Human Rights in China One of the first things that come to mind about human rights in China would most likely be the Tiananmen Square massacre, where in 1989 hundreds of student protestors lost their lives to the People's Republic of China. The bloody body of a dead student removed from the street right after the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989. Web page http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/china/china.html The name People's Republic of China seems a contradiction of its meaning. If indeed its name is the People's Republic of China than why did it massacre peaceful protestors with tanks and machine guns? But the Chinese government argues that the force was necessary for maintaining a national order (Muzhi Zhu). The People's Republic of China (PRC) is actually an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the main source of power. At the national and regional levels, party members hold almost all the top government, police, and military positions. The country's authority rests with members of the Politburo (China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999). CCP stresses that it needs to maintain stability and social order. The Government's poor human rights record in 1999 shows the extent at which the Government intensified efforts to suppress its 1.27 billion people. A crackdown against a newly formed opposition party, which began in the fall of 1998, broadened and intensified during the year. By the end of 1998, almost all of the key leaders of the China Democracy Party (CDP) were serving long prison terms or were in custody without any formal charges, and only a handful of members nationwide dared to remain active publicly (China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1... ... middle of paper ... ...hen they are fighting for their freedom. As Czechoslovakia democrat Tomas G. Masaryk said in totalitarian Central Europe nearly 50 years: "Dictators always look good until the last minutes." Bibliography: Bibliographies Amnesty International. "China, no one is safe". Ed. Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. New York, NY. 1996. Amnesty International. "China, violations of human rights : prisoners of conscience and the death penalty in the People's Republic of China". Ed William Meyers. London, U.K 1994. China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. February 25, 2000. U.S. Department of State. 18 March, 2000 Jingsheng Wei. "What to do About China" no date of publication or sponsor. 18 March, 2000 Muzhi Zhu. "China's Human Rights Record" 25 June, 1997. Chinese Embassy. 17 March 2000.
...down the student demonstrations and somehow killed the revolution spirit of the people, the world will always remember the Tiananmen protest as significant, bravery and dramatic civil disobedience in the pursuit for democracy.
[18] Smith, Craig S. “China, in Harsh Crackdown, Executes Muslim Separatists.” New York Times, Dec. 16, 2001, p. A1.
Both Goldman and Walder make excellent points both backed by Pan’s book. The argument that Walder makes is very convincing: that government and all of its censorship is here to stay. The reaction to the reformers are usual overblown and extreme. They are also highly immoral and go against human rights. However, Goldman’s argument is much stronger. Since the rise of a semi-capitalistic society under the market reforms of the 1980’s and the Tiananmen Square protests the voices of political dissent and change have been on the rise, and from the examples provided, especially after the year 2000. The party has effectively been losing power thanks in large part to the internet and the rise of the lawyers like Pu. Therefore, the political status quo in China is changing, no matter what the party says.
"Background: Persecution of Falun Gong in China." Fofg.org. Friends of Falun Gong, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
June 4th, 1989 is a day that changed China forever. Children growing up in China today will not be able to learn about every aspect of their country in schools, even the most important events. Even though the people in China are forbidden to even talk about it, it is still an important event in history not only in China, but the whole world. There were a lot of causes that shaped the massacre and the goals were very hard to be achieved, but the people of China never gave up. Censorship played a major role in this event. The Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 will never be forgotten.
Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1986.
McPherdan, I. (2010, January 4). China Holds Key to Life. In Herald Sun. Retrieved November 16, 2013
Yiran, Feng. "To Help or Not to Help, a Dilemma in China." The Epoch Times [New York City]
...ghur rights, as human beings, being violated, and who's responsibility is it to make sure that rights aren’t violated, as well as if China is living up to its responsibilities as a world power, to take care of its people.
Members of The United Nations have a duty “to maintain international peace…in conformity with the principles of justice and international law.”[1] China, a core member of the United Nations since its formation in 1945, fails to comply with international human rights’ norms set forth by The United Nations Charter. This failure is noticeably prevalent in the practices of the Chinese Legal System. Its judicial proceedings in handling peaceful, political dissenters fail to provide the minimum protection of human rights guaranteed to all through international law. By examining accounts of Tibetans detained for such peaceful protests, this paper will set out to highlight the discrepancies between Chinese enforcement of international law in theory and in practice. Before this paper goes any further, the notion of international law must be explained. Providing a better understanding of international law will make easier the task of highlighting China’s struggles with enforcing such standards.
The declaration of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 by the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong signified a revolution in China that brought an end to the costliest civil war in Chinese history between the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that had lasted a period of 22 years from 1927 to 1949. The Chinese revolution of 1949 signified the beginning of an era of Communist Chinese rule ushered in by the popular Chinese Communist Party at the expense of the Nationalist Party. According to historian Michael Lestz, the Communist victory was an inevitability that was aided by the actions of the preceding Nationalist government (Lestz, 2010). Lestz states that the weakness and administration ineptitude displayed by the Nationalist Party in economic, military and civil affairs created an environment that was conducive for the Communist Party to prosper. Author John King elaborates that the Nationalist party did more to lose the peasants’ support than the Communist party did to gain the peasants’ favor (King, 2006). Therefore, this paper will focus on the failures of the Nationalist Party in the Civil War and World War II coupled with the consequences. It will compound the various issues that harbored the Nationalist Party such as corruption and the failure of the government to accommodate or abate Communist dissent. The paper will also cover the failed efforts by Nationalist Party to integrate Western policies into China.
Though the modern concept of human rights is originated from the Western world, it is believed to be a universal principle regardless of cultures. Meanwhile, people particularly concern the compatibility of human rights and Confucianism, which has a long history and still exerts influences in East Asia. It also poses a question to whether a traditional thinking still has its values in the modern context.
Weiwei, Z., (2011) The China Wave - Rise of a Civilizational State. (World Century Publishing Corporation).
The spread of Communism and its ideals significantly increased during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War which intensified after the Second World War and resulted in a victory to the Communists in October 1949. At this time, the majority of the provinces in China were led by either the GMD or the CCP. However, the civilians in the GMD-ruled cities were suffering rapid inflation, strikes, violence and riots which led to a collapse of public order. Adding to this instability, corruption was rife within the Nationalist party’s lead...
Inkenberry, John. “The Rise of China and the Future of the West.” Foreign Affairs. The Council of Foreign Relations. Jan 2008. Web. 9 Mar 2014.