One of the first things that come to mind about human rights in China would most likely be the Tiananmen Square massacre, where in 1989 hundreds of student protestors lost their lives to the People’s Republic of China. The bloody body of a dead student removed from the street right after the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989. Web page http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/china/china.html The name People’s Republic of China seems a contradiction of its meaning. If indeed its name is the People’s Republic of China than why did it massacre peaceful protestors with tanks and machine guns? But the Chinese government argues that the force was necessary for maintaining a national order (Muzhi Zhu). The People's Republic of China (PRC) is actually an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the main source of power. At the national and regional levels, party members hold almost all the top government, police, and military positions. The country’s authority rests with members of the Politburo (China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999). CCP stresses that it needs to maintain stability and social order. The Government's poor human rights record in 1999 shows the extent at which the Government intensified efforts to suppress its 1.27 billion people. A crackdown against a newly formed opposition party, which began in the fall of 1998, broadened and intensified during the year. By the end of 1998, almost all of the key leaders of the China Democracy Party (CDP) were serving long prison terms or were in custody without any formal charges, and only a handful of members nationwide dared to remain active publicly (China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999). Tens of thousands of members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement were arrested after the movement was banned in July. Thereafter, several leaders of the movement were sentenced to long prison terms in late Decem...
