DATE=2/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-HUMAN RIGHTS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259260
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: China has issued a report vigorously
defending its human rights record ahead of a key
United Nations meeting next month where the United
States says it will consider forwarding a resolution
criticizing Beijing. VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison
reports the 15-thousand word document fails to address
western concerns on China's human rights situation,
but Beijing says it is not interested in copying the
West's human rights values anyway.
TEXT: The so-called White Paper issued Thursday by
China's cabinet is entitled `50 Years of Progress in
China's Human Rights.' It chronicles what it says are
the successes of the ruling Communist Party in
improving the lives of the one-point-three billion
Chinese citizens over the past half-century. The
report lists improvements in health care, education,
and social welfare and says China has lifted 200
million people out of poverty over the past two
decades.
China has always maintained that such quality-of-life
issues, that benefit all of society, are more
important than protection of individual civil
liberties. The document says China's people now enjoy
unprecedented democracy and freedom, although it
admits that there is a need to improve democracy and
the Chinese legal system.
The report's release comes a few weeks before the
United Nations Human Rights Commission meets in
Geneva, where a U-S-sponsored resolution censuring
China's human rights record may be considered.
The white paper says the rights of free speech,
association and religious belief are guaranteed by
China's constitution. But most critics say it is
precisely those rights that are denied in practice.
Still, the report says China will continue to adhere
to a definition of human rights that suits its own
reality, including the right to subsistence and
economic development. The document rejects the
Western approach to human rights, with its emphasis on
promoting personal political liberty, saying China
will emphasize improvements in material standards of
living.
Measured by such yardsticks as life expectancy, per-
capita income and literacy rates, human rights - as
defined by the Chinese government - have improved
dramatically. But the white paper fails to mention
such issues as a ban on organized political dissent,
the frequent use of the death penalty and the
sentencing of people -- without trial -- to labor
camps. (SIGNED)
NEB/RW/FC
17-Feb-2000 06:58 AM EDT (17-Feb-2000 1158 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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