BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhuanet) -- China issued a white paper on Tuesday titled "Progress in China's Human Rights Cause in 2003", which was applauded by many experts and scholars as the best testimony to the government's human-centered principles.

    Liu Nanlai, an expert on human rights with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said the 16,000-word white paper convinced its readers with specific figures and facts on the country's endeavors and achievements in protecting and developing the people's human rights last year.

    The central leadership headed by President Hu Jintao has since last year formulated a scientific view of development characterized by "putting people first" and "promoting the overalldevelopment of the society and the people".

    "In practice, the government has adopted a series of epochal measures for respecting and safeguarding human rights, including reflecting the people's will, reducing their burdens and promotingdemocracy, which have resulted in a marked improvement in China's human rights conditions," Liu said.

    As a developing country, China has always given top priority topeople's life, health and basic human rights, he said, seeing the people's rights to subsistence and development listed in the firstpart of the white paper.

    The sudden outbreak of the SARS epidemic last spring and the spread of the highly infectious bird flu early this year, both tests of the government's capacity to maintain people's safety andhealth, have left important stamps in China's human rights progress.

    According to the white paper, the central and local governmentsearmarked over 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars) during theSARS period to purchase medical equipment, drugs and protective gear, and to reconstruct hospitals. SARS patients, both farmers and townspeople who had financial difficulties, were treated free of charge.

    While eliminating bird flu cases, the government also offered reasonable compensation to poultry raisers and provided related enterprises with support in loans, bank interest discounts and taxation.

    "These measures, a result of the government's human-centered and practical working style, helped maintain the interests of the people, especially of the farmers," said Feng Zhuoran, a professorwith the Beijing-based Capital Normal University.

    China has never neglected its 900 million rural population. Last year, the state promulgated the newly amended Law on Agriculture and put into effect the Law on Rural Land Contracts. The issuance of the Proposals on Several Policies to Increase Farmers' Incomes this February also left far-reaching influence among the public. China is drafting a law on protecting farmers' rights and interests, the white paper says.

    "Premier Wen pledged in this year's government work report to cancel the agriculture taxes in five years. China has listed the settlement of problems concerning the farmers, agriculture and rural areas as its top task," Feng said.

    Migrant workers, an expanding army among the rural population, have seen their rights and interests unprecedentedly cared about over the past year.

    According to the white paper, the government helped migrant workers retrieve over 24 billion yuan (2.9 billion US dollars) of overdue wages from November 2003 to February 2004. The State Council also issued the Notice on Properly Carrying Out the Work of Managing and Serving Rural Migrant Workers in Urban Areas, giving clear stipulations on issues concerning their employment, defaulted payment, schooling of their children, and job training for them.

    "People won't forget the scene when the Premier shook hands with Xiong Deming, a 42-year-old ordinary farmer in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, last October and promised to help get back the delayed wages for her migrant worker husband. It later triggered a nationwide campaign of retrieving defaulted payment," said Mu Xian, an expert with the China Foundation for Human Rights Development.

    The brutal murder of Sun Zhigang, a victim of violence in a Guangzhou detention house last March, had caused drastic reforms in the country's decade-long holding and deportation system for urban homeless. Meanwhile, the police, judicial and procuratorial departments all carried out measures to prevent extended detentionand to facilitate and benefit the people last year, says the whitepaper.

    "These changes in polices all reflected the government's respect for the people's life security and their dignity," Feng Zhuoran said.

    Dong Yunhu, vice chairman and secretary-in-general of the ChinaSociety for Human Rights Studies, considered the enshrinement of human rights into Constitution a milestone in China's human rightscause, which further established its prominence in the country's legal construction and the state's development strategy.

    Issued two weeks after China enshrined "the state respects and safeguards human rights" into the Constitution, the white paper proves the government has practiced the principle of "people first" in its governance and is willing to expose itself to the public's supervision, said Feng Jianchang, a researcher with the Ministryof Justice. Enditem