Human Rights Violations In The Coastal Region Of China

In reference to the history of Human Rights violations in China, according to Svensson, ever since the idea of democracy in China was crushed in the Tiananmen Square incident in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the party of China has been awkward in its interactions with the rest of the international community. Prior to the Tiananmen Square incident the idea of human rights, or the citizen’s rights in general, was a taboo subject. However, after the Tiananmen Square incident the “political leadership within the Communist Party of China took a more proactive approach to human rights issues in order to ward off foreign criticism, which was at an all-time high at this point in Chinese history.” The level of international scrutiny was so high

However, unlike Abeysinghe, Fleisher points out how uneven the economic success has been across the regions. The major rift in economic inequality is evident when comparing the Coastal region of China, the Northeast region of China, the far west region of China, and Finally the interior region of China. This inequality has existed since the Moa era of Chinese history which was in the early 1980s. According to Fleisher, this economic inequality is evident in the regional per capita GDP. In the year 2003, the Coastal region of China had a regional per capita GDP of 622.75, whereas in the same year the far west region of China had a regional per capita GDP of 116.05. This rift in economic inequality may be caused by the amount of human capital that was invested in the people of each region. One example of human capital is education. Fleisher points out China’s reluctance to invest in its people through the form of education. If fact, in 2004, the government spend only 2.79% of its GDP on education whereas the average is 5.1% in established countries. Fleisher again points out the strong inequality of education that exists between the coastal regions of China and the interior regions of China. For instance, the amount of adults who had a high school education or higher form of education was about 20% in the coastal region of China. However, in the interior regions of China the percent of those who had a high school education or higher form of education was only 17%. In all, Fleisher concludes that the economic inequality could stem from in equal investment in: physical capital, human capital like education, and infrastructure capital. Additionally, economic inequality may exist due to the introduction of technology to the Chinese economy and the strict fiscal-constraint movement