China Information Office of the State Council for the first of its time issued a white paper stating that Chinese people are enjoying human rights more "comprehensive and fuller than they have enjoyed in the past", according to China Daily.
The white paper titled "Building of Political Democracy in China" wrote that "the State respects and safeguards human rights" into the Constitution, and that great progress has been made in building China's political system as well as improving the rights of people at grassroots level.
The paper declared that human rights have improved and that people's freedom to religious beliefs have been protected and guarantees the legitimate rights of religious groups and venues of religious activites is not violated.
"According to incomplete statistics, there are now over 100 million religious adherents, about 300,000 members of the clergy, and more than 100,000 venues for religious activities in China. The state has formulated the Regulations on Social Organization Registration and Management, the Provisional Regulations for the Registration and Administration of Private Non-Enterprise Units and the Regulations for the Management of Foundations to guarantee that citizens have the legal freedom to form associations." Stated the paper.
However, the paper also admitted that "the CPC (Communist Party of China) and the Chinese people are clearly aware of the many problems yet to be overcome".
Christians activities are still restricted and believers do not receives complete freedom to exercize their faith. Since July 2005, more than 210 house chuch pastors and believers in China: Hubei, Hebei, and Henan, were reportly arrested, according to China Aid's press release on Aug 8.
The paper pointed out that the mechanism of supervising the use of power needed improvement.
Chen Guangcheng, 34, a blind social activist from Linyi town, who was placed under house arrest for campaigning against the use of forced sterilization and abortion, had been seized by authorities, according to Reuters.
On Sept. 7, Chen Guangcheng was visiting Beijing while preparing a lawsuit to challenge the abuses. Three days later, Chen was confined to his home by authorities and couldn't receive visitors, the Washington Post reported
Family planning policies were eased at the national level in 2002, allowing parents to have extra children, so long as they paid big fines. But in many cases local Communist Party officials still maintain the old, harsher restrictions and attitudes.
The recent events have been criticized by the human rights organization Amnesty International. In an October 14 press release Amnesty started that it has not taken an official position on China's "birth control policy." But it is concerned about the human rights violations resulting from the coercive methods used to apply the policy.
