Human Rights in Modern China

1. Human Rights in Modern China Dr. Shana J. Brown Department of History University of Hawai’i, Manoa

2. 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)?

3. 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.

4. Part I: Historical dimensions China before human rights

5. “The Qianlong Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour,” 1770, by Xu Yang Scroll Six: Entering Suzhou along the Grand Canal

6. Human Rights in Modern China Chinese imperial government: • Officials protected Confucian cultural norms • Stable, prosperous, and ethnically / religiously diverse • Voltaire and Leibniz praised Chinese secularism

7. (Some) central ideas of Chinese political culture: • No conflict between interests of ruler & ruled • Inherent hierarchies in social life; these need to be maintained by rulers • The key to avoiding tyranny is a sense of benevolence

8. No conflict between interests of ruler & ruled Qing Dynasty robe with twelve imperial symbols, symbolizing emperor’s authority and his harmony with cosmic forces

9. 2. Inherent hierarchies in social life; these need to be maintained by rulers Confucian “five relationships” (wŭlún 五倫): 1) Father and son 2) Husband and wife 3) Elder and younger brothers 4) Ruler and subject 5) Friend and friend

10. 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

11. Part II: Human rights discourse enters China

12. 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” Imperialism & international law

13. Liang Qichao’s rights • More power for both state and citizens • 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 • Problems: little distinction between rights and “power”; little emphasis on need to safeguard natural rights from the government

14. 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 Rights & the new nation

15. Failure of the new Republic, ongoing problem of imperialism Opera from the late 1920’s: a young revolutionary confronts Yuan Shihkai

16. Rights discourse still focuses on national strength The May Fourth Movement, 1919: Students and young radicals protest China’s treatment by the allies at the Versailles Peace Conference

17. 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 Emerging discourse: civil rights and the rights of the individual

18. 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) Further support for liberal discourse

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

20. “Civil rights” • Right of political participation • Right of free speech • Chinese Alliance for the Protection of Human (Civil) Rights, founded January, 1933

21. “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

22. 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 1948: Chinese participation in the drafting of the UDHR

23. 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.”

24. Benevolence (inclusion of “brotherhood”), as well as Enlightenment liberalism Reluctant to include economic rights – concerns about Communism The second… key is “brotherhood”

25. Communists enter Beijing, 1949

26. Post-1949 interpretations 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)

27. 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

28. Human Rights in Modern China • The discourse of “human rights” largely absent from mainland China between 1949-1970’s….

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

30. 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

31. 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

32. Part III: Human rights discourse after the reform period

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

34. 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

35. 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)

36. 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)

37. Tiananmen Square, 1989

38. Falun Gong persecutions • A particularly nasty intersection of lack of religious rights, separation of judicial powers, oversight of police work Anti-Falun Gong propaganda poster

39. 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

40. Ongoing issues with subsistence rights 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

42. Human Rights in Modern China

45. Human Rights in Modern China

46. 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

47. 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 Sichuan Earthquake, 2008 A collapsed “tofu-dreg schoolhouse” (豆腐渣校舍)

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

49. 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. High-profile dissidents

50. 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