Human Rights in China since the Tiannemen incident in 1989

Résumé du document

On June 4th 1989, Deng Xiaoping and nine other members of the permanent Comity commanded the Prime Minister Li Peng to repress the occupation of Tiannenmen square by millions of students. Actually, this manifestation had started on the2nd of April by the students' reaction who wanted to pay homage to Hu Yaobang, fired in 1987 because of his liberal ideas. The death of this ex communist Party member in April of 1989 created a big emotion and provoked the meeting of more than 200 000 students in Tiannenmen Square. These young people wanted to defy the Power and applied for political reforms. Rededication of liberty and modern ideas' consideration led to the death of 1400 students. Some of them were also been imprisoned or condemned to death. This event occurred during the Gorbatchev' political reform in USSR: on May 16th, the representatives of China and USSR were meeting in Beijing. One can notice that the students' claim was then, also to catch the international communities' attention. Even if this manifestation was a massacre, one can hardly deny that it had the effect to wake the international interest up for the lack of democracy and human rights respect in China.

Extraits

[...] The purpose of this conference was also to "examine the relationship between development and the enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights" page 170). the idea of "bringing home human rights" has been underlined by the coordinator of the conference John Pace. The role of China during this conference has been very important. China implied a lot in this event, as long as it knew that it would be judge by the entire community. China's consideration of human rights would be especially finger-pointed. As China's representants knew that, they anticipated and so got prepared to whatever could happen. [...]

[...] Here is another gap between Confucianism' priorities and UNHCR' ones confirmed by the International Community. As the concept of human rights involves the importance of human being as a consideration of a first level, we can easily understand the misunderstanding between these two visions. Nowadays, the concept of individualism has a huge importance and sometimes includes a part of selfishness as a drawback induced. For confucianism "selfishness is not something to be tame or made rational for its own good, but something to be eliminated for the common good" page 23). [...]

[...] It also showed the "firm resolve of china to promote and to protect human rights" page 196). Furthermore, an agreement of cooperation has been signed in September 1998 between the President Jiang Zemin and the UN High commissioner on Human Rights Mary Robinson. However, we notice at a bilateral level that the results of human rights diplomacy have been more mixed. Actually, a kind of race to victory has been engaged between China and the Western countries. The prevention of Human Rights' abuses is also executed by several NGOs. [...]

[...] Actually, China's abuses in Tibet underlined the immaturity of China's political system to human rights. Even if the China Society for human rights Studies described itself as a "nationwide organization composed of Chinese experts, researchers, institutes and organizations engaged in human rights studies" page 175), its effectiveness is still to be proved. Indeed, its credibility is diminuished by the numerous examples of tortures and persecutions that one can note down since 1989 until today. The United Nations need to delegate the mission to supervise the respect of Human Rights to the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights. [...]

[...] Its precepts mold the mentality of the entire society. This traditional way of thinking can be an obstacle to the modernization and the adaptation to the improvements of the international community in terms of human rights. The relevant absence of this distinction between "the good" and "the right" can also appear as a weak point to understand the notion of protection of Human Rights. It is important to make clear that, we do not mean that the philosophy of confucius leads to violations of human rights. [...]