Oral intervention on Item 10 "Economic, social and cultural rights."
Delivered by Wei Jingsheng

I am Wei Jingsheng and today I speak on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party on Item 10.

There are many people discussing the importance of economic, social and cultural rights in the world today. Within this debate, there are those who seek to substitute basic, fundamental human rights with economic and cultural rights only. This is particularly frequent in nations who are controlled by totalitarian regimes. The People's Republic of China is one such example. The ruling Communist Party overemphasizes the right to development in order to use it as an excuse to severely limit the ability of the Chinese people to criticize the restriction of their basic human rights; even to the extent that citizens can no longer criticize policies that are destroying the environment.

The economic, social, and cultural rights that we have come to globally recognize not only include the right to accumulate material wealth. While these rights include the right to development a healthy culture, they also include the right to liberty and freedom of speech. But without the rule of law, there exists no method to ensure that the freedom of choice and wealth are distributed fairly throughout a society. Chinese citizens cannot enjoy a rich cultural life if basic freedoms are restricted. Therefore, economic, social, and cultural rights are an extension of labour rights and political rights. They are not a replacement for them.

For over half of a century, people have been searching for reasons why economic development in China is hindered. Then, twenty years ago, Deng Xiaoping and his government decided to proceed with an economic reform program. But the precondition of Deng's reform program was that the one-party totalitarian political system would remain in place, and the protection of human rights would not be considered. The primary aim of the reform was to promote the idea of the rule by law, not of law, and to reform the economic system. The utter failure of this reform program is very clear to us today.

For the past twenty years, people have focused their attention on the accumulation of material wealth in China. In reality, the actual increase of material wealth is largely exaggerated in the reports issued by the Central Government. If there were a system of equal distribution in place, the living standards of all Chinese citizens would rise accordingly.

Regrettably, only a very small minority of Chinese citizens have benefited from the reform program. Currently, there are over four hundred million people living within China's cities, and only one percent of them can be considered wealthy. On average, those that are wealthy earn incomes that are several hundred times greater those of other workers. Not only are these huge disparities in incomes unreasonable and illegal, but this small minority also frequently transfer financial resources and property out of China. They are apparently unconcerned with domestic development in China itself.

Another concern is that between thirty and forty percent of city dwellers earn incomes lower than those earned over twenty years ago. A great number of people exist without any income or access to basic resources whatsoever. They have become the victims of a system that promotes economic development at the expense of protecting human rights, the promotion of democracy.

It is known that two thirds of China's population lives in the countryside. Because the Communist regime does not fundamentally respect the rights of farmers or the peasantry to posses their own land and means of production, most of the revenue from agricultural production in China today falls into the pockets of local administrators and their cadres. Only a small portion of the rural community survives on extremely low incomes; the rest are forced to rely on unstable incomes and scrape by with a poor and humble existence.

The powers and the privileges of the local cadres are unlimited. This class of cadres and officials is each day is increasing their consumption of China's resources. Their actions are supported by the illegal system of four to five hundred varieties of exorbitant taxes and levies that are implemented in the rural communities. Consequently, around fifteen percent of the young peasantry rush to the cities every year in search of employment. About seventy percent of them are unable to find steady jobs.

Why does such an unfair and unjust system of distribution exist? It is because the Chinese political system does not permit the working class to effectively organize and use their collective strength to negotiate against those few who have consumed all the resources for their benefit to maintain a hold on power. Why are the workers not allowed to organize? Because Chinese law does not protect the right to freedom of speech and other fundamental human rights. Those that openly criticize the government are often either put into prison or murdered. There are thousands of ordinary Chinese citizens whose only crime was to stand up for basic human rights languishing away in prison today. It is apparent that the Chinese government continues to support policies that do not respect, or promote political rights. Therefore, the development of economic, social, and cultural rights is severely handicapped, or perhaps impossible altogether.

This clearly demonstrates that civil and political rights are the foundation to economic, social, and cultural rights. The Chinese political system of a one-party totalitarian regime is to blame for the lack of development in the areas of economic, social, and cultural rights. Lacking a multi-party democratic system, equality under the rule of law and political freedom cannot exist, and therefore economic, social and cultural rights cannot flourish.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.