Progress in China's Human Rights in 2014

The construction of core socialist values gathering momentum. China's human rights will not be able to make progress without the construction of core socialist values. They are supplementary to each other. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, core socialist values, namely, prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship have been advocated, fostered and implemented in all sectors of society. Core socialist values are the common ideals and spiritual pillars of the Chinese people. In 2014 the state renewed its efforts to promote human rights education, and advanced the construction of core socialist values, launching volunteer services and programs inculcating education in filial piety, integrity education, thrift education, cultivating and inheriting fine family traditions, school mottoes, entrepreneurship, fine village traditions and festival culture, and publicizing public service advertisements titled "Our Values." We intensified the building of civilized cities, towns, villages, and units, and exhorted Chinese tourists to behave themselves. We presented role models representing the spirit of our time through the online column "365 moral models." Recommendations for role models and good deeds totaled over 40,000 throughout that year, and by the end of 2014 the page featuring this topic on weibo.com at the website Sina was read by more than 170 million people, exerting a positive influence on society.

Freedom of speech better protected. In 2014 China published 46.5 billion copies of newspapers, 3.2 billion copies of periodicals, and 8.4 billion copies of books, with 6.12 copies of books per person. By the end of 2014 the population of netizens in China was 650 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 47.9 percent. Of all the netizens, 508 million were smart phone users, an increase of 76.83 million over 2013, registering an increase rate of 17.8 percent. The users of the top three Internet applications instant messaging, search engine and netnews were 588 million, 522 million and 519 million, respectively. The number of online video users was 433 million, microblog users 249 million, and Wechat accounts over eight million, with its active domestic and overseas accounts per month close to 500 million. The public can air opinions, and raise criticisms and suggestions freely through the news media, and discuss problems of this country and society. The government encourages enterprises to provide various Internet services to the public in accordance with the law so as to create a good environment for the public to acquire and exchange information. A cleaner cyber space is becoming an ever important place for the public to get information and make their voices heard.

Social organizations playing their roles better. Renewed efforts are being made to promote the direct registration of social organizations, providing more favorable conditions and an institutional guarantee for citizens to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, express their legitimate demands, participate in the management of public affairs and engage in social services through these social organizations. In 2014 the social organizations registered at the Ministry of Civil Affairs totaled 600,000, an increase of 11.1 percent over the previous year; among them, 307,000 were social groups, with year-on-year growth of 7.3 percent; 4,044 were foundations, a year-on-year growth of 15.7 percent; and 289,000 were non-governmental nonprofit units, a year-on-year growth of 15.1 percent. Meanwhile, the government continued to outsource services from social organizations. In 2014 it allocated a budget of 200 million yuan to initiate 448 projects, with supporting funds of 166 million yuan to assist social organizations to serve society, directly benefiting over 2.35 million people and training about 20,000 heads of social organizations.

IV.

Right to Impartial Trial

In 2014 China's judicial bodies at all levels enhanced judicial justice and openness, adopted multiple judicial reform measures and ensured impartiality in the trial of cases, thereby safeguarding human rights in the field of justice at a higher level.

Judicial justice maintained. Public security, procuratorial and judicial bodies continued to implement relevant laws and regulations to improve the mechanisms of preventing, identifying and redressing cases involving unjust, false and wrongful charges throughout all criminal procedures from investigation to prosecution to trials. In 2014 the people's courts at all levels punished criminals in accordance with the law, protected the lives and property of the people, concluded 1.023 million cases of first instance, and convicted 1.184 million people. Based on the principles of "statutory crime and penalty," "no punishment in doubtful cases" and "evidentiary adjudication," the courts acquitted 518 defendants in cases of public prosecution and 260 in cases of private prosecution, thereby maintaining the freedom of innocent people. The Supreme People's Court issued the Measures of the Supreme People' s Court for Listening to Opinions of Defense Lawyers in the Handling of Death Penalty Review Cases. It ensured lawyers' rights to search case-filing information and consult case files, and empowered lawyers to present defense arguments directly to judges of the Supreme People's Court. Procuratorial bodies at all levels got the investigation bodies to cancel 17,673 cases that should not have been filed; provided 54,949 opinions to correct illegal investigation activities such as misuse of compulsory measures, illegally obtaining evidence and extorting confessions by torture; got 116,553 arrests and 23,269 prosecutions annulled since the conduct in question did not constitute crimes or lacked sufficient evidence. Following the trial supervision procedures, the people's courts altered the judgments of 1,317 criminal cases after retrial. A number of major criminal cases involving unjust, false, or wrongful charges were redressed in accordance with the principle of "no punishment in doubtful cases." The Higher People's Court of Fujian Province heard the poisoning case involving Nian Bin, and acquitted the suspect on the ground of "lacking sufficient evidence." The Higher People's Court of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region retried the case of Hugjiltu, who was originally charged with intentional homicide and indecent assault, and absolved him of guilt.

Judicial openness increased. The Supreme People's Court implemented the Several Opinions on Advancing the Establishment of the Three Major Platforms of Judicial Openness. A trial procedure information platform has been established so that litigants can inquire about the progress of their cases, and a judgment disclosure platform has been created. On January 1, 2014, the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on the Publicizing of Written Judgments of the People's Courts on the Internet was officially implemented. In 2014, a total of 6.294 million judgments were publicized on the Internet, of which 7,993 were published by the Supreme People's Court. An execution information disclosure platform has been built. China has improved the system of publicizing the name and other information of people who fail to obey the rulings of the people's court. In 2014 China published information about 1.1 million such persons, and enforced punitive measures 1.5 million times, including restricting them from high consumption. On October 1, 2014 the Provisions on Case Information Disclosure by the People's Procuratorates (Trial) was implemented. China has completed the construction of a nationwide system of case information disclosure by procuratorial bodies, putting into operation the four platforms of case procedural information inquiry, legal documentation disclosure, information disclosure of major cases, and application by appointment for defense and representation.

The system of excluding illegally obtained evidence implemented. Public security, procuratorial and judicial bodies have further improved the implementation mechanism of excluding illegally obtained evidence. They would refuse evidence obtained by these means: confessions of criminal suspects or defendants that are extorted by torture or other illegal means, witnesses' testimonies or victims' presentations obtained through violence or threats, material or written evidence obtained by violating legal procedures, and other actions that might severely affect justice, and to which no correction or supplementation can be made or reasonable explanations given. In 2014, by refusing to adopt illegally obtained evidence, procuratorial bodies at all levels decided not to arrest 406 people and not sue 198 people. During the investigation and examination of an intentional homicide case, the People' s Procuratorate of Shunping County in Hebei Province identified multiple questionable points, resolutely refused to adopt illegally obtained evidence, decided not to arrest the suspect by the family name of Wang, and urged more investigations, with the result that the real culprit was apprehended.