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)
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Source: Voice of America
.