Number: RL34729
Title: Human Rights in China: Trends and Policy Implications
Authors: Thomas Lum, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Hannah Fischer, Knowledge Services Group 
Abstract: Many observers disagree over whether human rights conditions in the People's Republic of China (PRC) have improved or gotten worse over the past several years. For many U.S. policy-makers, China's progress in this area represents a test of the success of U.S. engagement with the PRC, particularly since permanent normal relations status (PNTR) was granted in 2000. Some observers, including some Members of Congress, have noted the growth of PRC legal restrictions on freedoms and cases of political and religious persecution. Some have pointed to the U.S. Department of State's annual report on human rights practices, which has not noted major improvements in human rights conditions since the democracy movement of 1989. Other analysts, including many Chinese citizens, have contended that economic and social freedoms have expanded rapidly in the past two decades while the government's controls over most aspects of people's lives have diminished considerably. This trend has even allowed for the emergence of occasional, fragile outbursts of "people power."
Pages: 35
Date: October 31, 2008