Full Text: Progress in China's Human Rights in 2014 (2)

Right to Development

In 2014 the Chinese government promoted development concepts and systems innovation, adopted effective measures to guarantee citizens' access to fair development, had more people to share the fruit of reform and development, and better protected the people's economic, social and cultural rights.

People's living standard further improved. China's GDP in 2014 increased by 7.4 percent over the previous year, and the economy operated within an appropriate range. The economic growth in central and western China was faster than that in the east. As many as 13.22 million new urban jobs were created, more than that in 2013. The total output of grain was 607.1 million tons, an increase of 5.16 million tons over the previous year. The first phase of the central line of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was completed, providing water from the Yangtze River in the south to 60 million people in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the north. More than 66 million rural people began to have access to safe drinking water in that year. In 2014 minimum wage standards were raised in 19 regions. The nationwide annual per capita disposable income reached 20,167 yuan, up 8 percent over the previous year and faster than the economic growth rate in 2014. The annual per capita disposable income for urban residents was 28,844 yuan, and that for rural residents reached 10,489 yuan, up 6.8 percent and 9.2 percent over the previous year, respectively, with the increasing rate for rural residents higher than that for urban residents for the fifth consecutive year. The urban-rural income ratio fell below 3:1 for the first time over the previous 13 years. Nationwide, per capita consumption expenditure reached 14,491 yuan, an increase of 7.5 percent over 2013, among which the consumption expenditure of urban residents was 19,968 yuan and that of rural residents was 8,383 yuan, up 5.8 percent and 10 percent, respectively. By the end of 2014 the number of telephone users in China had reached 1.53 billion, among whom that of mobile phone users reached 1.28 billion, with the penetration rate hitting 94.5 per 100 people. The number of 4G users was 97.284 million, and that of 3G users was 480 million. The number of Internet broadband users surpassed 200 million, among whom that of subscribers using broadband over 4M reached 177 million, taking up 88.1 percent of the total. The total broadband in China was 2500G, the broadband of the international communications gateway reached 9614Gbps, and the broadband of the international communications service gateway reached 3361.9Gbps. The number of trips abroad made by Chinese citizens was 116.59 million, among which those for private purposes reached 110.03 million, an increase of 19.6 percent over the previous year.

Basic public services coverage increase in both urban and rural areas. The State Council issued the National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020), and the central government appropriated a fund of 1.1 billion yuan to promote the development of new-type professional farmers in two provinces, 14 municipalities and 300 counties. China improved the occupational training and testing of farmers in 2014, with more than 400,000 people trained and tested in that year. China also organized training sessions for leaders in practical rural skills, and 12,000 people participated in the training in 2014. Professional training sessions were also held on modern planting and breeding as well as on animal sanitation and epidemic prevention, with more than 70,000 people receiving the training in that year. By issuing the Opinions on Further Promoting Household Registration System Reform, the State Council lifted all restrictions on settlement in incorporated towns (towns with a population of at least 2,500) and small cities, established a uniform household registration system in urban and rural areas together with a residence permit system, established and improved a basic public service supply mechanism linked with residence period, and steadily promoted the complete coverage of basic public services for permanent urban residents.

Educational fairness better guaranteed. China is continuing to increase its input in educational resources, giving preferential treatment to central and western regions and compulsory education in the countryside. In 2014, the education expenditure from the general public services budget of the central government reached 410.19 billion yuan, up 8.2 percent from 2013. The central government allocated one billion yuan from its budget as supporting funds for pre-school education, 13.266 billion yuan for free textbooks for compulsory education courses, and 7.293 billion yuan as cost of living subsidies for boarders in schools offering compulsory education from families with financial difficulties. Nearly 110 million rural students receiving compulsory education benefited from exemption of all tuition and miscellaneous fees as well as free textbooks, first-grade pupils received dictionaries for free, and 12.4 million boarders from poverty-stricken households in central and western China received cost of living subsidies. Since November 2014 the nutrition subsidies covered by national pilot projects for rural students receiving compulsory education have been raised from 600 yuan to 800 yuan per person per year. In the same year, the central government allocated 17.156 billion yuan for nutrition improvement, benefiting 31.84 million students. Secondary vocational education was made free for more than 10 million students, and national grants were provided to nearly 4.88 million senior high school students, 3.15 million secondary vocational school students and 6.6 million college students. The central government also appropriated 31 billion yuan to upgrade schools with poor compulsory education conditions in poverty-stricken areas, with the focus on promoting pre-school education in rural areas, building dormitories for rural teachers in remote and border areas, building senior high schools in counties with a weak educational foundation in regions inhabited by ethnic minorities, and building special education schools in central and western China. The percentage of students receiving nine-year compulsory education remaining in school and the gross enrollment ratio of senior high schools were 92.6 percent and 86.5 percent, respectively. Twenty-eight provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government have started to address the problem of whether or not permitting children of rural migrant workers who received their compulsory education in cities to sit the national college entrance examinations in cities where they are now living. Institutions of higher learning continued to implement the country's Collaborative Admission Plan for Supporting the Central and Western Regions (initiated in 2008) and the Special Admission Plan for Students from Poor Rural Areas (initiated in 2012), expanding the two plans to cover 200,000 and 50,000 people, an increase of 15,000 and 20,000 people, respectively, over the previous year. (mo