In the face of constant criticism of its human rights record, the Chinese government has been eager to show the world how it claims to protect its citizens' rights and interests.

At the end of this year, the government went so far as to hold a Human Rights Exhibition, to showcase its efforts and the "People First" policies.

However, it did little to quiet the critics, who cited allegations of illegal arrests and unfair trials that the government said were unfounded.

"A tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that is growing," said Giorgio Magistrelli, executive general manager of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, referring to China's conflicts with the West in the field of trade.

The same is true of human rights. While cases of rights violations grab headlines, the government claims to have been making steady efforts to improve its human rights record, especially in terms of poverty alleviation, education, and health care and social security for the needy.

The frictions between the West and China lie in the different concepts of human rights. While developed nations preach individual freedom and certain political and economic rights, China, with its vast rural economy, argues it must ensure its people enjoy the freedom from want, an issue solved more than half a century ago in the United States.

"In a vast developing nation, the overriding task for the ruling Communist Party of China should be feeding its 1.3 billion people, making them better off, and giving them a better future by providing proper education," said Dong Yunhu, vice-chairman of the China Society for Human Rights Studies.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION

Foreign visitors to China are usually impressed by the rising skylines of Shanghai and Beijing, but many fail to notice the 23.65 million people live under the poverty line, especially in remote rural areas.

China's breakneck, but unbalanced, economic growth has seen the number of people living under poverty line fall from 250 million in 1978 to just 23.65 million last year, and the country has evolved from a beneficiary of the world food aid program to a donor.

To ensure freedom from want, the government has embarked on a mission to build a harmonious society, by which it means narrowing wealth gap and providing more help to the poor.

In October, a national poverty alleviation program was launched to train one million people under poverty line every year till 2010.

This year, 934 government-designated enterprises have helped more than eight million impoverished households raise their incomes, while the poverty alleviation foundation provided small loans to households in abject poverty helping them learn skills and develop farming projects.

FREE NINE-YEAR COMPULSORY EDUCATION

Equal opportunity in education is a basic human right. In "a milestone event" in China's education history, the government will eliminate all charges for rural students receiving a nine-year compulsory education by the end of 2007.

The new policy will benefit 160 million children in rural areas, almost 80 percent of the country's primary and junior middle school students.

"Over the next two years, we will completely eliminate tuition and other fees for all rural students receiving compulsory education," said Premier Wen Jiabao in a cabinetwork report to the annual parliament in March.

Wang Xiwu, deputy director of the No. 5 Middle School in Huining County, in the northwestern Gansu Province, said her school had eliminated all fees and provided students from impoverished families a subsidy of one yuan per day. As far as she knew, all the schools in her county had eliminated all fees.

By October, the central government had earmarked 13.3 billion yuan for implementing the compulsory education scheme in western areas, decreasing the dropout rate.

Next year, the government will allocate more money to the scheme in central and eastern regions, so that all the school-age children will enjoy free nine-year education, said Zhou Ji, minister of education.

HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY

This year saw China setting timetables for the improvement of the health care and social security systems, a critical aspect of raising living standards.

A national survey on medical services earlier this year showed 48.9 percent of Chinese refused to see a doctor when ill and 29.6 percent refused a doctor's advice to be hospitalized due to high costs.

Health care reform comes in response to public dissatisfaction. In October, Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of Health (MOH), said the government would build a system with Chinese characteristics, rather than simply copy a "European model" or "American model".

A timetable provided by the MOH has a new rural cooperative medical service system covering 700 million people in place by 2010, subsidized by the government with 30 billion yuan annually.

To date, 396 million farmers, 44.7 percent of the rural population, are covered by the new system.

In urban areas, the government is vigorously developing affordable community health care services. People suffering minor ailments are advised to go to community health care centers.

The MOH timetable shows at least 95 percent urban communities will have their own health care centers by 2010 and 90 percent of people will be within a 10 to 15-minute walk of a community healthcare center.

Meanwhile, the government will establish a social security system covering both urban and rural areas by 2020, decided at an important CPC meeting in 2006, indicating a substantial increase of social security spending to come.

MORE TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT

The mushrooming government websites and frequently used public hearings are cited by the government as evidence of the public right to know and right to say being respected and safeguarded.

In April, the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission held a hearing on the feasibility of raising taxi fares to offset rising fuel costs. Representatives came from the taxi drivers; taxi passengers and taxi company managements as well as officials.

Most representatives finally agreed on the proposal of raising fares by 25 percent to offset oil price hikes and the Beijing municipal government raised taxi fares from 1.6 yuan per km to two yuan from May 20.

Meanwhile, the education authorities in Chongqing Municipality held a hearing on the feasibility of raising high school tuition fees.

In Xi'an, capital of the northwestern Shannxi Province, the government held hearings on the possible environmental effects of a cement factory construction project. The project is still awaiting final approval, as it must be revised to take public concerns into account.

This year, 86 percent of central government departments and local governments had launched websites to publicize information in time and provide public services.

"The government's website is a great help for business people to learn about central government policies. It gives me lots of useful information for my business," said Lin Xuguang who run his own business in Beijing.

Online interviews with high-ranking officials and online public opinion polls are both popular with Internet users.

RAISING LEGAL AWARENESS

Many people are exercising their newfound legal knowledge by taking governments to court to protect their rights.

In northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, for example, the courts heard more than 1,400 cases in which members of the public sued governments from January to October -- and won in 600 cases.

In December, a medicine company won a lawsuit against the Ministry of Finance, after claiming the ministry had failed to perform its duty in supervising a public tender for medical appliances.

Meanwhile, the government stepped up a campaign to raise public legal awareness, especially among farmers.

Village committees will provide an introduction to the country's legal framework to "every rural household", Dou Yupei, vice minister of civil affairs, has said.

Dou hoped the country's 800 million farmers will learn to better employ their democratic rights, and file complaints that more comprehensively safeguard their interests. The ministry will improve training for village and township officials to ensure that rural affairs be handled lawfully.

China's first five-year program to improve public awareness of legal rights started in 1985. Each five-year program focuses on a particular segment of society.

HUMAN RIGHTS ARE LIKE FRUIT

"The value of human rights is universal, but the dynamic of its implementation varies in different countries," said Dong, of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, explaining China's approach.

He had his own metaphor for the frictions between China and the West. "Human rights is abstract like the concept of fruit, which is the collective notion of apples, pears and bananas, among others. When a certain country wants to push its idea of human rights onto the whole world as the only standard, it's like saying only banana is fruit, the apple and pear are not."

In November, China held its first human rights exhibition. The 10-day event featured more than 700 pictures, 250 legal documents, 330 books and 24 diagrams on China's progress in human rights protection.

"Our aim is to show that China respects and guarantees the constitutional principle of human rights, and to popularize knowledge about human rights among ordinary people," said Dong.

Visitors noticed the exhibition had a special section titled "A Long Way to Go". "The Chinese government realizes much more efforts are needed in promoting its human rights cause," Dong said.

"To hold a human rights exhibition itself represents the Chinese government's enhanced awareness of human rights," said Kirk Denton, associate professor at the Ohio State University, at the exhibition.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006)