New Departures in Chinese Thinking on Human Rights

Abstract

One of the most notable things about the concept of rights in China is the substantial amount of attention that has been devoted to the topic since the late 1980s. Although the idea of rights has been a feature of China’s political discourse and constitutional thinking for over a century, there has in the last few years been considerably more interest shown in the subject than at any other time.1 The first real signs of an increased Chinese interest in rights came in 1988, following a conference in Changchun on the legal relationship between rights and duties (Albert Chen, 1993, p. 125). Two years later, a highly publicised national conference organised by the government-sponsored Research Centre for Social Science Development (Shehui Kexue Yanjiusuo) examined the more specific notion of human rights (Meng Chenyun, 1990). Since then, scores of academic conferences and seminars have been held on the theme of human rights, in tandem with the publication of numerous articles, books and government documents on the subject.2 In addition, several of China’s leading rights theorists have participated in academic exchanges and collaborative research projects with their Western counterparts, the majority of which have taken place under the aegis of influential agencies like the American Committee on Legal Educational Exchanges with China (CLEEC). One of the main reasons for this sudden upsurge in research.