BEIJING -- China's State Council Information Office on Thursday issued a white paper on the practice of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in respecting and protecting human rights.

The year 2021 marks the centenary of the CPC. Over the past century, the CPC has invested a huge effort in human rights protection, adding significantly to global human rights progress, said the white paper.

For a hundred years, the CPC has always put people first, applying the principle of universality of human rights in the context of the national conditions. It regards the rights to subsistence and development as the primary and basic human rights, and believes that living a life of contentment is the ultimate human right, said the white paper.

The CPC promotes the well-rounded development of the individual, and strives to give every person a stronger sense of gain, happiness and security. Its success in pioneering human rights in a socialist country is unique and readily apparent, said the white paper.

The life expectancy of Chinese citizens rose to 77.3 years in 2019, compared with 35 years in 1949, according to the white paper.

The CPC ensures the right to subsistence, said the document, noting that China has engaged in a huge program of poverty reduction focusing on development-driven poverty alleviation in rural areas.

At the end of 2020, China achieved the goal of eliminating absolute poverty as scheduled.

Living standards of the Chinese people have improved, the white paper said. In 2020, China's GDP reached 101.6 trillion yuan (about $15.7 trillion), and per capita GDP was 72,000 yuan, more than the threshold of $10,000 for the second year.

The CPC has also integrated law-based governance with human rights protection, according to the white paper.

Under the leadership of the CPC and based on the Constitution, a Chinese socialist system of laws has taken shape, providing a relatively complete legal system to protect human rights, said the white paper.

As of April 2021, there were 277 laws in force in China, including the Constitution and related laws, civil and commercial law, administrative law, economic law, social law, criminal law and procedural law related to litigation and non-litigation, it added.

Human rights progress in China, guided by a people-centered philosophy, has gone beyond the development of Western views on human rights and its practice in protecting human rights, said Lu Guangjin, secretary-general of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, at a press conference Thursday on the white paper.

For a hundred years, the CPC has committed itself to peaceful development and common progress. China is firm in its international stance -- to safeguard world peace and seek progress through cooperation, ensuring human rights with the benefits deriving from development, according to the white paper.

China has been an active participant in matters of international human rights, providing a Chinese contribution to global human rights governance and progress, and working with other countries to forge a global community of shared future, according to the white paper.

China has sent more than 40,000 military personnel to participate in about 30 UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan, Lebanon, Cambodia, Libya, and other countries and regions, said the white paper.

The country now ranks first among the permanent members of the UN Security Council in terms of the number of peacekeepers dispatched, and is the second largest fund contributor to the UN's peacekeeping actions, it added.

China has signed 26 international human rights instruments, including six core UN conventions, the white paper showed, adding that China fulfills its obligations prescribed in these human rights conventions, ensures that the formulation, legislation, and any amendments of its laws and policies are consistent with these conventions.

The CPC is leading the people towards the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation and the second centenary goal -- to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the centenary of the People's Republic of China.

At that time, all rights of the Chinese people will be safeguarded at a higher level, and they will have a better sense of dignity, freedom and happiness. China will make a greater contribution to the protection of human rights, enabling the world to develop better and become more prosperous, said the white paper.

Full Text: The Communist Party of China and Human Rights Protection -- A 100-Year Quest