China Pledges to Continue Efforts for Human Rights Protection 

China has done a lot of work in human right protection, but as the promotion and protection of human rights is an arduous long-term task, such efforts will continue in future, a senior Chinese diplomat said on March 5, 2008.

  "We are keenly aware that as a developing country, China still has a long way to go to promote and protect human rights," Li Baodong, Chinese ambassador to the UN Office in Geneva, told a regular session of the UN Human Rights Council.

  The Chinese government will continue to uphold the spirit and goals advocated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and will continue to work with all other countries in a common effort to realize the lofty goal of promoting and protecting human rights, he said.

  China is the only country in the world that has reached ahead of schedule the UN Millennium Development Goals of reducing by half the population living in poverty by 2015.

  At present, acting on the constitutional principle that "state should respect and safeguard human rights," the Chinese government is conscientiously following a human-centered, fully-coordinated, sustainable and scientific concept of development.

  China is also endeavoring to build a harmonious society characterized by "democracy and rule of law, equity and justice."

  "Through promoting democracy and the rule of law, we have worked to promote and protect the civil and political rights of our citizens," Li said.

  "All in all, the Chinese people are enjoying an ever-increasing level of human rights protection," he added.

  (from: Xinhuanet)

  China "Ready to Resume Human Rights Dialogue with U.S."

  China is ready to resume human rights dialogue with the United States, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Feb. 26, 2008 after talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

  "China is willing to keep contact with the United States in all areas … we are willing to resume the human rights dialogue with the United States," Yang said.

  He said that the Chinese people enjoyed extensive human rights and freedom of religious belief and were willing to exchange with the United States and other countries concerning human rights on the basis of mutual respect, equality and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

  Rice said: "It's important to resume human rights dialogue between the United States and China."

  China suspended the human rights dialogue in 2004 when the United States decided to introduce a human rights motion related to China at the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

  (from: Xinhuanet)

New Measures Applied in Guangdong to Protect Rights of Migrant Workers

Authorities in China's Guang-dong province conducted a campaign to protect rights of migrant workers before the 2008 Lunar New Year.

  Between Oct 2007 and the end of Jan 2008, more than 8,000 officials from the departments of labor and social security, construction and public security, plus the Guangdong provincial workers union, investigated almost 75,000 companies across the province. They had succeeded in securing 211 million yuan (29.4 million U.S. dollars) in overdue pay for some 295,000 workers, 274,000 of whom were migrants.

  A grading system was implemented during the campaign to identify companies based on their payment histories.

  "We rated the employers from A to D," said Chen Yisi, director of the wage division of the labor department. Firms with an "A" rating are those that have no record of delaying wage payments for the past three years. Those with "B" and "C" ratings have a moderately good record, while those rated "D" have been known to have delayed payments on more than one occasion.

  During the campaign, 45 firms were given "D" ratings and were blacklisted by the labor department for serious rule violations, including delaying wage payments, forcing workers to do overtime and refusing to buy social insurance for them, Chen said.

  (Source: China Daily)

China Increases Subsistence Allowance

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), China has increased the monthly minimum living allowance by 15 yuan (2.05 U.S. dollars) in urban areas per person and by 10 yuan for rural residents this year. The MCA and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a circular ordering much importance should be attached to the impact of consumer price increases of basic life necessities on poor families.

  The average monthly allowance in 2007 was 182.4 yuan in urban areas per person and 70 yuan in rural areas. The rural allowance was less than that in urban areas because living costs there were lower.

  The rural minimum living allowance system was formally established last year in all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland, 10 years after the system was set up in urban areas.

  Under the system, subsidies vary by region according to economic conditions, but the basic requirement is to enable low-income people in urban and rural areas to have adequate food and clothing.

  The number of rural beneficiaries was 34.5 million in 2007, an increase of 19.48 million or 128.7 percent from the previous year, statistics show.

  More than 22.7 million low-income urban residents received minimum living allowances last year, an increase of 300,000 people year-on-year.

  (from:Xinhuanet)

  China's Phone Subscribers to Hit 976 mln in 2008

  China's phone subscribers, mobile and fixed line combined, are expected to grow by more than 60 million in 2008 to hit a total of 976 million, according to the Ministry of Information Industry. By the end of this year, China's fixed-line and mobile phone subscribers will account for 27.1 percent and 46.4 percent of the population, respectively.

  Sources from the ministry said that the continuous falling of mobile communication charges has directly led to a sharp increase in mobile phone subscribers and some people even replaced their fixed-lines with mobile phones. In 2007, China's mobile phone subscribers increased by 86.22 million, while fixed-line subscribers fell by 2.33 million.

  By the end of 2007, China had 370 million fixed-line subscribers and 530 million mobile subscribers, the two figures combined accounted for a fifth of the world's total phone subscribers, according to statistics from the ministry.    

  (from: Xinhuanet) 

   95% of Villages to Have Access to Broadband Service in 2008

According to the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), China plans to expand broadband service to more than 95 percent of the nation's villages in 2008. Some of the central and eastern provinces will have all their townships and villages covered by broadband service by the end of this year.

  Of late some 99.5 percent of the country's villages have access to telephone links, and the broadband connection has reached 92 percent of the villages nationwide.

  In year 2007, 73 million people were added to the nation's total netizen population. Of the increment, 29.17 million, or 40 percent, lived in rural areas. This brought the number of rural Internet users to 52.62 million at the end of 2007, up 127.7 percent year-on-year. The rate was much higher than the 38.2 percent for urban areas.

  The impressive growth in rural regions was due largely to government efforts and the robust demand from those areas.

  China had 210 million Internet users at the end of 2007 and its online population is on course to become the world's largest at the beginning of this year.

  China had so far about 122 million broadband users, ranking top among the world.

  (from: Xinhuanet)

   China to expand Rural Healthcare System with Increased Fund, Full Coverage

China's rural cooperative medical care system is to expand to cover all rural residents by the end of 2008 and government spending on the system will be sharply increased, Vice Premier Wu Yi said at a national conference on Feb. 15, 2008. Fund pooled for each person in the scheme will be doubled to 100 yuan (about 13.8 U.S dollars) in two years, she said.

  The scheme, seen by many as a way to help Chinese farmers who have virtually no medical insurance, now requires a participant to pay 10 yuan a year. Central, provincial, municipal and county governments supply another 40 yuan (5.2 U.S. dollars) per person to the fund.

  When rural residents fall seriously ill, the pooled funds cover part of their medical costs. Coverage varies by illness and the actual expenses.

  Initiated in 2003, the system has expanded to cover 730 million rural residents, or approximately 86 percent of rural areas by the end of 2007.

  A total of 42.8 billion yuan (5.9 billion U.S. dollars) was pooled by the fund last year, according to Wu, compared with only 4 billion yuan in 2003.

  The fund paid out about 59.1 billion yuan over the past five years in reimbursements. Beneficiaries from the cooperative medical care system reached 920 million person-times.

  Wu stressed at the conference that construction of medical service networks should be reinforced, pharmaceutical supply for rural areas and the management of the medicare fund should be supervised.    

  (from: Xinhuanet)

 China to Launch National Program to Fight AIDS

  China's medical authorities are working on the country's first nationwide program in a bid to control the spread of AIDS among male homosexuals, according to a work agenda released by the Ministry of Health.

  The program aims to strengthen measures to prevent and control the deadly disease among the homosexual community, China Daily quoted Wang Weizhen, deputy director of the HIV/AIDS prevention department under the ministry's disease control bureau.

  Studies are under way in several cities to collect information on gay men, such as their distribution and behavioral patterns, according to Wang.

  Wang said special funding, technical support and information sharing are also part of the program.

  China has between 5 million to 10 million male homosexuals, who are in the highest risk group of contracting HIV and AIDS. And this group is highly dangerous for AIDS spread as the number of new infections is rising sharply.

  (from: Xinhuanet)