China Voice: Facts speak for China's human rights progress

China has made remarkable progress in human rights, showing the country is taking the correct path of human rights development that best conforms to its realities.

The government on Monday released a report highlighting the achievements of human rights protection in the legal system as well as economic and social development.

Legal reform has been one of the most notable areas of progress in human rights protection, with new measures put into place to improve the transparency and efficiency of judicial organs.

To make judicial proceedings more transparent, the Supreme People's Court has established a website to publicize judgements and allow litigants to follow the progress of their cases. In 2014, 6.29 million judgments were published through the website.

Based on the principles of "statutory crime and penalties", "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 last year, thereby maintaining the freedom of innocent people, according to the report.

In 2014, courts nationwide reheard 1,317 cases and corrected a number of wrongful decisions.

One high-profile wrongful conviction involved a 1996 rape-murder case in which an 18-year-old man named Huugjilt was convicted and executed. In December 2014, 18 years later, he was acquitted.

China also revised the Administrative Litigation Law in 2014, giving citizens more rights to sue the government and making it easier to do so. Courts across the country heard 151,000 administrative first-instance cases and concluded 131,000 of them, up 16.3 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively, from 2013.

All the figures attest to the fact that China has strived to improve human rights protection with concrete measures.

China has also made notable progress in improving the right to development, which is a fundamental human right for people of the world's largest developing country.

According to the report, the country's annual per capita disposable income reached 20,167 yuan (3,290 U.S. dollars) in 2014, up 8 percent over the previous year and faster than the economic growth rate last year.

Substantial efforts were made to alleviate poverty, including more government funds for infrastructure in the least-developed rural areas and relocation of people in uninhabitable regions.

By the end of 2014, the number of rural residents with an annual income less than 2,300 yuan had decreased by 12.32 million to 70.17 million.

There is also more guarantee of educational equity. Based on last year's figures, over 90 percent of children of school age are now receiving the nine years of compulsory education and nearly as high a percentage are enrolling in senior high schools.

Unfortunately, some countries have always turned a blind eye to Chinese progress in human rights or even slung mud over its record in this regard.

The concept of human rights varies in different countries and will be updated according to the changing reality. The rest of the world should respect China's unique conditions and traditions.

The pursuit of improved human rights protection is a path that never ends as socioeconomic conditions are changing constantly. Though faced with challenges along the way, China will be unswerving in its strengthening of human rights protection. Endi