The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been commemorated this year. The United Nations set December 10 as Human Rights Day in 1952. The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), the highest academic society in human rights field in China, held Symposium Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 4. The CSHRS is under the guidance of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee and the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs which oversees the registration and administration of civil associations. It is also a non-governmental organization with special consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council as well as a member of the Non-Governmental Organization Committee and is listed in the UNESCO world directory of human rights research and training institutions. It is clear that human rights issues always reflect the contradictions of international politics, but they are specifically linked to economic and social levels in reality.
The CSHRS, as an indicator institute in observing China’s human rights research, did not have the attendance of members of the CPC’s Political Bureau and high level in its Symposium Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it remains a focus of international attention in terms of China’s human rights issues.
In fact, from the perspective of dialectical materialism embraced by the communists, there is always a mutual restriction between international and political superstructure and the economic and social base. Therefore, it can observe from the happiness of life in China to better understand its current human rights status. On the same day of the Symposium Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and on the eve of the 24th European Union (UN) and China leaders meeting (EU-China Sumit) on December 7, the US Free Asia Radio reported that international human rights institutions such as the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for the attentions of European Union to China’s crime against humanity and violation of human rights, no more in the same as usual. Since the EU-China Summit is a mechanism of regular meeting between EU and China leaders, starting from 1998 and co-chaired annually and jointly by China’s Premier of the State Council and President of the European Council and President of European Commission. With the easing of COVID-19 pandemic, the 24th EU-China Summit was held in Beijing and immediately got the international attention. When meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Charles Michel, President of the European Council, Xi Jinping mentioned that China and EU should cooperate for mutual benefits and continuously increase mutual trust on politics; however, Ursula von der Leyen pragmatically urged a solution of imbalance and difference between EU and China. Obviously, from the perspective of European civilization, there are still lots of differences of perception concerning the urgency of China’s external expansion, its internal human rights issues, and value protection systems, aside from economic interests between EU and China.
China’s State of Council Information Office published a white paper titled "The Communist Party of China and Human Rights Protection-A 100-Year Quest” on Jun 24, 2021. It claimed “it believes that living a life of contentment is the ultimate human right, it promotes the well-rounded development of the individual, and strives to give every person a stronger sense of gain, happiness, and security.” In his speech in a welcome banquet jointly held by US friendly groups in San Fracisco on November 15 , Xi Jinping said that the everyday matters, intimate matters and concrete matters of the people are continuously integrated into the top-level design of China’s national development, and persistently become the sense of gain, happiness and security of theirs. Ipsos, a Paris-based and the third-largest market research company in the world, issued the Global Happiness 2023 earlier in March. It revealed that, among the 32 countries under survey, the top ten of extreme happiness are China (91%), Saudi Arabia (86%), Netherland (85%), Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Columbia, Australia, Chile. This result is puzzling and incomprehensible for some observers on that many high happiness countries in north Europe like Finland and Denmark were not listed in this survey by the Ipsos. By comparison, the World Happiness Report 2023 made by the United Nations includes 137 countries and regions in its survey and the result is more typical with the top ten as Finland, Denmark, Ice Land, Israel, Netherland, Sweden, Norway, Swiss, Luxembourg, and New Zealand. As for China, listed top in Ipsos ranking, dropped to 64, while Taiwan and Hong Kong ranked as 27 and 82 respectively. If the observers want to realize the reasons behind such a huge difference, they could review the Ipsos report which included a surveyed sample of only 1000 people over the 1.4 billion population of China. It is a matter of public judgement whether it can effectively present the happiness of the whole Chinese people. The survey report additionally stated that the sample is more urbanized, more educated and wealthier than the general population. It reveals that the surveyed sample mostly concentrated among the social-economic elites or ruling class. In other words, life happiness comes more easily for this elite class, compared to the general proletariat. Even China’s economic and social situation is in a state of recession, the respondents might still feel self-satisfaction about “economic status” and “social political status” in the survey.
(Huang Chiu-Lung, Associate Professor, Department of Public Security, Central Police University)
(Translated to English by Tracy Chou)
