To accelerate its own Development, a nation needs to borrow good experience of others. In doing so, it should keep a foothold based on its own condition and take a path of its own. The Chinese people have, proceeded from national realities, independently chosen their own road of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, a road that centers on the development of economy with the all-round development in view, This is also the fundamental approach to realize and promote human rights based on the rights of subsistence and development.

Building socialism with Chinese characteristics embodies the relationship of dialectical unity between human rights and development, which are interdependent and inseparablt. In theory, we should master the unity between human rights and development; and in practice, we should combine human rights with development, making overall plans and taking all factors into consideration, so as to ensure progiress of both.

I. Develop socialist economy, guarantee and promote people's rights to subsistence and development

China is the world's largest developing country with a big population, a low development level and relatively shortage of natural resources, With an impoverished China taken over from Kuomintang regime, it is the primary task for the Chinese government to develop economy, eliminate poverty, provide food and clothing and thus guarantee people's rights to subsistence and development.

The fundamental task of socialism, i. e., to emancipate and develop productive forces, essentially means the emancipation and development of human beings.

To accelerate development, China has carried out reforms to change those production relations and superstructure that don't suit to the development of the productive forces , so as to emancipate and develop the productive forces, Reform is the driving force of development and at the same time. An internal requirement for guarantee and promotion of human rights. The masses are the representatives of the productive forces that demand emancipation and the masters of the production and social relations. It is they who know well the key factors that hinder the development of productive forces and who can find the best solution to the problems through exploration and experiments. The making of many major policies on reforms come from relying on the masses and respecting their creative initiatives. Each step in China's reform has forcefully guaranteed and promoted human rights.

Eighty percent of the Chinese population live in rural areas. Therefore, the stable development of rural areas is the foundation for the entire economic development and social stability. The reform in economic system first started in rural areas with breakthroughs. Farmers invented the household contracted responsibility system with remuneration linked to output, which gave them more freedom in decision-making. Spread throughout the country, the system has greatly boosted farmers' initiatives. The agricultural production has witnessed stable growth and township enterprises have got rapid development, a great creation by hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers. Relying on collective economy and fund from farmers, township enterprises undergo self-sustaining healthy development, without seeking state investment. Farmers who work in those factories give up labor in fields but remain in rural areas. This makes a new mode of the development of China's rural areas as well as of the entire society. Township enterprises have become the main force of rural economy and an important section of the national economy. They help increase the income of farmers, absorb surplus laborers, safeguard long-term social stability in the countryside and realize agricultural modernization.

The aim of development is common prosperity. Poverty is not socialism and it is impractical to let all people attain prosperity at the same pace. Therefore, Chinese government encourages parts of the country and certain people to get rich ahead of others. In turn, those who have become wealthy help others areas and eventually the entire people, to attain common wealth. This policy accords with China's current realities and is an effective step to eliminate poverty and realize and promote human rights.

Along with the rapid economic development, Chinese government has paid attention to the coordinated development of different regions. A series of preferential policies have been made to support the central and western areas, especially the regions of minority ethnic groups. These policies cover financial aid, investment preference, poverty-relief by means of exploitation and enlisting aid from developed eastern areas. Efforts have been made to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Some regions of minority groups have rapid economic development abridging several stages of historical evolution.

While devoting to the economic development and enhancing the overall living standards of the nation, the Chinese government has attached importance to provide daily food and clothing to poverty-stricken areas. Since the mid-1980s, the government has made significant reform and adjustment of the poverty-relief principle and switched from relief by distributing materials to help by means of cultivation. The governmental help and support have been combined with the exploration of local resources to tap the self-development potentials. The government has encouraged the whole society to help the poor. The rich help the poor and those who have got rich first help those lagging behind for common prosperity. This has become a custom undertaking and received commitment.

Over the past two decades of reform and opening, China's national economy has got a thriving development and the living standards of the people have been greatly raised. During the period from 1978 to 1997, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual pace of 9.8 percent, the quickest speed in the world.

In China before 1949, 80 percent people lived in starvation or half-starvation. In 1946 alone, 10 million Chinese were starved to death. In the following year, hungry population amounted to 100 million. Before the People's Republic of china was founded, some people asserted that no government in China could solve the problem of food for the Chinese people. However, the Chinese government led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) has fed a population 22 percent of the world's total with seven percent of the world's arable land. Not only the problem of food and clothing for the 1.2 million Chinese has been basically solved, but constandt increase of people's income has been maintained. From 1979 to 1997, the per-capita income of urban residents grew from 343.5 yuan to 5,160 yuan, an annual increase of 6.2 percent after allowing for inflation; while the per-capita income of rural residents rose from 133.6 yuan to 2,090 yuan, and annual increase of 8.1 percent. By the end of 1997, the bank deposits of residents reached 4,628 billion yuan, 219 times that of 1978. Together with foreign currency deposits, cashes at hand, various bonds and stocks, the total financial volume exceeded 6,000 billion yuan.

Compared with other countries in the world, China belongs to the low-income countries, but the living standards of the people have been enhanced greatly. The expected average life spanincreased from 35 years in 1949 to 71.5 years, and the death rate dropped from 33 per thousand to 6.49 per thousand. The improvement in people' life is also reflected by the yearly decrease of the proportion of consumption on food in household expenditure and the improvement in dwelling conditions. The number of poor residents had decreased by 80 percent from 250 million in 1978 to 50 million in 1997. Many people in former povety-stricken areas now live a well-off life. As a contrast, the number of poor people in the world is increasing by 25 million each year and the population grew to 1.5 billion in 1996-90 percent of them were from developing countries. While China, the largest developing country that had one quarter of the world's poor population in late the 1970s, now has less than one-30th of the world's total. China is trying to eliminate absolute poverty by the end of 2000.

II. Develop socialist democracy, guarantee and promote political rights with people being the master of the country as the essence

The essence of socialist democracy is that the people are the master of the country. The system of people's congresses and the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC embody this characteristic, and these systems are constantly being developed and improved. Meanwhile, we have tried to complete democratic election system, exercised separation of daministration from enterprise management, streamlined administrative organs, altered the functions of the government, reformed the personnel system of officials, introduced competition into the governmental institutions and strengthened democratic supervision. All these manifest the principle that the people are the master of the nation and promote the development of democratic politics.

Self-governing and direct election have been carried out at grass-roots level. This is a significant progress in China's socialist democratic election, make policy decisions in a democratic manner, and institute democratic management and supervision. It encourages them to manage their affairs according to law and create a happy life for themselves. This is enforcement of socialist democracy on the most extensive scale. The popularization of self-governing by the villagers has pushed forward the reform, development and stability in rural areas as well as the overall development and progress of agriculture, rural economy and rural society.

To inspire the people's initiatives is the starting point and objective of China's reform. The development of various causes relies on the full play of the people's initiatives, creativity and commitment sense.

People are the determining factor in China and this is the guiding line for our work. We should have faith in and rely on the people, and respect their creative initiatives. "From the masses, to the masses" has been our basic principle. When making decisions, the government cares most whether the people agree and support, and judges success of reform and correctness of policies by the fundamental criterion whether it is favorable toward promoting the growth of the productive forces in a socialist society, increasing the overall strength of the socialist state and raising people's living standards, or the "three favorables" for short. This is an important demonstration that Chinese government respects the people's political rights and enlists the people's initiatives. It is also a primary cause for the sustained, rapid and healthy development of economy. However, despite the economic achievements, some people still hold that there isn't political democracy in China. To answer these people, I have just to list a few facts: the household contracted responsibility system with remuneration linked to output that was invented by farmers of Xiaogang Village in Anhui Province ha been written into the Constitution; the township enterprises and villagers' committees created by farmers have been affirmed in law; the mass election, transparency of village administrative affairs and "democracy day" are popular among the farmers; the good ideas and suggestions are respected; and the good experiences of people are being spread. What will they say should they be reminded of the above facts? Isn't that a lively reflection of the wide and equal democratic politics?

China democracy and legal system are closely related and supplement each other. To guarantee democracy, we must institutionalize democracy by constantly strengthening the legal system. Not only the Constitution stipulates the wide and equal rights of citizens, but a series of laws have also been formulated to guarantee that these rights are thoroughly enjoyed and gradually expanded. The human rights stipulated by the Constitution and other laws have a wide connotation, including both economic, social and cultural rights and political rights, both the rights of individuals and the collective rights of the people, nation and the state as a whole, both rights enjoyed by the entire nation and those protecting special groups such as women, minors, aged, disabled, minority groups, overseas Chinese that have returned to the motherland and their relatives, consumers and laborers. Even to those criminals under judicial punishment, there are certain articles concerning their human rights during the criminal suit and prison management. This is a feature and advantage of China's democracy and legal protection of human rights.

To make the law reflect the will of the people and protect human rights, China places emphasis on democratization of the legislative work. Drafts of all laws are submitted to the public for wide suggestions and opinions. Some with close relations with the interests of the masses are published on newspapers for wide discussion. The people are encouraged to use the Constitution and other laws to fight against violations and to protect their legal rights and interests. Since 1986, the National People's Congress Standing Committee has made three decisions to spread knowledge of law among people throughout the country. The entire nation, state leaders and primary-school pupils alike, learn legal knowledge. Following this, all kinds of laws have been vigorously enforced .this is a great invention of the people during learning and sing laws. It is also a reflection of the fact that the people are the master of the country and enjoy the right of managing state affairs according to law. It is an effective way to protect and promote human rights. The 15th CPC National Congress held in 1997 made "governing the country according to law and building a socialist law-governing country" as a basic strategy of the Party to lead the people in administration the country. It marks a new historical stage of China's sociailist democratic legal system.

III. Promote socialist ethical and cultural progress and strive to enhance the ideological, ethical, scientific and cultural quality of the whole nation

The socialist society is a society with overall development enhancement of all people's quality. Along with the development of a socialist economy and socialist democratic politics, china has persevered to promote the socialist ethical and cultural progress. The latter provides spiritual motive force and intellectual support to the economic development and promotes the full play of potentials of the people.

It is an important premise and foundation for the all-round and free development of the citizens that the government endeavors to develop scientific, educational and cultural causes. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, the number of illiterates accounted for 80 percent of the total population, and the figure dropped to 12 percent in 1996, when the proportion of young and middle-aged illiterates was 6.1 percent. The nine-year compulsory education has been excised in China and education by diversified means has developed rapidly to upgrade the cultural qualification of citizens.

The remarkable progress of science and education has provided a vast arena for citizens to give full play of their talents. Technical training has been offered to farmers and scientific farming has become a trend in rural areas. The masses pay more attention to the mastering of special techniques. Many farmers and workers have become technicians in certain fields and some hold senior professional titles. Some farmer specialists have organized special associations and research institutions of their own. An enthusiasm for invention has been aroused in some parts. For instance, farmers in Meixian County alone have obtained 96 patents by the State Intellectual Property Office.

The core of the ethical and cultural progress is to infuse citizens with lofty ideals, moral integrity, a good education and a strong sense of discipline, so as to raise the ideological and ethical quality of the entire nation. This is the fundamental task of the ethical and cultural construction and a vital factor that promotes the progress in material construction as well. The Chinese people are advocated to study Deng Xiaoping Theory on building socialism with Chinese characteristics, carry forward the spirits of patriotism, collectivism, socialism and pioneering with painstaking efforts, strengthen the education of social morality and vocational virtues, set model cities, villgaes and trades and other mass activities to establish correct outlook on the world, on life and on values. To uphold advanced workers and honest behavior is becoming common practice. Those traditional virtues such as respecting the old and protecting the young, helping those in difficulty and aiding those in trouble are becoming part of the socialist ethics. These a great spiritual forces promote social development and human rights.

The United Nations Development program published the China Report on Human Development -1997 on July 3, 1998. It points out that the record in promoting the development of human society made by China is admirable: the decrease of poor population, the improvement in people's health and education, the increase of average life span and other main indexes are close to those of developed countries. In general, the Chinese people look more healthy than ever before, with higher education and longer life expectancy. The report confesses that China faces challenges in humanity development, however, it expresses confidence in China's ability to overcome these difficulties. While maintaining rapid economic growth China will push ahead into a new era as a good example in promoting the happiness of human society and keeping the ecological balance. At present, the Chinese people are united to carry forward the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics into the coming 21st contury. They are confident to enjoy more human rights in the comprehensive development of the economy, politics and society and make new contribution to the progress of human rights and development of the world.

Institution: Consultaut of Law Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China.