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While struggling for the right to subsistence, the Chinese people
have waged a heroic struggle for democratic rights.
The people did not have any democratic rights to speak of in semi-feudal,
semi-colonial China. The Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen,
the great forerunner of bourgeois-democratic revolution, overthrew
the feudal Qing Dynasty and gave rise to the Republic of China.
He hoped to establish a Western-style democratic system in China,
but the fruits of the revolution were snatched by Yuan Shikai, a
feudal warlord. Then parliament became a mere instrument for warlords
in power struggle, and there occurred the scandal of the "parliament
of pigs" and bribery in electing a president. His dream unfulfilled,
Dr. Sun died in sorrow and indignation, which found expression in
his famous admonition: "The revolution has not yet succeeded." Many
Chinese had cherished illusions about the US-supported Chiang Kai-shek
government. However, Chiang turned out to be just another warlord
under whose fascist rule millions of democracy-seeking people perished
in bloody massacres. He adopted a non-resistance policy towards
the Japanese invasion while stepping up the civil war, ignoring
opposition from the Chinese Communists, patriots and democrats from
all walks of life and the broad masses of the people. He launched
the all-out civil war after the victory of the War of Resistance
Against Japan, again violating the ardent wish for peace, democracy
and reconstruction of the Communist Party, the democratic parties
and the people throughout China. Driven beyond the limits of forbearance,
the people rose up in arms and in the end toppled Chiang's reactionary
rule.
Since the very day of its founding, the Communist Party of China
has been holding high the banner of democracy and human rights.
It encouraged and assisted Dr. Sun in reorganizing the Kuomintang,
effected the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist
Party and launched the Northern Expedition against the reactionary
rule of the warlords. After Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the democratic
revolution, the Party united all patriots and democrats and led
the people in a struggle against civil war, hunger, autocracy and
persecution. In the liberated areas it established democratic governments,
drew up laws which guaranteed the people's democratic rights and
resolutely implemented its own democratic program. The democratic
system in the liberated areas attracted numerous patriotic and democratic
fighters and became the hope of the entire people. Under the Party's
leadership, the Chinese people overthrew the Kuomintang reactionaries'
dictatorial rule and founded the democratic and free People's Republic
of China.
The Chinese people gained real democratic rights after the founding
of New China. In explicit terms the Constitution stipulates that
all power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people.
That the people are masters of their own country is the essence
of China's democratic politics. By stating that the People's Republic
of China is a socialist state of the people's democratic dictatorship
led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and
peasants, the Constitution has established the status of the workers,
peasants and other working people as masters of the country and
thus invested the laboring people who were at the bottom rung of
the social ladder in old China with lawful democratic rights. Equality
of men and women, as provided by the Constitution, has enabled women,
who account for half of the Chinese population, to gain the same
rights as men in politics, economy, culture, society and family
life. The stipulation that all nationalities in China are equal
has ensured that all the nation's minority nationalities enjoy equal
democratic rights with the Han people.
To guarantee that the people are the real masters of the country
with the right to run the country's economic and social affairs,
China has adopted, in light of its actual conditions, the people's
congresses as the state's basic political system. Deputies to the
people's congresses at all levels are chosen through democratic
elections. The Constitution stipulates that all citizens of the
People's Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the
right to vote and stand for election, regardless of nationality,
race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education,
property status, or length of residence, with the exception of persons
deprived of their political rights by law. Taking into consideration
its vast territory, large population, inconvenient transportation
and relatively low economic and cultural development, China has
adopted an election system appropriate to its actual conditions.
That is, deputies to people's congresses at the county level or
below are elected directly, while those to people's congresses above
the county level are elected indirectly. This election system makes
it possible for the people to choose deputies whom they know and
trust. The election system has been improved in recent years on
the basis of past experience. For instance, more candidates are
posted than the number of deputies to be elected, instead of an
equal number as before. The right to vote has been widely exercised
by the Chinese people. According to statistics from the 1990 county-
and township-level direct elections, 99.97 percent of the citizens
at 18 years of age or above enjoyed the right to vote. Generally
speaking, upwards of 90 percent of the voters participate in the
elections held in the various provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities. The most striking characteristic of China's electoral
system is that elections are not manipulated by money and that deputies
are not elected on the basis of boasting and empty promises but
according to their actual contributions to the country and society,
their attitude in serving the people and their close relations with
the people. It is clear from the election results that the elected
are broadly representative, that is, representative of people of
all social strata and all trades and professions. Of the 2,970 deputies
to the Seventh National People's Congress, 684, or 23 percent, are
workers and farmers; 697, or 23.4 percent, are intellectuals; 733,
or 24.7 percent, are government functionaries; 540, or 18.2 percent,
are democratic party members and patriots with no party affiliations;
267, or 9 percent, are from the People's Liberation Army; and 49,
or 1.6 percent, are returned overseas Chinese.
The National People's Congress is the supreme organ of state power.
It has legislative power. It elects or removes president and vice-president
of the People's Republic of China, chairman of the Central Military
Commission, president of the Supreme People's Court and procurator-general
of the Supreme People's Procuratorate; and appoints or removes premier,
vice-premiers, state councilors, ministers, ministers in charge
of commissions, auditor-general and secretary-general. All administrative,
judicial and procuratorial organs of the state are created by the
National People's Congress, responsible to it and supervised by
it. Following the principle of democratic centralism, the National
People's Congress adopts major policy decisions after full airing
of opinions; and once adopted, these policies are carried out in
a concerted effort. In this way, the People's Congress can not only
represent the people's common will but also become instrumental
for the people in running state, economic and social affairs. Coming
from among the people, the people's deputies are responsible to
the people and supervised by the people; their close contact with
the masses and wide knowledge of the actual situation enable them
to fully reflect the people's wishes, formulate laws suited to reality
and supervise the work of government organs.
The Chinese Communist Party is the ruling party of socialist China
and the representative of the interests of the people throughout
the country. Its leadership position has been the result of the
historical choice made by the Chinese people during their protracted
and arduous struggle for independence and emancipation. The leadership
of the Party is mainly an ideological and political leadership.
The Party derives its ideas and policies from the people's concentrated
will and then turns them into state laws and decisions which are
passed by the National People's Congress through the state's legal
procedures. The Party does not take the place of the government
in the state's leadership system. The Party conducts its activities
within the framework of the Constitution and the law and has no
right to transcend the Constitution and the law. All Party members,
like all citizens in the country, are equal before the law.
The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation
under the leadership of the Communist Party is the basic political
system that gives expression to people's democracy. It guarantees
that all social strata, people's organizations and patriots from
various quarters can express their opinions and play a role in the
country's political and social life. There are in China eight democratic
parties apart from the Communist Party; they are the Revolutionary
Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the China Democratic League,
the China Democratic National Construction Association, the China
Association for Promoting Democracy, the Chinese Peasants and Workers
Democratic Party, the China Zhi Gong Dang (Party for Public Interest),
the Jiu San Society (September 3rd Society) and the Taiwan Democratic
Self-Government League. Cooperation between the Communist Party
and these democratic parties took shape during the democratic revolution
before 1949, the year New China was founded. The leading role of
the Communist Party in the cooperation is recognized by the democratic
parties as it has been evolved in long years of common struggle.
These democratic parties shared with the Communist Party the same
basic political ideas whether in the struggle for overthrowing the
"three big mountains" or during the period of building New China.
Enjoying political freedom and organizational independence, all
these democratic parties have developed greatly. They are neither
parties out of office nor opposition parties, but parties participating
in state affairs. As China's ruling party, the Communist Party repeatedly
asks these democratic parties for their opinions on every major
state affair and consult with them for solutions. Relations between
the Communist Party and the democratic parties follow the guideline
of "long-term coexistence and mutual supervision, treating each
other with full sincerity and sharing weal or woe." Full play has
been given to the role of the democratic parties in participating
in and discussing state affairs, democratic supervision and uniting
all the people. Many members of the democratic parties have assumed
leading posts in organs of state power, government departments and
judicial organs. Of the 19 vice-chairmen elected by the Seventh
National People's Congress at its First Session, seven are members
of democratic parties. Nearly 1,200 members of the democratic parties
and personages with no party affiliations are holding leading posts
in governments above the county level.
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
consists of representatives of all the political parties and people's
organizations and from among patriots and democrats who support
socialism and the reunification of the motherland. New China's first
Central People's Government was elected by the First Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference. After the establishment of the
National People's Congress as the supreme organ of state power,
the CPPCC became an organization of the patriotic united front.
It provides a forum for discussions on major state policies and
principles and big issues in social life and plays a supervisory
role through suggestions and criticisms. The CPPCC usually convenes
simultaneously with the people's congress at the corresponding level.
The system of political consultation has played an important role
in promoting democracy.
China attaches great importance to the promotion of democracy at
the grass-roots level so as to guarantee that citizens can directly
exercise their political rights. Neighborhood Committees are the
grass-roots democratic organizations in urban areas, and their counterparts
in rural areas are Village Committees. As self-governing organizations
established by the people, these committees deal with matters concerning
public welfare and residents' well-being while assisting local governments
in mediating family and neighborhood disputes, conducting ideological
education and maintaining public order. Most Chinese enterprises
have adopted the system of workers' congress, which is the basic
form of democratic management through which workers participate
in the decision-making and management of the enterprises and supervise
the enterprise leaders. Over the last few years, virtually all directors
and managers of large and medium-sized state enterprises have been
examined and their work appraised with the participation and supervision
of the workers' congresses.
The Constitution provides for a wide range of political rights
to citizens. In addition to the right to vote and to be elected
mentioned above, citizens also enjoy freedoms of speech, the press,
assembly, association, procession and demonstration. There is no
news censorship in China. Statistics show that of all the newspapers
and magazines in China, only one-fifth are run by Party and state
organizations, and the others belong to various democratic parties,
social organizations, academic associations and people's organizations.
By law citizens have the right to intellectual property, such as
copy-right, and the right to publication, patent, trademark, discovery,
invention and scientific and technological achievement. It is a
matter of personal freedom for a citizen to decide what book he
will write, what point of view he will use in writing it and which
publishing house he will choose to have his book published. Statistics
show that an overwhelming majority of the 80,224 titles of books
printed in 1990 with a total impression of 5.64 billion copies were
signed by individual authors. As to the freedom of association,
the 1990 statistics showed that there were 2,000 associations, including
societies, research institutes, foundations, federations and clubs.
All these associations operate freely within the framework of the
Constitution and the law.
The Constitution also rules that citizens have the right to criticize
and make suggestions regarding any state organ or functionary and
the right to make to relevant state organs complaints or charges
against, or exposures of, any state organ or functionary for violation
of the law or dereliction of duty.
The Constitution provides that freedom of the person of citizens
of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. Unlawful detention
or deprivation of citizens' freedom of the person by other means
and unlawful search of the person of citizens are prohibited; the
personal dignity of citizens is inviolable, and insult, libel, false
accusation or false incrimination directed against citizens by any
means is prohibited; the residences of citizens are inviolable and
unlawful search of, or intrusion into, a citizen's residence is
prohibited; freedom and privacy of correspondence are protected
by law, and those who hide, discard, damage or illegally open other
people's letters, once discovered, shall be seriously dealt with,
and grave cases shall be prosecuted.
The Constitution provides that China implements the system of people's
democratic dictatorship, which combines democracy among the people
and dictatorship against the people's enemies. To guarantee the
people's democratic rights and other lawful rights and interests,
China pays great attention to improving its legal system. It has
promulgated and put into effect a series of major laws, including
the Constitution, the Criminal Law, the Law of Criminal Procedure,
the General Provisions of the Civil Law, the Law of Civil Procedure
and the Law of Administrative Procedure. During the 1979-1990 period,
the National People's Congress and its Standing Committees made
99 laws and 21 decisions on legislative amendments and passed 52
resolutions and decisions on legal matters; the State Council formulated
more than 700 administrative laws and regulations; and the people's
congresses and their standing committees of various provinces, autonomous
regions and municipalities and provincial capital cities formulated
numerous local laws and administrative rules and regulations, of
which more than 1,000 were about human rights.
The unity between rights and duties is a basic principle of China's
legal system. The Constitution stipulates that every citizen is
entitled to the rights prescribed by the Constitution and the law
and at the same time must perform the duties prescribed by the Constitution
and the law, and that in exercising their freedoms and rights, citizens
may not infringe upon the interests of the state, of society or
of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other
citizens. Legally citizens are the subjects of both rights and duties.
Everyone is equal before the rights and duties prescribed by the
Constitution and the law. No organization or individual may enjoy
the privilege of being above the Constitution and the law.
Practice of the past 40-odd years since liberation proves that
the socialist democracy and legal system adopted by China are suited
to the country's actual conditions and that the people is satisfied
with it. It goes without saying that the building of this democratic
politics and this legal system is no smooth sailing. There were
times when democracy and law were seriously violated, such as happened
during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Nevertheless, the Communist
Party, backed by the people, corrected these mistakes and set the
nation's socialist democracy and legal system back to the course
of steady development. Upholding the general policy of reform and
opening to the outside world and giving great attention to building
socialist democratic politics, China is striving to improve and
strictly enforce the socialist legal system and continuing the work
to reform and improve the political system -- all for the purpose
of ensuring that the people can fully enjoy their civic rights and
better exercise their political right of running the country.
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