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China's Population and Development in the 21st Century

China has made more efforts and achieved new progress in protecting the economic, social and cultural rights of citizens, says a white paper issued yesterday in Beijing. 
The white paper, "Progress in China's Human Rights Cause in 2000," was released by the Information Office of the State Council. 
China has promoted in an all-around way and developed steadily democratic politics at the grassroots level in rural areas and has made considerable progress in building a judicial guarantee for human rights through perfecting legislation, ensuring an impartial judicature and strictly enforcing the law, said the paper. The grassroots democracy includes democratic election, decision-making, administration and supervision. 
The systems of democratic election, making decisions on village affairs by villagers themselves, and making public the village affairs, have been improved constantly since the revised Organic Law of the Villagers' Committees was enacted in November, 1998. 
According to a set of regulations formulated by the Supreme People's Court, litigants in financial difficulty could have their payment of litigation costs postponed, reduced or remitted, the paper said. 
The regulations, namely the Regulations on Providing Judicial Assistance for Litigants Actually in Financial Difficulty, were mapped out in July, 2000. 
The white paper has seven parts. They are the improvement of people's rights to subsistence and development; the guarantee of citizens' political rights; judicial guarantees for human rights; the economic, social and cultural rights of citizens; protection of women's and children's rights; equal rights and special protection for ethnic minorities; and actively carrying out international exchanges and co-operation in the realm of human rights. 
The Information Office of the State Council issued yesterday a white paper on China's human rights cause in 2000. The following is the full text of the white paper entitled Progress in China's Human Rights Cause in 2000: 
The year 2000 was a milestone in the course of China's development, and also a year that witnessed continued advancement in China's human rights. In 2000, the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) for National Economic and Social Development was successfully completed, the development of the western region got off to a good start, the economy developed in a healthy way, the democratic and legal systems were continuously strengthened, and the human rights situation maintained a strong momentum of development. 
I. The improvement of people's rights to subsistence and development 
The Chinese Government continued to put the safeguarding and promotion of people's rights to subsistence and development on the top of its agenda, and spared no effort to develop the economy, enhance the nation's strength and improve the people's access to subsistence and development. In 2000, China rid itself completely of the influence of the Asian financial crisis, the national economy began to reverse its downturn, the growth rate increased, and GDP reached 8,940.4 billion yuan (US$1,079 billion), breaking through the US$1,000 billion mark for the first time. 
This was an increase of 8.0 per cent over the GDP figure for the previous year. At the same time, the GDP per capita exceeded US$800, surpassing the task of quadrupling 1980's GNP per capita, and successfully realizing the second-phase strategic objectives of the modernization drive. In 2000, the value of China's overall import and export volume reached US$474.3 billion, or an increase of 31.5 per cent over that of the previous year. At the end of 2000, the State foreign exchange reserves reached US$165.6 billion, or an increase of US$10.9 billion over that at the beginning of 2000. To date, China's GDP has increased from the 11th in world ranking in the 1970s to the seventh. In the 1970s, the total trade volume and foreign exchange reserves ranked 32nd and 39th respectively in the world, but now they rank eighth and second respectively. China ranks first in the world in the output of major industrial and agricultural products, such as iron and steel, coal, cement, chemical fertilizer, TV sets, grain, cotton, meat and aquatic products. With sufficient commodities, China's effective supply ability has been greatly improved. 
The income of urban and rural residents has gone up steadily, and their standard of living has continued to improve. The Chinese people now enjoy a higher standard of living, having progressed from simply having enough to eat and wear. In 2000, the disposable income per urban resident came to 6,280 yuan (US$758), or an increase of 6.4 per cent over that of the previous year, in real terms; the net income per rural resident reached 2,253 yuan (US$272), or a growth of 2.1 per cent over that of the previous year, in real terms. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, savings deposits of urban and rural residents more than doubled, and by 2000 had topped 6,400 billion yuan (US$773 billion), or an increase of more than five times compared to what it had been eight years previously. The consumption level has constantly improved, and the average annual growth rate of the volume of total retail sales of consumer goods during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period reached 10.6 per cent. 
The proportion of expenditure on clothes, food and daily necessities has decreased, and the proportion of expenditure for housing, communications and telecommunications, medical and health care, culture, education and recreation has increased rapidly. In 1999, the consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents, excluding clothing, food, housing and daily necessities, made up 29.3 per cent and 21.6 per cent of their total consumption expenditure respectively or an increase of 8.2 percentage points and 6.2 percentage points respectively over the figures for 1995. In 2000, the Engel's coefficient of urban residents (the proportion of food expenditure in the total consumption expenditure) was about 40 per cent, or a drop of close to 10 percentage points from that of 1995, and a decrease of 18 percentage points from that in 1978. Meanwhile, the Engel's coefficient of rural residents was about 50 per cent, or a decrease of about 8 percentage points from that of 1995, and approximately 19 percentage points lower than that of 1954. As for food consumption, grain consumption has decreased, and consumption of aquatic products, meat, domestic fowls, eggs, milk and other foodstuffs related to domestic animals has increased substantially. At present, for every 100 urban households there are 116.6 colour TV sets, 90.5 washing machines, 86.7 refrigerators, and 30.8 air-conditioners: close to the level of developed countries. For every 100 rural households there are 38.24 colour TV sets, 24.32 washing machines and 10.64 refrigerators, increases of 21.32, 7.42 and 5.49 respectively over the figures for 1995. Not so long ago, almost no Chinese families owned a household computer, video camera, microwave oven or VCD player. In 1999, however, for every 100 urban households there were 5.91 household computers, 1.06 video cameras, 12 microwave ovens and 25 VCD players. 
Housing conditions have been continuously improved. The living space per urban resident increased from 8.1 square metres in 1995 to 9.8 square metres in 1999; and the living space per rural resident grew from 21 square metres to 24.2 square metres. In 2000, 510 million square metres of floor space of urban residential buildings were completed; And the construction of rural residential buildings totalling a floor space of 850 million square metres were completed. Housing conditions have therefore improved. 
While improving people's living standards across the board, the Chinese Government has attached great importance to ensuring that poverty-stricken people have enough to eat and wear. Since the initiation of reform and opening-up in 1979, China has initiated large-scale nationwide poverty aid programmes. By the end of 2000, the incidence of poverty in rural areas dropped from 30.7 per cent in 1978 to about 3 per cent. The net income per farmer in the 592 poverty-stricken counties at the top of the State aid-the-poor agenda, increased from 648 yuan (US$78) in 1994 to 1,348 yuan (US$163) in 2000. More than 97 per cent of the townships in the poverty-stricken areas nationwide are now accessible by bus and have electricity; And 98 per cent of such townships have small hospitals. The problem of ensuring that the poverty-stricken people have enough to eat and wear has basically been solved, and their quality of life has been greatly improved, forming a striking contrast with the situation worldwide in which the poverty-stricken population keeps increasing. The UN Development Programme holds that China's achievements in the development-oriented aid-the-poor work have provided a model for developing countries, and even for the whole world. 
Medical care and the physique of the people have constantly improved. At the end of 2000, China had 325,000 medical centres (including clinics), 3.18 million hospital beds and 4.49 million medical personnel. Some 89.8 per cent of villages had medical centres, with 1.32 million rural doctors and other medical personnel. Meanwhile, physical culture has developed vigorously, a nationwide health-building drive has been launched, and the physique of the Chinese people throughout the country has improved greatly. In the past three years, the State Administration of Sport and all the provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities have invested in the construction of nearly 10,000 special health centres. In addition, China has constructed a total of 1,939 health projects. All these have provided favourable conditions for the launching of the health-building drive across the country. In 2000, the Chinese Government set up a people's physique monitoring system, planning to include monitoring targets in the State's comprehensive social development appraisal targets. China has participated in world sport and joined the top ranks of international sport. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, held in 2000, Chinese athletes won 28 gold medals, 16 silver medals and 15 bronze medals, ranking China third in the world. In domestic and international games in 2000, Chinese athletes won 110 world championships, and 14 athletes and two teams chalked up a total of 22 world records. 
The huge improvement in people's living standards has greatly raised the level of people's health. The death rate of the Chinese population decreased from 33 per thousand before 1949 to 6.46 per thousand in 1999. People's life-expectancy on average has risen from 35 years before 1949 to 71.8 years in 2000, or 10 years longer than that of developing countries and reaching the level of moderately-developed countries. 
II. The guarantee of citizens' political rights 
China has actively promoted the building of democracy and the legal system, constantly worked to perfect the people's congress system and the multi-party co-operation and political consultation system under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and made great efforts to strengthen the building of democracy at the grass-roots level and earnestly safeguard citizens' political rights. 
The people's congress system is China's fundamental political system. All power in China belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise State power are the National People's Congress (NPC) and the local People's Congresses. The NPC is the supreme organ of State power. It decides State policies and principles, and exercises the State legislative power. Since the Third Session of the Ninth NPC which was held in March 2000, the NPC and its Standing Committee have examined 30 proposed laws, of which 18 have been approved. The Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated in 2000, is an important law concerning the State legislation system, and is of great significance in perfecting that system, safeguarding its unification, setting up and improving the system of law with Chinese characteristics and promoting the building of democracy based on law. 
The NPC and its Standing Committee have vigorously reinforced the implementation of the laws and supervision over the administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs, and notable results have been achieved. In 2000, the NPC Standing Committee organized a law-enforcement inspection group, which has checked the implementation of four laws, such as the Criminal Procedure Law and the Organic Law of the Urban Neighbourhood Committees, effectively supervising the implementation of these laws. The NPC Standing Committee supervises the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate by various means, such as inspection, law-enforcement examination, and hearing and deliberating work reports. To strengthen the supervision of the budget and economic work, the NPC Standing Committee adopted the Resolution on Strengthening the Examination and Supervision of the Central Budget in February 1999, and the Resolution on Strengthening the Supervision of Economic Work in March 2000. In addition, the NPC Standing Committee is working out a Supervision Law. Deputies to the NPC have increased their enthusiasm for participating in the exercise of State power. At the Fourth Session of the Ninth NPC held in March 2001, the deputies raised 1,040 proposals, the highest number since the Sixth NPC. 
The multi-party co-operation and political consultation system under the leadership of the CPC is an important component of China's democratic political system. 
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) consists of representatives of the CPC, non-Communist parties, personages without party affiliation, people's organizations, ethnic groups and groups from other walks of life, as well as representatives of compatriots from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, returned overseas Chinese and specially invited individuals. Hence, the CPPCC has extensive representation. The committees of the CPPCC at all levels and the non-Communist parties are playing a more and more important role in political consultation, democratic supervision, and participation in the deliberation and administration of State affairs. Now the chairmen of the central committees of the eight non-Communist parties, the chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and 13 other people from the non-Communist parties, personages without party affiliation and non-Party personages from all walks of life, totalling 22, serve as vice-chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee or vice-chairmen of the CPPCC National Committee. Twenty-seven non-Communist party personages and personages without party affiliation serve as vice-governors, vice-chairmen, vice-mayors or assistants in the country's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities; Nearly 10,000 democratic party personages and personages without party affiliation hold leading posts in the governments, government departments and judicial organs at or above the county level; More than 140,000 non-Communist party personages and personages without party affiliation have been elected deputies to the people's congresses at different levels; And more than 220,000 non-Communist party personages and personages without party affiliation are members of the CPPCC committees at different levels. 
In 2000, the CPPCC National Committee actively participated in the deliberation and administration of State affairs, offered advice and suggestions, organized CPPCC National Committee members to make special investigations and inspections of a number of important issues concerning economic and social development during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), held special forums and symposiums, and submitted to the CPC Central Committee more than 10 reports, such as Opinions on Promoting the Readjustment of the Economic Structure During the 10th Five-Year Plan Period, and the Proposal on the Need for the 10th Five-Year Plan to Embody Systems Innovation, thus providing important reference material for the State's formulation of the Outline of the 10th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. On the basis of special research, the CPPCC National Committee has offered many opinions and suggestions to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on implementing the strategy for the over-all development of the western region, speeding up the project to divert water from the south to the north, perfecting the social security system, quickening the reform of the distribution system, promoting the building of communities, deepening the reform of the judicial system, and guaranteeing judicial fairness and social stability. 
The channels for the CPPCC committees at all levels, all non-Communist parties and all personages without party affiliation to engage in democratic supervision have been further widened. Now, tens of thousands of non-Communist party personages and personages without party affiliation serve as special advisers to the people's procuratorates, and to supervision, auditing, education, land resources, taxation, personnel and public security departments, participating in legal and administrative supervision. Members of CPPCC committees at all levels reflect the opinions and demands of the masses from all walks of life and exercise their right to democratic supervision through discussing significant issues, criticizing the work of State organs and their working personnel, making suggestions and other means. In 2000, members of CPPCC committees throughout the country attended the symposiums on strict, fair and civilized law enforcement held by the public security organs, more than 130,000 person-times, and inspected public security organs 11,000 person-times, thus playing a powerful supervision role in impartial law enforcement. 
Building democratic politics at the grass-roots level in rural areas, with democratic elections, decision-making, administration and supervision as the basic components has been promoted in an all-round way, and developed steadily. Since the implementation of the Organic Law of the Villagers' Committees, which was revised in November 1998, the building of the systems of democratic elections, discussion of village affairs by the villagers themselves, and making village affairs public has been constantly improved. Twenty-three provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China have worked out the new electoral procedures for the villagers' committees; Seventeen provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have adopted the measures for implementation of the Organic Law of the Villagers' Committees; Many cities and counties have worked out implementation guidelines for villagers' self-government work; And almost all villages have formulated or revised their village regulations and agreements, and regulations on villagers' self-government. 
The villagers' committees in 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have been re-elected with some 600 million farmers participating directly in the elections, representing an turnout rate of more then 80 per cent. The villagers' self-government level as a whole has markedly improved. Meanwhile, making township political affairs public has been promoted in an all-round way. Since the beginning of 2000, 35,000 townships throughout the country have made their political affairs public, making up well over 80 per cent of the total number of townships. Thus, remarkable progress has been made in the building of democratic politics at the township level. 
III. Judicial guarantee for human rights 
Attaching great importance to safeguarding human rights through perfecting legislation, ensuring an impartial judiciary and strictly enforcing the law, China has made considerable progress in building a judicial guarantee for human rights. 
It is a principle of the Chinese Constitution and the basic programme of managing State affairs of the Chinese Government to run the country according to law. Over 390 laws and decisions involving legal problems have been formulated by the NPC and its Standing Committee, more than 800 administrative laws and regulations by the State Council and 8,000-plus local laws and regulations by the local People's Congresses since the initiation of the reform and opening-up process. As a result, a fairly complete legal system has taken shape with the constitution at the core. There are laws covering all fields of social life, providing a comprehensive judicial guarantee for the various human rights of the citizens. To improve the legal sense of administrative laws, executors and judicial personnel at various levels and the awareness of the rights and duties of the citizens, China has actively carried out publicity stressing the rule of law and mass activities promoting knowledge of the law. Some 750 million people in China have participated in activities involving the study of laws, over 280 special lectures on the legal system for leaders at the provincial or ministerial level have been held with an accumulative total of 12,000 participants, and 184,000 leaders at the prefectural or departmental level have received regular legal training in the past five years. 
To earnestly guarantee that persons in financial difficulty can exercise their litigation rights according to law, the Supreme People's Court formulated the Regulations on Providing Judicial Assistance for Litigants Actually in Financial Difficulty in July, 2000. 
According to the regulations, in dealing with civil and administrative cases involving litigants in actual financial difficulty, especially the elderly, women, minors, disabled people and laid-off workers pressing for payment of alimony, the costs of maintenance and upbringing, pensions for families of deceased persons and old-age pensions, or for payment of medical costs and acquisition of material compensations for victims of traffic or industrial accidents and faulty medical treatment, payment of litigation costs may be postponed, reduced or remitted in accordance with the law. In 2000, courts across the country made decisions on such costs in more than 190,000 cases. 
Procuratorial organs have reinforced litigation supervision according to the law to improve the quality of handling cases and to safeguard the legitimate rights of citizens. In 2000, procuratorial organs throughout the country placed 4,626 criminal cases involving misconduct by judicial personnel on file for investigation according to the law; put forward 14,349 rectification opinions against public security organs adopting improper mandatory measures and other actions that violated the law; criticized cases that exceeded the time-limit for summoning criminal suspects for detention, for suing and for adjudication 64,254 times; protested 3,798 court decisions and rulings on criminal cases regarded as wrong and 16,944 court decisions on civil administrative cases; and put forward rectification opinions against illegal commutation, release on parole or medical parole 9,318 times. In the meantime, across the nation, procuratorates have actively carried out a system whereby the main-suit procurator assumes full responsibility for handling cases, main-suit prosecutors are selected through competition, thus carrying out the reform of public prosecutions, and trial-implemented the systems of public investigations of non-prosecution cases and the demonstration of evidence before the court. All these things have gone a long way towards safeguarding impartial justice and the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects. 
China punishes criminal offences in accordance with the law and protects the safety of citizens' lives and property and other human rights from infringement. In 2000, the public security bureaux and judicial organs adopted forceful measures to crack down on serious violent crimes in accordance with the law, such as crimes with gangster connections and characteristics, crimes involving the use of guns and explosives and gang-related crimes, as well as frequently occurring criminal activities such as theft and robbery. They also punished, according to law, a handful of criminals who caused deaths or gathered people to upset the public order by organizing and using the Falun Gong cult, effectively safeguarding social stability and the people's lives and property. 
To deepen the reform of the judicial system, courts at various levels have strengthened the administration of justice and law enforcement, actively implemented the system of choosing and appointing presiding judges and individual jurors, fully carried out the system of public adjudication, perfected the judicial rehabilitation system and further intensified the internal supervisory and circumscribing mechanism of the courts and the mechanism for correcting errors, thereby effectively safeguarding impartial justice. In 2000, China's courts tried or handled over 560,000 criminal cases in the first instance, in which more than 640,000 criminals were sentenced; over 3.41 million civil cases in the first instance; more than 1.31 million cases involving economic, intellectual property and maritime affairs; 2,447 cases involving State compensation; 86,614 administrative lawsuits, including 13,635 cases involving the revocation of inappropriate administrative practices by administrative organs, or 15.74 per cent of the total number; and cleared over 138,000 cases exceeding the trial time-limits, and some 475,000 long-pending cases, basically liquidating the arrears of cases and effectively safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations. 
The lawyer system and the system of legal assistance have been constantly improved, and are playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding the rights of citizens and promoting impartial justice. At present, there are over 9,500 lawyers' offices and more than 110,000 lawyers in China. In addition, 92 foreign law firms and 28 Hong Kong law firms had been allowed to set up offices on the Chinese mainland by July 2000. In 1999, lawyers throughout the country handled 1,364,000 lawsuits; In 2000, they participated in the defence of over 310,000 criminals and provided legal assistance for criminal suspects at the criminal procedure and investigation stage in more than 170,000 cases. 
By the end of 2000, China had established 1,853 legal assistance organs at various levels, with 6,109 full-time personnel in their employ. In 2000, more than 170,000 cases of legal assistance were handled in China, in which over 228,000 persons received assistance, and 830,000 persons were offered consultancy on law-related problems, thus protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the poor, weak and disabled and other litigants. 
China protects, in accordance with the law, the legitimate rights of prisoners, and has achieved remarkable results in reforming criminals. The number of prisoners released at the end of their terms returning to crime has remained between 6 and 8 per cent for many years, a very low rate compared to other countries. To strengthen the supervision of prison staff, the people's procuratorates at various levels have further improved the system of establishing resident agencies and offices in prisons throughout the country. In 1999, the Ministry of Justice began to carry out a three-year education programme to improve the quality of prison guards. As a result, their ability to enforce the law has been markedly improved. 
IV. The economic, social and cultural rights of citizens 
In 2000, the Chinese Government made new efforts and achieved new progress in the protection of workers' economic, social and cultural rights. 
In 2000, to standardize the labour market and guarantee workers' right to employment, the government promulgated and implemented the Regulations on the Administration of the Labour Market in accordance with the Labour Law. According to statistics, by the end of 2000, there were more than 710 million employees in China, an increase of 5.64 million over the figure for the previous year, including the over 210 million employees in cities and towns, an increase of 2.6 million over the figure for the previous year. Last year, 3.61 million workers laid off by State-owned enterprises found new jobs through various channels. The registered urban unemployment rate was 3.1 per cent by the end of 2000. To better solve the employment of rural workers, in 2000 the Chinese Government started a 3-year programme for the overall planning of urban and rural employment, retraining rural workers, promoting the development and employment of the rural labour force in the western region, and encouraging and supporting migrant labourers to return to their home villages to start businesses. 
China has worked hard to develop job training with a view to enhancing workers' job skills and quality and improving their capabilities of finding employment and adapting to job changes. In 2000, the Chinese Government formulated the Regulations on Employing Skilled Workers and the Procedures for Implementation of the Training of Labour Reserves. According to statistics, there were 4,098 secondary technical training schools nationwide with an enrollment of over 1.5 million in 2000; more than 3,000 training centres, with annual admissions of 4.08 million; and 16,000 training centres run by social sectors, with annual admissions of 3.6 million. A total of 4.5 million jobless persons and laid-off workers received new skills training, 300,000 people received guidance for and training in starting businesses, and 750,000 junior and senior middle school graduates in urban areas who failed to continue further studies received training under the "training of labour reserves" programme. In 2000, 4.25 million students were admitted to various secondary vocational and technical schools, bringing the enrollment of such schools up to a grand total of 12.95 million; And 96.42 million people received training at adult technical training schools. To date, approximately 30 million people have obtained professional credentials in China. 
The State guarantees the workers' right to obtain payment for labour, and their wages have been on the increase. In 2000, the government formulated the Guidelines on Further Deepening the Reform of the Internal Distribution System of Enterprises and the Trial Measures on Settling Wages Through Collective Negotiations, to strengthen the guidance for enterprises' payment of wages. In 1999, the wages of workers in cities and towns totalled 987.55 billion yuan (US$119 billion), an increase of 6.2 per cent over the figure for the previous year; And their per capita wage was 8,346 yuan (US$1,008), an increase of 11.6 per cent over that for the previous year, and a 13.1 per cent growth in real terms, allowing for price fluctuations. By the end of 2000, all the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, except Tibet, had established and improved a minimum-wage guarantee system, and readjusted and issued the standards for minimum wages in their own areas. 
To safeguard the social security rights of workers, China has preliminarily established a social insurance system, mainly covering basic pension insurance, basic medical insurance and unemployment insurance for workers in cities and towns. It has also raised the basic livelihood guarantee for workers laid off by State-owned enterprises, the level of unemployment insurance, and the minimum standard of living for urban residents. By the end of 2000, the system for ensuring a minimum standard of living for urban residents had been established in all cities and towns where the governments at the county level are located, benefiting 3.818 million urban residents. Fifteen provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had established such a system for rural residents, benefiting 3 million villagers at a total cost of 730 million yuan (US$88 million). In 2000, State financial expenditures on social insurance increased substantially, and social security costs, such as old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, the basic livelihood guarantee for laid-off workers, and the minimum-standard-of-living guarantee for urban residents arranged by the central budget reached 47.8 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion), an increase of 86 per cent over such expenditures in 1999. By the end of 2000, a total of 104.08 million workers in China were participating in the unemployment insurance programme, with a monthly average of 1.88 million receiving unemployment insurance. About 104.47 million workers and 31.7 million retirees were participating in the basic pension insurance programme; 43 million workers were participating in the basic medical insurance programme. Over 2,000 counties and cities had established an insurance system to cover injuries at work, covering 42 million workers; 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had tried out childbirth insurance, and 1,412 counties and cities introduced the childbirth insurance mutual assistance programme, in which approximately 30 million workers are participating. 
China has increased its investment in education to create favourable conditions for citizens to exercise their right to receive education. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the education fund increased at a rate of 15.56 per cent annually on average, which was higher than the growth rate of the national economy. The proportion of the national financial education fund to the GDP increased continuously, rising from 2.41 per cent in 1995 to 2.79 per cent in 1999. The nation's total expenditure on education in 1999 was 1.8 times that of 1995. The central and local governments raised an 11.6-billion-yuan (US$1.4 billion) special education fund for 852 poverty-level counties following the introduction of the Project for Compulsory Education in Poverty-stricken Areas. The State formulated Regulations on the Administration of State Loans for Students (for trial implementation) and Regulations on the Operation of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China State Loans for Students (for trial implementation), so as to comprehensively institute a student loan system to guarantee students with financial difficulties the right to receive education. By the end of 2000, China had virtually made nine-year compulsory education universal, covering 85 per cent of the population, and basically wiped out illiteracy among the young and adults, reducing the rate of young and adult illiterates to less than 5 per cent of the people in those age groups. Statistics show that there were 22.44 million children in kindergartens in China in 2000; over 130 million pupils in primary schools, the attendance rate of school-age children reaching 99.1 per cent; 62.56 million students in junior middle schools, the gross attendance rate reaching 88.6 per cent; 12.01 million students in 14,600 senior middle schools; 5.56 million students in 1,041 institutions of higher learning; 3.54 million students in 772 adult institutions of higher learning; 301,000 students in 738 institutions for training postgraduates; and 378,000 students in special education schools. 
Cultural undertakings have developed rapidly and the people's cultural life has become increasingly rich and colourful. By the end of 2000, China had 2,622 performing art troupes; 2,911 cultural centres; 2,769 public libraries; 1,373 museums; 3,816 archival facilities; national and provincial newspapers with a circulation of 20.3 billion copies, magazines with a circulation of 2.85 billion copies and books with a circulation of 6.35 billion copies; 732 medium-and short-wave broadcast transmission and relay stations, covering 92.1 per cent of the population; and 1,313 TV transmission and relay stations each with more than 1,000 watts, covering 93.4 per cent of the population. China has 79.2 million users of cable television, ranking first in the world. 
Telecommunications have advanced at an astounding rate. The second-largest three-dimensional communications network in the world linking the whole country and the rest of the world has been established, and the number of telephone subscribers ranks second in the world. By the end of 2000, there were 230 million telephone subscribers nationwide, including 85.26 million mobile phone subscribers, second only to the United States. For every 100 urban residents there are 39 telephones on average, and telephone service covers 80 per cent of villages with administrative organizations. Digital and multi-media communications networks now cover all prefectures and cities, as well as some counties. Automatic roaming through the networks of China Mobile Communications Corporation and China Unicom reaches 84 countries and regions. The number of the Internet users has risen from 10,000 in 1994, when China joined the Internet network, to well over 22.5 million. There are more than 27,300 websites in China at present. 
V. Protection of women's and children's rights 
Sustained efforts have been made to promote and effectively protect Chinese women's rights in the political, economic, social, educational, marital and domestic spheres. The extent of Chinese women's involvement in the management of State and social affairs has markedly increased. 
The ratios of female deputies in the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) and female members on the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have risen by 0.8 and 2 percentage points, respectively, as compared with the NPC and CPPCC National Committee of the last terms. At present, female civil servants account for one third of the country's total. Women hold leading posts in the Party committees and governments of 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, an increase of 46.47 per cent over the figure five years ago. In the 668 cities of China, there are 463 female mayors and vice-mayors. Among the leaders of the federations of trade unions of each province, municipality and autonomous region, there are one to two chairwomen or vice-chairwomen. 
The number of employed women has continuously grown. By October 2000, the number of female employees had reached 330 million, accounting for 46.7 per cent of the total number of employees in China. The employed women have tended to shift to tertiary industries from conventional industries. The ratio of women engaged in agriculture, manufacturing and building industries is declining, while the ratio in culture, education, science and technology, health care, finance, insurance, transportation, posts and telecommunications, State organs, non-governmental organizations and other sectors, is increasing. Such a shift facilitates the comprehensive development of women in economic activities, which are more suited to women's physiological characteristics. In 2000, a total of more than 40 million women in China's rural areas received agricultural high-tech training, five of whom won the "Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life" of the Women's World Summit Foundation. 
Women's educational levels have risen further. According to statistics, in recent years improvements in both the length of education and rate of literacy of women aged 15 have been greater than those for men. The gap in the educational levels of the two sexes is also narrowing. In 2000, the average length of education enjoyed by women exceeded 6.5 years, and the gap between adult men and women in this regard narrowed from 1.7 years in 1995 to less than 1.5 years. In the past few years, China has helped nearly 3 million illiterate people each year learn how to read and write, among whom 65 per cent were women. By the end of 1999, the illiteracy rate of adult women was 21.6 per cent, and the illiteracy rate of women between 15 and 45 years old was 7.2 per cent. In the year 2000, the ratio of primary school attendance for girls throughout China reached 99.07 per cent, almost equal to the 99.14 per cent for boys. Female students in kindergartens, primary schools, vocational secondary schools, regular secondary schools, secondary normal schools, secondary technical schools and regular institutions of higher learning made up 46.08 per cent, 47.60 per cent, 47.17 per cent, 46.17 per cent, 67.49 per cent, 54.63 per cent and 40.98 per cent of the total number of students attending schools of the same kind. Among the nation's professionals, more than 110 million were women, constituting 40.6 per cent of the total, or an increase of 14.8 per cent over 1995. 
Among those female professionals, 3.263 million and 436,000 have professional titles of middle and senior ranks respectively. Furthermore, currently there are 70 female academicians at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, making up 6 per cent of the total, which is a fairly high ratio when compared with international equivalents. 
Women's health conditions have constantly improved. In 2000, there were 609 hospitals specially for women and children, employing 72,000 medical personnel, and 2,598 clinics for women and children, employing 75,000 medical personnel. By 1999, the ratio of health care for pregnant women throughout the country had exceeded 86 per cent, and 95.4 per cent of rural women had access to modern methods of midwifery. The mortality rate of pregnant women and women in labour dropped to 56.2 per 100,000 from 61.9 per 100,000 in 1995. Beginning in 2000, the Chinese Government has practised a two-year special plan in the western regions and impoverished rural areas with 200 million yuan (US$24 million) earmarked to combat the maternal mortality rate. In October 2000, the China Poverty Relief Fund formally started the strategic plan of "Action 120 for the Safety of Mother and Baby," committing itself to establishing health and first-aid organs for women and children at the county, township and village levels in poverty-stricken areas in the six provinces and one municipality in the central and western parts of China, to improve the health care of poor mothers and babies, and reducing the mortality rate of babies, pregnant women and women in labour. An estimated 32 million yuan (US$3.86 million) is to go to this 10-year campaign. 
The State has adopted measures to effectively protect women's rights. To curb domestic violence, bigamy and the taking of concubines more effectively, to improve the family property system, and to protect women's rights in marriage and the family, the NPC mobilized people from various circles to conduct serious research for the revision of the Marriage Law, and publicized draft amendments to the Marriage Law in January 2001 for public discussion. So far, the people's congresses and governments at all levels have formulated over 20 local regulations and policies for preventing and curbing domestic violence. 
By the end of October 2000, 13 provinces and 47 prefectures, cities and counties in other parts of the country had established the system of joint conferences for protecting women's rights, attended by many departments, to regularly co-ordinate, supervise and examine the work of protecting women's rights and interests. 
The court system has set up 544 collegiate panels for safeguarding the rights and interests of women and children, employing 4,266 full-time cadres from women's organizations as people's assessors to directly participate in the trial of cases involving women's rights and interests. Between April and July 2000, the public security organs launched a nationwide movement to crack down on crimes of abducting and trafficking women and children, in accordance with law, and uncovered some 20,000 such cases, which involved 7,600 criminal gangs, saving or making proper arrangements for the resettlement of a large number of women and children who had been abducted and sold. 
The rights of children have been effectively protected. China has constantly upheld the prophylactic immunization filing system for children to prevent and control pneumonia, diarrhea, rickets and iron-deficiency anaemia. China has also conducted a baby-friendly campaign, advocated breast feeding, built baby-friendly hospitals, provided health care services such as children's nutrition guides, the monitoring of children's growth, examination of newborn infant diseases, preschool education, increasingly improving children's growth level and nutrition conditions. In 2000, child mortality dropped by one third as compared with 1990, and the rate of malnutrition among children dropped by 50 per cent. To promote the healthy development of children, the Programme for the Safe and Healthy Development of Chinese Children was initiated in October 2000. The basic tasks of this programme are, through a series of publicity activities and providing training and services, to create a favourable social environment for the sound development of children, help children to stay away from dropping out, disease, injury and crime, and effectively protect the rights and interests of children. By the end of 1999, the Project Hope had received a total of 1.84 billion yuan (US$222 million) in donations, with which it had helped the construction of 7,812 Hope primary schools and aided 2.3 million school dropouts. In 2000, the Children's Foundation of China raised some 81 million yuan (US$9.8 million) to support the implementation of the "Spring Buds Programme," helping a total of 1.05 million female dropouts return to school. 
VI. Equal rights and special protection for ethnic groups 
In China, ethnic groups enjoy not only all the rights citizens are entitled to under the Constitution and the law, but also special rights enjoyed only by ethnic groups. To guarantee equality with the Han people and the special rights and interests of ethnic groups, China practises a system of autonomy in ethnic group areas. In February 2001, the Standing Committee of the Ninth NPC made amendments to the Law Governing Regional Ethnic Autonomy, improving and modernizing the system of regional ethnic autonomy as part of the basic political system of China. New stipulations added in the law include implementing necessary special policies in the ethnic autonomous areas and increasing investment in and accelerating the development of these areas, all things that have further strengthened the legal guarantee of autonomy in the autonomous areas. According to statistics, the 55 ethnic groups in China have a combined population of more than 100 million, or 8.41 per cent of the country's total population, of which 75 per cent enjoy regional ethnic autonomy. 
The right of ethnic groups to participate in the administration of State affairs on an equal footing with the Han people and the right to manage their own regions and affairs are safeguarded by law. Among NPC deputies and CPPCC National Committee members, the percentage of ethnic group people has far exceeded the proportion of the ethnic population in the national population. There are altogether 428 ethnic deputies to the Ninth NPC and 257 ethnic members in the CPPCC Ninth National Committee, accounting for 14.37 per cent and 11.7 per cent of the total respectively. 
Among the chairpeople and vice-chairpeople of the standing committees of the People's Congresses of autonomous areas there has to be one or more citizens of the ethnic group or groups exercising regional autonomy in the area concerned. The head of an autonomous region, autonomous prefecture or autonomous county must be a citizen of the ethnic group exercising regional autonomy in the area concerned, and the other members of the local governments of these regions, prefectures and counties must include members of the ethnic group exercising regional autonomy as well as members of other ethnic groups so far as it is reasonable. By the end of 1999, there were 2.8 million ethnic cadres. 
In 2000, there were over 50,000 ethnic cadres in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and cadres of the Tibetan ethnic group accounted for over 70 per cent of the total number of cadres there. Tibetan deputies and those of other ethnic groups exceeded 80 per cent of the total number of deputies to the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region. 
The State has a policy to assist the economic and social development of the minority regions and improve people's living standards there, which is being achieved by providing funding, technology and personnel. In 2000, the GDP of these regions increased by an average of 8.1 per cent from the previous year. This rate has been higher than that of the national average since 1997. The financial revenues of these regions increased by 14.2 per cent in 2000 from the year before. The total volume of consumer goods sold increased by 9 per cent from the previous year. From 1994 to 1999, the problems of food and clothing for over 30 million poverty-stricken people in the minority areas have been solved. In recent years, the annual financial set-quota subsidy from the Central Government to Tibet has been over 1.2 billion yuan (US$145 million). Sixty-two aid-Tibet projects with a total investment of 4.6 billion yuan (US$556 million) and another 716 projects with a total investment of 3.2 billion yuan (US$386 million) from ministries, commissions and other central government institutions as well as 15 provinces and municipalities have been completed and put to use. According to statistics, the length of highways in Tibet has reached 25,000 kilometres. The total installed capacity of the electricity network has reached 340,000 kilowatts. All counties in Tibet have set up telephone systems connected with the national network. An infrastructure suited to the development of a market economy is now taking shape in Tibet. The GDP of Tibet has surpassed the 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) mark, and the growth rate of the region's economy has exceeded the national average for 6 years running, at 10.7 per cent annually. There have been bumper harvests for the past 13 years, and now the Tibetans can support themselves with the grain, oil and meat they produce themselves. Nowadays, 98 per cent of commodities in Tibet exceed demand, a sharp contrast to the old days when 80 per cent of needed goods in Tibet had to be transferred from other areas. The number of absolutely poor people in Tibet has been reduced from 480,000 in 1994 to the present 70,000. Most people in Tibet today are fast on their way to obtaining a relatively comfortable standard of living. 
The State makes great efforts to support the ethnic regions by developing education, and has set aside special subsidies and funds for this purpose. In 2000, the government began the Project for Schools in Eastern Regions to Aid Schools in Poverty-Stricken Areas in the West and the Project for Large and Medium Cities in the West Aiding Schools in Poverty-Stricken Areas in Their Own Provinces (Autonomous Regions or Municipalities). Moreover, the government worked out the Proposals on Accelerating the Reform and Development of Vocational Education in Ethnic Minority Regions and Regional Ethnic Autonomy Areas, demanding that measures be taken to establish and perfect an effective system and safeguard mechanisms for investment in vocational education development in ethnic regions and to train teachers and management personnel for these regions. According to statistics, in 2000 there were 925,000 full-time ethnic teachers and 18.5 million ethnic students in schools of all levels and types across the country. Minority students in primary schools, middle schools and colleges accounted for 9.08 per cent, 6.77 per cent and 5.71 per cent, respectively, of the total number of students in those schools. Now all 55 ethnic groups have students attending college, and some are master's and doctor's degree holders. Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, the State has poured over 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) into the development of education in Tibet. The State has not only set up Tibetan secondary and primary schools in inland regions, and Tibetan classes at inland universities, but it has also set up four universities and more than 1,000 secondary and primary schools in Tibet, bringing the attendance rate of Tibetan school-age children to 85.8 per cent from less than 2 per cent before 1951, and has trained over 30,000 personnel in various skills for Tibet. 
The State safeguards the freedom of the ethnic groups to use and develop their own languages. The organs of self-government in autonomous areas may use one or several of the languages commonly used in the locality, according to law, in performing their functions, in film, radio and television and in books, newspapers and magazines. Since the 1950s, the Chinese Government has helped over 10 ethnic groups create and improve scripts of their own choice, voluntarily. To date, 53 of the 55 ethnic groups across the country have their own languages, and there are over 80 ethnic dialects; 21 ethnic groups have a total of 27 scripts of their own in current use, which are all computer-readable. And many of the minorities have radio, film, television, books and periodicals in their own languages. The State helps minority regions to institute teaching in local languages or bilingual teaching and to enhance the editing of teaching materials in minority languages. Primary and middle schools in Tibet teach in Tibetan or in both Tibetan and Chinese, and all the 181 textbooks, 122 teaching reference books and 16 syllabi of the 16 courses used in schools from primary to senior high school level have been translated into Tibetan. Following the establishment of the Mongolian Language Net, the first website in Tibetan in the world - the Tongyuan Tibetan Language Net - was established in December 1999 at the Northwest Institute for Ethnic Groups in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. 
The Chinese Government is keen to protect and develop traditional cultures of ethnic groups and respects their folk ways and customs in such aspects as diet, marriage, funerals, festivals and religious beliefs. In February 2000, the Ministry of Culture and the State Commission of Ethnic Affairs jointly promulgated the Proposals on Further Strengthening Ethnic Minority-related Cultural Work, stressing the need to protect the unique traditional cultures and rich cultural heritages of all ethnic groups and set up ethnic cultural and ecological preservation zones where possible, at the same time demanding that the Han-inhabited developed regions in the eastern part of China increase their assistance to the minority-inhabited western regions in their projects for cultural development. 
To date, 24 art universities and colleges across the country have opened classes specially for training artists of minority origin, and all the colleges for ethnic groups and some middle schools and colleges in autonomous areas also offer special courses on minority literature, music, dance and fine arts. Since the 1990s, the budgets of central and local governments have earmarked special subsidies and funds for building, extending or repairing a number of libraries, cultural centres, cultural clubs, museums, cinemas and theatres. In recent years, the central and Tibetan regional governments have spent nearly 300 million yuan (US$36 million) on repairing and protecting the Potala Palace, Sakya Monastery, Jokhang Temple, Drepung Monastery, the Guge Kingdom ruins in Ngari and other important cultural and historical sites. At present, there are over 50 Tibetan studies institutes nationwide with over 2,000 researchers, and more than 10 Tibetological periodicals in Tibetan, Chinese and English. The first four Tibetan-language volumes of the Tibetan epic King Gesar, one of the highest achievements of ancient Tibetan culture, have been published. The College of Tibetan Medicine, the biggest and most authoritative of its kind in China, has trained over 650 undergraduate students and students of junior college level and 10 master's degree students. 
Due to the influence of natural, historical and other factors, the western region, where ethnic groups are concentrated, lags far behind the southeastern seaboard region economically, a fact that, to a large extent, restricts the improvement of conditions for minority peoples. To solve this problem once and for all, the Chinese Government began in 2000 to implement a strategy for the all-out development of the west, at the same time intensifying its assistance of the minority regions using policy, funds and personnel. This will greatly promote economic and social development in these regions and allow for the full realization of the equal rights of ethnic groups. 
VII. Actively carrying out international exchanges and co-operation in the realm of human rights 
The Chinese Government always respects the purpose and principle of the Charter of the United Nations for promoting and protecting human rights, supports the UN efforts in this regard and actively participates in the UN activities in the realm of human rights. 
The Chinese Government has always attached great importance to the positive role of international conventions on human rights in promoting and protecting human rights, and has approved or acceded to 18 such conventions. The Chinese Government signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October 1997 and October 1998 respectively. On February 28, 2001, the former covenant was deliberated and ratified at the 20th meeting of the Ninth NPC Standing Committee. This fully demonstrates the Chinese Government's positive attitude toward carrying out international co-operation in human rights as well as China's firm determination and confidence in promoting and protecting human rights. In September 2000, the Chinese Government signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, becoming one of the first signatory countries to this convention. China has always taken seriously those international conventions on human rights it has ratified, adopted various measures to fulfill its duties under these conventions and submitted timely reports on their implementation, as stipulated by related conventions, for deliberation and discussion by related UN organs. In 2000, the Chinese Government submitted to the UN its eighth and ninth reports on the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and, in a timely manner, presented to the UN its report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. These have helped UN departments and the international community gain a better understanding of the human rights situation in China. 
China attaches importance to the role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in promoting and protecting human rights, and has actively co-operated with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In March 2000, the Chinese Government and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights together successfully sponsored the Eighth Symposium on Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific Region in Beijing, with representatives from over 40 Asian-Pacific countries attending. President Jiang Zemin wrote a letter congratulating the opening of the symposium, and Vice-Premier of the State Council Qian Qichen delivered a speech at the symposium. Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made a special trip to China to attend the symposium. In November 2000, Mary Robinson visited China again on invitation. During her stay in China, President Jiang Zemin and Vice-Premier Qian Qichen met her respectively, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry signed with her the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Mutual Agreement to Co-operate in the Development and Implementation of Technical Co-operation Programmes. It is defined in the Memorandum that China will carry out project co-operation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the coming two years in the fields of judicial administration, human rights education and legal system, as well as the fulfilment of the right to development and economic, social and cultural rights. China has actively carried out co-operation with the special rapporteurs and working groups on thematic issues of the UN Commission on Human Rights. It has twice invited the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Commission on Human Rights to visit China, and the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance has also visited China on invitation. China has, in a timely and earnest manner, answered the letters on human rights transmitted by the special rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights and other UN human rights mechanisms, clearing up a number of facts and helping the UN and international community toward a better understanding of China. In addition, China and the UN Development Programme also jointly sponsored an international symposium on the problem of cults, to carry out exchanges and explore on how to deal with cults and safeguard human rights by various countries. 
China has consistently advocated carrying out dialogue and exchanges with all countries on the human rights issue on the basis of equality and mutual respect so as to enhance understanding, promote consensus and reduce differences. In February and September 2000, respectively, China held the ninth and 10th dialogues on human rights with the European Union. China and the European Union held the fourth and fifth judicial symposiums in May and December respectively. In February and October respectively, China and Britain held the fourth and fifth dialogues on human rights. In August, China held its fourth human rights dialogue with Australia. In October, China and Canada held the sixth dialogue on human rights. In May, China and Norway jointly held the fourth round-table meeting on human rights and the rule of law. In June, China, Canada and Norway held the Third Symposium on Human Rights in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2000, China held consultations and exchanges on human rights with Cuba, Laos and many other developing countries. In October, China successfully held the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation Ministerial Conference Beijing 2000, with President Jiang Zemin and four heads of state from Africa, nearly 80 ministers from 45 African countries and leaders of related international and regional organizations attending. In the Sino-African Co-operative Forum Beijing Declaration adopted at the meeting, it is emphasized that the principle of universality of human rights and basic freedoms should be respected, and the diversity of the world and the principle of seeking common ground while reserving differences must be safeguarded; that each country has the right to choose different ways and modes of promoting and protecting human rights domestically; and that politicizing the issue of human rights and attaching human rights conditions to economic aid are themselves violations of human rights, and therefore should be firmly opposed. 
The progress of human rights is an important aspect of the social development of all countries, and it is a historical process of continuous advancement. China is a developing country with a huge population. Due to restrictions of nature, history, level of development and other factors, the cause of human rights in China is in the process of developing, and there is still much room for further improvement in its human rights situation. 
In the light of China's national conditions and according to the people's wishes, the Chinese Government aims to build a democratic and modernized country with a high level of civilization under the rule of law, actively learn from the beneficial experiences and cultural achievements of other countries, and, while maintaining social stability, expedite development, strengthen the democratic and legal systems, promote social ethical progress, and continuously push forward the development of the human rights cause in China. At the same time, China will, as always, actively participate in international activities in the realm of human rights, carry out wide-ranging co-operation and exchanges with other countries, and make its due contribution to promoting the healthy development of the international human rights cause.