1. The right to subsistence and the right to development
19. The Chinese Government attaches top priority to realizing the people’s right to subsistence and right to development. Since 1953, the Chinese Government has formulated and implemented 11 five-year national economic and social development plans. These plans have been essential in raising the Chinese people’s living standards and promoting social progress. With the introduction of the policy of reform and opening up in 1978, the Chinese economy has registered an average annual growth of 9.8 per cent and a tenfold real growth in per capita gross domestic product (GDP).
Living standards have achieved two historic leaps: from poverty to subsistence and from subsistence to relative prosperity.
20. Since 1986, the Chinese Government has implemented a development-oriented poverty alleviation strategy. Through economic development projects, special poverty relief projects, coordinated urban and rural development measures and contributions from all sectors of society, poverty has been reduced extensively across the country. The number of persons in rural areas living in extreme poverty has fallen from 250 million some 30 years ago to 15 million. China is the
first country in the world to meet the poverty reduction target set in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (see annex 4, table 1, for information on poverty alleviation in China during the period 1986-2007).
21. With a mere 9 per cent of the world’s arable land, China has managed to provide adequate food for a population that accounts for 21 per cent of the world’s total population. Overall living standards have improved markedly, and the pattern of consumption has shifted from one that reflects efforts to secure a basic living to one that reflects the pursuit of a modern life. The Engel coefficient (i.e., food expenditure as a proportion of total household spending)2 for urban and rural households has dropped from 57.5 per cent and 67.7 per cent 30 years ago to 36.3 per cent and 43.1 per cent respectively.
22. The Chinese people’s right to subsistence has generally been secured, and their living standards are constantly improving. All this has laid a solid foundation for the people’s full enjoyment of the right to development and for all-round human development.
2. The right to work
23. China has a large population and labour force. In order to create more job opportunities, the Chinese Government pursues a proactive employment policy and adheres to the guiding principles that workers choose or create their own jobs, the market regulates employment and the Government promotes employment. In recent years, the Chinese Government has introduced an enabling policy for self-employment and entrepreneurship and has encouraged businesses to employ laid-off workers. It has also improved the system of employment assistance and vocational training to help the large number of workers who lost their jobs as a result of economic restructuring. By the end of 2007, some 769 million people were employed and the urban registered unemployment rate was 4 per cent. China is now a world leader in terms of the ratio of employed persons to total population.
24. In 2007, China promulgated a number of important labour laws, including the Labour Contract Law, the Employment Promotion Law and the Law on Mediation and Arbitration of Labour Disputes, which offer strengthened legal guarantees for the rights and interests of workers.
A system of labour standards covering working hours, rest, leave, remuneration, prohibition of child labour, and vocational safety and health is taking shape. A system of labour contracts and collective contracts has been established, and the tripartite mechanism for coordinating labour relations among the Government, trade unions and businesses has been improved. A minimum wage system has been introduced throughout the country. By the end of 2007, China had nearly 3,200 labour dispute arbitration committees at the county level and above.
25. To safeguard workers’ rights and protect citizens’ equal right to work, China has endeavoured to eliminate discrimination in employment, with special attention paid to ensuring employment opportunities and equal treatment for women. Employment assistance to persons with disabilities and rural migrant workers has been increased.
26. With the promulgation of the Work Safety Law and the Mine Safety Law, China has set up a four-tier safety monitoring and control system at the national, provincial, city and county levels and has established a top-down management system to monitor safety in coal mines as well as an emergency rescue and assistance system. In recent years, the Chinese Government has adopted a number of measures to improve work safety, such as establishing a safety clearance mechanism, increasing enterprise accountability for work safety, eliminating hidden safety threats, strengthening accident investigations and sanctions, and determining responsibility in the case of accidents.
27. Trade unions have a total of 209,000,000 members, of whom 66,746,000 are rural migrant workers in cities. Employees have the collective right to conclude labour contracts with employers covering remuneration, working hours, rest, leave, labour safety, health, and insurance benefits.
3. Social security
28. The Chinese Government has consistently endeavoured to establish a sound social security system that is commensurate with the country’s level of economic development, and the
foundations of a social security system comprising social insurance, social relief and social welfare have begun to take shape. Over the past five years, China’s accumulated budgeted expenditure for social security reached 1.95 trillion yuan, or 1.41 times the amount spent over the previous five-year period.
29. A system of social insurance including urban old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, industrial accident insurance, maternity insurance, urban workers’ medical insurance and urban residents’ basic medical insurance has been established and is developing rapidly. A new type of cooperative health-care system in rural areas now covers the entire countryside and has 815 million participants. The Chinese Government is exploring ways to set up an old-age insurance scheme in rural areas (see annex 4, table 2, for information on the participation of urban residents in the social insurance scheme from 2000 to 2007).
30. The Chinese Government has established a number of social relief and assistance systems or schemes, including the urban and rural subsistence allowance scheme, the rural “five guarantees”
system (guarantees of food, clothing, medical care, shelter and burial expenses for eligible individuals in rural areas), the urban and rural medical care assistance scheme, the disaster
emergency relief system and the system of assistance to urban vagrants. As of June 2008, the urban subsistence allowance scheme covered 22,677,000 urban residents while the rural subsistence allowance scheme covered 37,499,000 rural poor. At the end of 2007, China had a total of
43,607 welfare institutions taking in a total of 1,999,500 elderly persons, persons with disabilities and orphans.
4. The right to housing
31. The Chinese Government is accelerating housing development in response to the themes of
“Adequate shelter for all” and “Sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world”. Recent years have witnessed marked improvement in housing conditions and the housing environment in both urban and rural areas. Twelve Chinese cities have won the UN-HABITAT Award.
32. The Chinese Government has introduced a low-rent housing system to meet the housing needs of low-income urban households through public finance. Eligible households may either live in low-rent housing provided by the Government or receive a subsidy from the Government to find their own housing. This system has helped to improve the housing conditions of
950,000 low-income families. The Chinese Government is also working to improve and
standardize its “Affordable Home Ownership Scheme”, a programme aimed at helping low- and medium-income households buy low-cost but reasonably comfortable housing. Such lost-cost housing is built across the country every year. By the end of 2007, nearly 17 million people had been housed under this scheme. In addition, China has established a system of public reserve funds for housing, which by 2007 had enabled 47 million people to improve their housing conditions.
33. In the wake of the devastating earthquakes that struck Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, in
May 2008, the Chinese Government lost no time in organizing the construction of shelters and other temporary dwellings and the repair and reinforcement of damaged buildings. More than 10 million people affected by the earthquakes were provided with temporary accommodation within three months of the disaster. The reconstruction of homes in the areas hit by the earthquakes will be completed in three years’ time.
5. The right to education
34. The Chinese Government pursues a strategy of making the country stronger through science and education. Under this strategy, priority is given to the development of education, and
Government investment in education has increased continuously. From 2003 to 2007, total budgetary expenditure on education reached 2.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.26 times over the previous five years. Total budgetary spending on education as a proportion of GDP has increased steadily.
35. By the end of 2000, nine-year compulsory education had been made virtually universal throughout the country and illiteracy had essentially been eliminated among the young and
middle-aged. China has fully met the primary education target set in the Millennium Development Goals ahead of schedule. By the end of 2007, 99 per cent of China’s population had undergone compulsory education, with an average level of attainment of 8.5 years, while the illiteracy rate among young and middle-aged persons had been reduced to 3.5 per cent.
36. In order to further extend the coverage of compulsory education, China has established a mechanism to ensure funds for compulsory education; under this mechanism, rural compulsory education is an essential component of State-financed programmes. In 2006, China amended its Compulsory Education Law to make compulsory education free of charge nationwide. From 2006 to 2008, tuition and miscellaneous education fees were phased out in both urban and rural areas, thereby ensuring truly free compulsory education.
37. The Chinese Government endeavours to promote equity in education and to address education imbalances between urban and rural areas and among regions; it has implemented an education resources policy that gives preferential treatment to rural, inland, western, impoverished, border and ethnic minority areas. The State has earmarked special funds to assist students belonging to ethnic minorities; these funds are used to set up State scholarships, education subsidies, education loans and work-study programmes in universities, secondary vocational schools and regular secondary schools throughout the country in order to enable students from poor families to complete their studies.
6. The right to health
38. China has established a fairly comprehensive system for disease control and prevention, and the provision of health-care and medical services at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels. The state of medical care and the health of the population have improved considerably. The life expectancy of Chinese citizens has risen to 73 years from 35 years in the early years of the People’s Republic. The maternal mortality rate has dropped from 1,500 per 100,000 to 36.6 per 100,000, while the infant mortality rate has fallen from 200 per 1,000 to 15.3 per 1,000. The number of health-care and medical institutions in the country has increased 86 times, to a total of 315,000. As many as 223 million people are covered by the basic medical insurance schemes for urban workers or residents. Some 10.1 million patients from poor families have been provided with medical assistance.
39. China was the first developing country to eliminate smallpox. The Chinese Government has carefully reviewed its experiences and drawn lessons from its work to combat the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). In 2004, China successfully brought the avian influenza epidemic under control. After the devastating earthquakes of 2008 in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, the entire disaster-stricken area emerged without the outbreak of any epidemic. The State provides free medical treatment to persons suffering from such major infectious diseases as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and schistosomiasis. The State Council has set up a working committee on HIV/AIDS prevention and control, and government spending on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment has increased with each passing year, reaching 1.56 billion yuan in 2008.
40. Environmental protection is a fundamental State policy in China. The Chinese Government has strengthened pollution control and conducted a national survey of pollution sources. It attaches great importance to the important role played by ecological conservation in maintaining people’s health. By the end of 2007, China’s investment in pollution control accounted for 1.36 per cent of GDP. China has set up 2,399 environmental monitoring stations with nearly 50,000 professional environmental assessors and analysts. China is actively implementing its National Programme of Action on Environment and Health to strengthen environmental and health risk assessment and management.
41. From 2001 to 2005, the Chinese Government invested 22.3 billion yuan to address the problem of safe drinking water supply in rural areas, and it is hoped that another 192 million rural residents will have access to safe drinking water by 2009. China will meet the Millennium
Development Goal of halving by 2015 the proportion of people who lack access to safe drinking water ahead of schedule.
B. Civil and political rights