rights, but also stipulates the procedural rights of citizens in procedural law, which offers procedural law protection for citizens to enjoy their substantive rights. Chinese citizens not only enjoy domestic human rights stipulated in the constitutional law, but also enjoy a wide range of international human rights included in international human rights conventions as ratified by China.
From 1978 to 2011, China enacted nearly 160 laws and regulations concerning the protection of human rights. These include: first, laws and regulations on the protection of economic, social, and cultural rights, including Labor Law, Employment Promotion Law, Labor Contract Law, Work Safety Law, Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law, Trade Union Law, Compulsory Education Law, Staff Paid Leave Regulations, Regulations on Prohibition of the Use of Child Labor, and so on; second, laws and regulations on the protection of civil and political rights like General Principles of the Civil Law, Criminal Law, State Compensation Law, Consumer Compensation Law, Inheritance Law, Property Law, Tort Liability Law, and Marriage Law; third, laws and regulations on the protection of special groups’ rights including Marriage Law, Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women, Law on the Protection of Minors, Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, Law on the Protection of the Handicapped, Health Law and Regulations on Labor and Welfare Protection for Women Workers; fourth, laws and regulations on human rights protection in the judicial field, including Criminal Procedure Law, Prison Law, Civil Procedure Law, Administrative Litigation Law, State Compensation Law, and Lawyers’ Law; finally, laws and regulations on the protection of environmental rights and other aspects, including environmental protection law, water pollution control law, and so on.
China has actively ratified international human rights conventions and protects the broad rights of its citizens in accordance with international human rights laws. Up to now, China has ratified 27 international human rights conventions, including the United Nation’s International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. In addition, China also recognized 14 international labor conventions ratified by the Kuomintang government (1930–1947) in 1984 and signed the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October 1998. Till now, China has established a set of legal systems on the protection of human rights that take the Constitution as the core and other laws and administrative regulations as its main body.
In order to better implement the Constitution and other laws and promote the development of the human rights cause, China released the National Action Plan on Human Rights (2009–2010) in April 2009. This is the first time for China to formulate its national planning on the theme of human rights. It is a historic breakthrough and can be regarded as a milestone in the development of China’s human rights cause. Based on the successful completion of the first phase of the human rights action plan and the experiences gained, China released the new
