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

II. Rights of the Person

In 2014 China strengthened supervision over foodstuffs, improved laws and regulations on production safety, combated terrorism according to law, attached more importance to protecting the rights of the accused, detainees and criminals, and stepped up drug-control efforts to protect citizens' personal rights.

Stricter supervision over food safety. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) deliberated the revised draft of the Food Safety Law, which enhances the supervision of the whole process in this field from food production and circulation to catering services, and food import and export, sets up a food-traceability system and a quality labeling system, and increases the penalties for violations of food safety to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in accordance with the law.

In March 2014 the Supreme People' s Court put into effect the Provisions of Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Food and Drug Disputes, increasing efforts to crack down on crimes endangering food and drug safety. People's courts at all levels concluded a total of 11,000 related cases in that year. In March 2014 the Food Safety Office of the State Council, China Food and Drug Administration and State Administration for Industry and Commerce, jointly issued the Notice on Cracking Down on Illegal Acts of Making and Selling Counterfeit and Poor-quality Food, and Strengthening Supervision of Rural Food Markets, launching a special campaign to address problems in the rural food markets such as doing business without a license, and selling and using food and foodstuffs from illegal sources. During this nationwide campaign, the competent departments inspected food producers 424,200 times, food sellers 3,868,800 times, wholesale markets and pedlers' markets 142,900 times, spot checked these markets 253,600 times, banned 22,800 unlicensed businesses according to law, revoked 1,142 licenses for food production and marketing, cancelled 642 business licenses, destroyed 1,375 counterfeit and poor-quality food-producing workshops, checked and confiscated 361,900 kg of foodstuffs that violated trademark laws, investigated and prosecuted 45,100 cases of foodstuffs illegality, and handled 46,800 related complaints and reports from consumers.

Improvement of work safety laws and regulations. In August 2014 the Standing Committee of the NPC approved the Decision on Amending the Work Safety Law, which enhances regulations, mechanisms and measures concerning standardization, planning, liability insurance, responsibility of management organizations and public announcement of serious breaches of the law in the field of work safety. The Decision has helped raise awareness of work safety, strengthen responsibility for law enforcement and supervision, and routine checks and supervision, both overt and covert, to curb violators. In 2014, 453,000 work safety inspection groups conducted 2,342,000 inspections of production and business units, dealing with 1,278,000 incidences of violations, halting the operations of 7,745 such units for rectification and shutting down over 5,000 units. The government strengthened rectification of safety risks, made known to the public all enterprises posing major risks, meted out punitive measures to them such as rectification within deadlines, suspending production for rectification, imposing a fine or shutting down the business completely. The accountability system has been strengthened, and work safety incidents have been thoroughly dealt with. The average time spent on dealing with major and extremely serious safety incidents in 2014 was shortened to 113 days from 123 days in 2013. All the 51 major and extremely serious safety incidents occurred in 2013 have been dealt with, and 38 out of 42 such incidents occurred in 2014 have been dealt with, with 969 persons called to account and 302 of them held criminally liable.

Combating terrorism in accordance with the law to ensure the safety of life and property of the people. In October 2014 the Anti-terrorism Law of the People's Republic of China (draft) was first deliberated at the 11th Plenary Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC. In November 2014 public views of the draft were solicited via www.npc.gov.cn. This draft stipulated the working mechanism, scope of functions and duties, security precautions, intelligence, emergency response and international cooperation in anti-terrorism efforts. On December 28, 2014, the 12th Plenary Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC approved the Anti-terrorism Convention of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to further international cooperation against terrorism. In September 2014 the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate and Ministry of Public Security released the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases Involving Terrorism and Religious Extremism, defining the basic principles for handling such cases, how to determine the nature of the cases, and principle of jurisdiction. People's courts at all levels dealt with 558 cases of crimes of inciting separatism and terrorism, prosecuting 712 culprits. The judicial organs severely punished crimes such as the terrorist attacks at Tiananmen on October 28, 2013 and at Kunming railway station on March 1, 2014 to ensure the safety of life and property of the people.

The rights of the accused, detainees and criminals are protected. In 2014 the Ministry of Public Security formulated the Regulations on Making Audio-Video Recordings by the Public Security Organs When Interrogating Criminal Suspects and the Supreme People's Procuratorate amended the Provisions on Making Synchronous Audio-Video Recordings Throughout the Entire Process of Interrogation of Duty-Related Criminal Suspects, making sure audio-video recording is used in the entire process of interrogating criminal suspects, and giving detailed provisions on the principle, method and procedure of synchronous audio-video recordings, and management and use of such audio-video recordings. The public security, judicial and administrative departments at all levels worked together to promote the establishing of legal aid stations in detention centers, and resident lawyers from legal aid organizations provide legal consultation for the accused and detainees to protect their legitimate rights and interests. By the end of 2014, up to 1,700 legal aid stations had been set up by the legal aid organizations in detention centers across the country, and this service now covers all the detention centers in the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing, and the provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou. The Ministry of Public Security has launched a special program to comprehensively improve the safety management level of detention centers and pressed ahead with professional health care services provided in detention centers to ensure that sick detainees are treated in a timely and effective manner. The Regulations on Temporarily Serving Sentences Outside Prison jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice, and National Health and Family Planning Commission, and Opinions on Strengthening Sanitation Management in Prisons issued by the Ministry of Justice have helped to make law enforcement fairer, stricter and more civilized.

Major progress has been made in drug control. In 2014 drug control department under the Ministry of Public Security implemented the Opinion of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening Drug Control, intensified efforts to launch a special drug-control program in 100 cities and cracked down on drug-related crimes, to clean the social environment and ensure the health and safety of citizens. During this period, a total of 145,900 drug-related cases were prosecuted nationwide, with 168,900 criminal suspects arrested and 68.95 tons of drugs of various kinds seized. In helping drug addicts receive treatment we observe the principle of "putting people first, managing drug treatment services according to law, adopting scientific and comprehensive measures based on individual needs, and supplementing treatment with care and aid," and take measures such as voluntary in-patient treatment, community treatment, compulsory quarantine treatment and community rehabilitation. By the end of 2014 the registered drug addicts totaled 2.955 million, and those who had not relapsed for three years totaled 1.008 million. In 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, 767 drug-treatment clinics were established, receiving a total of 187,000 drug users; 836 employment service centers were set up for drug users recovering from treatment, providing job opportunities for 515,000 ex-addicts of opioids, with an employment rate of 47.8 percent; 46 rehabilitation centers for sick and disabled drug users were set up, providing treatment to over 9,000 people.