On June 4th 1989, Deng Xiaoping and nine other members of the permanent Comity commanded the Prime Minister Li Peng to repress the occupation of Tiannenmen square by millions of students. Actually, this manifestation had started on the2nd of April by the students' reaction who wanted to pay homage to Hu Yaobang, fired in 1987 because of his liberal ideas. The death of this ex communist Party member in April of 1989 created a big emotion and provoked the meeting of more than 200 000 students in Tiannenmen Square. These young people wanted to defy the Power and applied for political reforms. Rededication of liberty and modern ideas' consideration led to the death of 1400 students. Some of them were also been imprisoned or condemned to death. This event occurred during the Gorbatchev' political reform in USSR: on May 16th, the representatives of China and USSR were meeting in Beijing. One can notice that the students' claim was then, also to catch the international communities' attention. Even if this manifestation was a massacre, one can hardly deny that it had the effect to wake the international interest up for the lack of democracy and human rights respect in China.
[...] In the second half of the decade we notice a number of developments, thanks to the implementation of china's human rights responsibilities at an international level. The International pressure seemed to have a beneficial effect on China's problem with Human Rights, but its slowness exposed China to several sanctions. International sanctions since 1989 China's democracy movement during the month of June 1989 had a deep impact on China's international relations with the entire community. It also changed its relations with the international human rights regime. [...]
[...] Indeed, the ILO "applied universal standards to China" for it to improve in terms of human rights and liberty, and China from its side, decided to slowly accept to cooperate and made sacrifices in an organizational participation. This international socialization is very important for China's improvements in terms of human rights. Even though the relation between China and the ILO was characteristic of the bureaucratic state" page 130), it helped China to follow the way of a human rights as a respectful State. [...]
[...] These goals concerned reaffirmation of belief in universality and indivisibility of human rights, the inseparability of human rights and democracy, the claim for China to release the political prisoners and stop political persecution. These NGOs also asked for the respect of "self-determination of all the minorities in respect of their religions, cultures and languages". The problem of Hong Kong had also been underlined: after 1997, "the fundamental rights of the people of Hong-Kong were to be fully respected. At last, the group asked for China to ratify the international covenants of human rights. [...]
[...] What is frightening in this lateness is the fact that China could become one of the most powerful countries in the World and soon, no other country will be able to order China to improve its legislation and acts. To end with an optimistic vision, we notice that since Tiannenmen incident, China has made huge progresses in terms of human rights and has been more integrated in the international community. Nevertheless, one needs to be realistic and precise that what the Chinese government agrees to show is not necessarily synonymous of transparency, but at least manipulation. Bibliography Realms [...]
[...] I - The supervision of the International Community Since the 1989 incident, the International Community took strict measures to supervise China in its human rights abuses. One of the United States' main purposes was the protection of human rights. Thus, as the Tiannenmen event presented a real violation of human rights, it appeared crucial that the International Community intervened to stop those abuses. China was then leaded by the United Nations' principles and conventions. China's relationship with the United Nations China signed the United Nations' Charter since its creation in 1945, but since 1971 the People's Republic of China has had the seat at the council. [...]
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