China Daily's critique on human rights in China

In my recent Blog, 'Mr Wen wants "mutual trust" with Canada', I quoted a comment in the FT about Stephen Harper's (Canada's Premier) recent visit to China. It said that Chinese leaders resent receiving lectures on their political system or human rights record from western politicians. The Chinese are well able to critique their own shortcomings on their path to greater justice and equity in their societies. A good example of this was in a recent issue of the Chinese flagship English newspaper, the China Daily, in which Xue Yong wrote an opinion column calling for a focus by the government on justice for ordinary people (China Daily, 11 December). His keen observations shown in the excerpt below highlight the human rights that matter to ordinary Chinese citizens right now:

"One of the most important problems facing Chinese society today is its lack of political development compared to its rapid economic progress. If the government cannot fully protect the rights of the common people, the disadvantaged groups will be subjected to oppression of the advantaged. But such things happen everywhere in our society. Ordinary people cannot get reasonable compensation for their houses that are to be demolished. Children are discriminated against in education. Rural workers always fail to get the pay they deserve. Many workers lack necessary healthcare security; there is a dearth of strong labor unions that can bargain with the employers to guarantee their rights. China has the largest foreign exchange reserves in the world, but a huge number of its workers can earn only 1,000 yuan (less than $150) a month. We cannot attribute workers' low salaries only to market competition. The main reason for that is political order cannot maintain economic order well, because power can easily distort economic rules......If China has legal organizations that can uphold justice for the common people, or if it establishes a sound jury system to ensure public influence on judicial decisions, the prestige of the State will improve greatly. On the contrary, government authority is severely damaged when the central government ignores local governments' abuse of power."

At the recent "Constructing Social Integrity" conference in Beijing I heard a top professor of Chinese law explain how gradually China is moving its judicial system to a more professional basis. But there is a shortage of trained judiciary in China and an established bureaucracy that needs to be challenged.