China's Practices in Human Rights

by

Meng Qingtao, Hao Zhan

• LAST MODIFIED: 17 April 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0263

Introduction

Human rights used to be a sensitive topic in China. Before 1991, the Chinese government rarely took the initiative to participate in the formulation of international human rights rules, nor did it present the human rights situation in China from an official perspective, leaving the international community with little understanding of the real human rights situation in China. There was a lack of research and discussion of human rights in China by the government, civil society organizations, and academia. Since 1991, when the Chinese government published its first white paper on human rights, Chinese civil society organizations have gradually become more active in the field of human rights, and academic research on human rights has expanded significantly, with the government, civil society organizations, and academics interacting around human rights and jointly promoting the formation of a model of human rights practice in China. Since the 1990s, through a series of official documents such as white papers on human rights, the Chinese government has expressed its basic position on human rights to the world and introduced the progress of human rights in China in recent years. Since 2009, through the formulation of four national human rights action plans, the Chinese government has gradually coordinated and synchronized the national human rights action plans with national economic and social development plans, etc., and carried out human rights practices with Chinese characteristics. But what is the human rights situation in China? How should it be assessed? There is a certain discrepancy in the perception of these questions not only between the official expressions of the Chinese government and those of civil society organizations and scholars, but also between the views of some foreign governments and media and China’s self-perceptions and expressions. Based on the above, this article does not presuppose its own position, but, on the basis of respect for all sides, transcends arguments and differences, discards moral accusations, and, from the perspective of a scholar in the field of human rights, attempts to highlight more the Chinese perspective to convey to readers the information on how China itself expresses and views China’s practice in human rights in recent years, and to show concretely how the Chinese government, Chinese civil human rights research institutions, and Chinese scholars perceive human rights in China. This article is an attempt to present a more realistic, fleshed-out, three-dimensional, and pluralistic image of China’s practice in human rights to the world, based on an objective and realistic perspective. It should be noted that the books and articles cited in this article mainly include studies done by Chinese scholars using Chinese. In order to enable readers to search accurately and avoid unnecessary misunderstanding and confusion, this paper will take two approaches to present the literature. Literature that can be retrieved directly through the English language provided by the authors will be presented in English, while in other cases, the information of the literature will be presented in its original form using Hanyu Pinyin plus Chinese characters.

General Overviews

Through the issuance of a series of white papers on human rights, the Chinese government has expressed to the world its basic position on human rights, introducing its views on how to understand the relationship between human rights and sovereignty, how to treat human rights correctly, the people-centered view of human rights, the path of human rights protection based on its national conditions, and global human rights governance. In 2011, the CSHRS published Zhongguo renquan shiye fazhan baogao No.1 2011 (中国人权事业发展报告No.1 2011), China’s first human rights blue book, which began to provide an annual account of the human rights cause and theoretical research on human rights in China, showing the basic situation of the development of China’s human rights cause since the founding of New China, especially the latest progress in recent years, discussing the basic experiences and lessons learned in the development of China’s human rights cause. In 2023, the CSHRS published Zhongguo renquan shiye fazhan baogao No.12 2022 (中国人权事业发展报告No.12 2022), the twelfth consecutive human rights blue book in China. Zhu 1998 expounds China’s basic views on human rights, introducing China’s great achievements in human rights and suggesting that the differences in social systems determine the struggle for human rights between the East and the West. Xia 2001 examines human rights in the Chinese context and advocates “internal seeking and internal development.” Xu and Qi 2002 discusses five major themes in the construction of China’s human rights system. Lu 2022 argues that the Chinese path to modernization has proved to be China’s human rights development path. Liu 2023 reviews China’s human rights development path over the past forty years of reform and opening up.

• Li Junru 李君如, Wang Linxia 王林霞, and Chang Jian 常健, eds. Zhongguo renquan shiye fazhan baogao No.1 2011 (中国人权事业发展报告No.1 2011). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2011.

  This is China’s first human rights blue book, which provides an objective record and assessment of the human rights situation and its progress in China from the perspective of experts and scholars, and analyzes China’s experience, problems, and causes in advancing the cause of human rights, as well as putting forward relevant recommendations.

• Liu, Huawen. China’s Path of Human Rights Development. Singapore: Springer, 2023.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-1774-7

  This book summarizes the experience of China’s human rights development practice and tries to provide rationality and legitimacy support for China’s human rights path.

• Lu, Guangjin. “The Justification Logic of Human Rights in Chinese Path to Modernization.” Human Rights 6 (November 2022): 9–29.

  DOI: 10.16696/j.cnki.11-4090/d.2022.06.006

  According to the author, in promoting Chinese path to modernization, China has created a theoretical, institutional, and practical paradigm of respecting and protecting human rights that both follows the universal principles of human rights and has its own characteristics, opening up a new frontier of human rights civilization. China has successfully developed a human rights development path that is in line with the trend of the times and appropriate to its national conditions.

• Xia Yong 夏勇. Renquan gainian qiyuan—quanli de lishi zhexue (人权概念起源——权利的历史哲学). Beijing: Zhongguo zhengfa daxue chubanshe, 2001.

  This book examines human rights from a social and cultural perspective in the Chinese context. The author advocates “internal seeking and internal development” and strives to establish and develop a Chinese theory and system of human rights.

• Xu, Xianming, and Yanping Qi. “Five Key Subjects in the Construction of China’s Human Rights System.” Literature, History, and Philosophy 4 (July 2002): 45–51.

  DOI: 10.16346/j.cnki.37-1101/c.2002.04.007

  The author argues that the right to freedom, the right to equality, the right to property, the right to subsistence, and the right to development constitute the five major themes in the construction of China’s human rights system at present, and advocates that the rational interaction of the five major themes can make the construction of China’s human rights system an irreversible social movement.

• Zhongguo renquan yanjiuhui 中国人权研究会, Li Junru 李君如, and Chang Jian 常健, eds. Zhongguo renquan shiye fazhan baogao No.12 2022 (中国人权事业发展报告No.12 2022). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2023.

  This is the twelfth consecutive human rights blue book in China, focusing on the latest developments in the cause of human rights in China in 2021. The general report analyzes and summarizes the century-long history of the development and growth of the CPC in respecting and protecting human rights, and the thematic reports cover specific rights, big data and human rights protection, and human rights legislation and international cooperation.

• Zhu Muzhi 朱穆之. Lun renquan (论人权). Edited by Zhongguo renquan yanjiuhui 中国人权研究会. Beijing: Wuzhou chuanbo chubanshe, 1998.

  The author sets out China’s basic views on human rights issues, describes China’s great achievements in human rights, and refutes Western attacks and smears on the human rights situation in China. The author points out that, as far as the struggle for human rights is concerned, there is a fundamental problem between China and the West, namely the struggle between two social systems.