New York Times: "Most Chinese Enjoy More Personal Freedom Than Ever Before"
Very nice, I loved it from bottom of my heart, it really shows the great China, But the link is useless....
Thanks.... It is all Chineses, provide me with link with other sources, without being Chinese then I will believe this utopianian Society that is being protraited by You.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/01/opinion/01iht-edsaich.t.html
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Most Chinese Enjoy More Personal Freedom Than Ever Before
By
Tony Saich
Published: February 1, 1997
BEIJING— There is a widespread assumption in the West that the human rights situation in China is steadily deteriorating. It is easy to see why people should hold this view, with media reports of the arrest and sentencing of figures such as Wang Dan and Wei Jingshen for their political views and the crackdown on certain religious activities.
Yet this is only part of a complex picture that includes a
steady improvement in the general situation, with most Chinese enjoying greater personal freedom than ever before.
The reform program of the last 20 years has created a society that is trying to cope with change on a scale few of us have experienced. It also makes for a situation that is almost impossible to characterize succinctly. While tens of millions in China's poor, rural areas strive to reach the poverty line, a smaller urban, educated elite is concerned about gaining greater influence in the policy-making process.
This is not to say all Chinese should not enjoy the same inalienable rights, but it does mean their daily concerns and how they can exercise their rights vary greatly.
I was first a student in China in the 1970s in the latter years of the Cultural Revolution. It is clear to anyone who was in the country then that the realm of individual liberty has expanded enormously. In those days, Communist Party control penetrated every aspect of life. The blue uniform of Maoism was mandatory, a casual comment to a foreigner would most likely result in interrogation, and Western classical music and flowers were outlawed as manifestations of a bourgeois lifestyle. The courts had been abolished, there were virtually no laws and the only legal framework was provided by very simple state and party constitutions. In practice, this meant that law was the whim of the local Communist official. Arbitrary arrest and sentencing were commonplace.
For most urban Chinese, the changes have been significant in terms of choice of work and lifestyle. Anyone under 35 has known only a time of discussion about reform and increasing contact with the outside world. Despite restrictions,
there has been a steady advance toward increased individual liberty for a majority of urban Chinese.
There have also been advances in rural areas. Farmers, despite unpredictable local government interference, have a greater say over what to grow and where to sell their produce than in the old days of state fiat and almost complete control over purchase and distribution.
Rural dwellers enjoy increased freedom of movement to find work in the burgeoning small-scale industries of the countryside or in the urban centers. And move they do: some 70 million of them by most accounts.
Also, in the last few years, villagers throughout China have been taking part in an unprecedented experiment in local self-governance through village elections. While there have been many reports of electoral malpractice and manipulation,
there have also been many cases of genuinely free and fair elections.
Many laws have been enacted in China. The main problems now lie not with the lack of legislation but with its honest implementation and informing ordinary citizens of what their actual rights are. While the size of the task is daunting,
serious programs are under way, with high-level political support, to professionalize the judiciary and to raise judicial standards.
Perhaps the most telling fact is that the words "human rights" are no longer taboo. Many Chinese have developed a feel for their rights, and this has become a part of private and official discourse. One of the most interesting statistics involves the increasing number of citizens who are willing to bring lawsuits against government agencies and officials. In 1995, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the number of suits filed reached an all-time high of 70,000.
Of course, serious problems remain in a country with a population of more than 1.2 billion.
The psychological and emotional stress of living in such a fast-moving society has taken its toll. Women's suicide rates are up, divorce is on the rise and elderly citizens are worried about the move from cradle-to-grave welfare to a more commercialized system of benefits. Unemployment and corruption prey on the minds of some urban dwellers, while many farmers are concerned about illegal levies foisted on them by local officials.
But new groups, supported by the government, are emerging to deal with these prob-lems. Traditional organizations, such as trade unions and the women's federation, are changing their practices to become more service-oriented.
In urban areas, walk-in legal clinics and telephone hot lines are now available to provide advice on issues from the law to domestic violence. In rural areas, the women's federation and other groups are providing legal awareness programs for women, and plans are in the works to bring farmers and local officials together to plan production and planting cycles so as to remove tensions and conflict between them.
Naturally, in a nation so large and diverse as China, many abuses remain, and many of these initiatives are at an early stage. But they demonstrate that many Chinese are willing to try new ideas and practices.
For foreign organizations and governments interested in improving human rights in China, this means the potential for cooperation exists. Such cooperation will not be easy, and both sides will require substantial interaction to better understand each other.
With a country that has one-fifth of the world's population and rapidly growing international influence, it is an effort worth making.
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The writer, China representative for the Ford Foundation, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune."