Ambassador: China to Adhere to Cooperative Spirit of Human Rights Declaration

Addressing the sixth regular session of the 47-state UN Human Rights Council on Dec. 10, 2007, Li Baodong, Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG), said that China will adhere to the cooperative spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is willing to work with the international community in building a harmonious, friendly and fair human rights culture.

  He said the Human Rights Council should be a fair, objective and firm body in order to live up to the high expectations of the world and send a united and powerful message to those who need help.

  "History has witnessed not only the great progress of China's human rights cause, but also the huge efforts the Chinese government has made in promoting international cooperation and dialogue in the human rights field," Li told delegates of the meeting.

  "China has the determination and confidence to make new progress in the human rights cause," he added.

  (From Xinhuanet)

China-based Christian Group Prints 50 mln Bibles

A China-based Christian group announced that it had printed 50 million Bibles, mainly for Chinese believers.

  Ye Xiaowen, head of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said at a ceremony on Dec. 8, 2007 that the Chinese government respects and protects religious freedom and supports, as always, printing and publishing Bibles in China.

The Amity Printing Company, which is affiliated to the Amity Foundation, printed the 50 millionth Bible in mid September 2007, in addition to 9 million New Testaments.

  About 43 million copies of the complete Bible were produced for believers on the Chinese mainland, with copies in Braille and eight minority languages. The remaining 7 million were exported to over 60 countries and regions around the world.

  In recent years, about 3 million copies of Bible rolled off the press every year, the company said.

The Amity Foundation, the only one authorized in China for printing Bibles, said it has 74 sales offices throughout the country, which channel Bibles to nationwide Christians.

  Official statistics on Christianity in China reveals there are 16 million believers, a number which is continuously expanding. The country also has 18 theological schools, with about 1,800 students.

  During the Beijing Olympics 2008, Ye said, local religious groups will provide help and service to overseas tourists, including Bible copies.

  Religious services--Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist--will be available to athletes in the Olympic Village this summer, Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympics media center said.  

  (From Xinhuanet) 

Psychologists Recruited for Improving China's Prison Management

 The Ministry of Justice has recruited seven psychologists in the first step to build an experts bank providing advice on better management of prisons.

  Zhang Enyou, a psychologist who is also vice president of the Central Institute for Correctional Police, and six other experts are employed by the ministry, the Legal Daily reported on Dec. 17, 2007.

  Chen Xunqiu, vice minister of Justice, said his ministry is continuing to look for law, penologists, education and medical experts for the bank.

  According to a development program recently issued by the ministry, professionals in law, penology, education, psychology, medical science, information engineering and medicine should account for 70 percent of the administrative staff of prisons and correctional facilities.

  Among them, professionals in psychology should account for at least eight percent.

The seven psychologists will be asked to set up standards on correctional work in prisons and help train warders, the newspaper said.

  "The emphasis on the psychological side is part of our efforts to introduce personalized correctional work for different prisoners on the basis of their psychological analyses," Chen said.   

  (From Xinhuanet) 

China to Create National Compensation System

China will establish a pension system for victims of natural disasters, under which the families of those killed in natural disasters will be compensated.

  "The system will gradually cover all regions of China from next year," Wang Zhenyao, director of disaster relief of the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, told a national conference on civil affairs on Dec. 27, 2007.

  Currently, pay-outs ranging from 5,000 yuan (about 680 U.S. dollars) to 10,000 yuan are given to victims' families in regions with frequent natural disasters. These regions include the southern province of Guangdong and the southeastern Fujian Province.

  Various natural disasters claimed more than 2,000 lives in 2007 in China, government statistics show.

  "We will try our best to provide timely personnel and material assistance to disaster-stricken regions to ensure the safe relocation of people and their temporary accommodation," he said.

  "We will also gradually increase the pensions for victims according to their difficulties,"he said.

  (From Xinhuanet)

Regulation Safeguards Migrant Workers?Rights

Employers in central China's Henan Province failing to sign labor contracts with migrant workers for over one month into their employment will be punished to pay double the monthly wages to the workers for the delayed period as compensation.

  The Henan provincial legislature adopted on Dec. 3, 2007 a package of regulations on protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the 18-million strong rural migrant workers in Henan.

  The regulations stipulate employers must sign formal labor contracts with migrant workers as soon as they are employed. The contracts must include clauses on the contract term, payment, working hours, breaks and holidays, and social insurance.

  Labor and social security authorities should strengthen supervision by asking the employers to regularly report wage payments besides setting aside a designated sum as safeguard against payment defaults.

  Furthermore, the wages for migrant workers, excluding overtime pays, compensations, high temperature allowances and meal subsidies, should not be lower than the standard local minimum salary. The employers should refund on time the workers with the wage differences if they are found to have paid below the bottom line, or face fines up to double the amount.

  Employers must provide the migrant workers they have signed with basic medical and work injury insurances and for those engaged in occupations involving high dangers with life accident insurance.

  The regulation also notes migrant workers with relatively stable jobs should be incorporated into the basic pension insurance system for urban employees.

  Qualified migrant workers are entitled to apply for mortgage loans through the public housing fund to buy or rent economically affordable apartments. The public housing fund provides preferential interest rates that are lower than those charged by commercial banks.

  The regulation also forbids urban public middle and primary schools from refusing to enroll the children of migrant workers or charging them additional fees.

(From CRIENGLISH.com)

Chinese Governments Recover 43.32 bln Yuan for Migrant Workers' Unpaid Wages

According to Sun Baoshu, Vice Minister of Labor and Social Security, till the end of 2007, governments at all levels have recovered about 43.32 billion yuan (about 5.9 billion U.S. dollars) for migrant workers?back wages since 2003.

  With China's urbanization, millions of mostly rural migrant workers have been drawn to cities and towns. It was estimated that the figure probably exceeded 100 million.

  The migrants have worked mainly in the construction industry, hotels, restaurants and other service sectors. Their wages are often in arrears, however, since managers refuse to pay them.

  All levels of the Chinese government have been mobilized to solve the unpaid wage problem, and the State Council issued instructions in 2006 for dealing with the problems migrant workers have encountered.

  The governments have strengthened supervision of businesses that hire large numbers of migrants and provided more legal advice to the migrants to protect their rights.

  (From Xinhuanet) 

China Trying to Improve Public Accessibility of Museums

China is trying to improve the role of the country's more than 2,400 museums to make them more accessible to the public, according to a recent national conference attended by directors of provincial cultural relics departments.

  The museums, which are sponsored by the government, institutions or individuals, hold nearly 10,000 exhibitions on different themes annually. In all, they received about 150 million visitors each year.

  A big boost, thanks to government efforts, is that more and more Chinese museums have stopped its long-time practice of selling tickets to visitors.

  To date, more than 1,000 museums and memorial institutions have been officially made educational bases for patriotism and popular science. They received 32 million underage visitors annually.   

(From Xinhuanet) 

Survey: Overall Consumption Environment in Rural China on Improvement

The overall consumption environment and the protection of consumers?rights in rural China have improved over recent years, according to a recent survey by China Consumers?Association (CCA), the country's key consumer rights body.

  "The overall consumption environment in rural China is getting better and better,"said Ding Shihe, assistant secretary-general of CCA, "35.6 percent of the farmers sampled believe their consumer rights have been harmed, sharply down from that of 65.9 percent in 1998."

  The survey report on the protection of rural residents?consumer rights shows farmers mainly spend on food, farming materials and education. More than 21 percent of the interviewees said most of their money is spent on education.

  Figures also show product quality, counterfeit goods, and false advertising and high prices are the most serious problems in rural consumption.

  Complaints center on high price and low quality of seeds, fertilizer, drugs and pesticide.

  "We are shocked that 21 percent of the farmers whose rights have been infringed chose not to do anything about it," said Ding.

  The 2007 survey on the protection of rural residents?consumer rights is conducted by CCA and nine provincial consumer societies in Shangdong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, covering 54 counties and 6,239 rural households.   

  (From Xinhuanet)