Human Rights as Born in Europe and Its Fate in China: a Historical/Structural Analysis

Abstract: Human rights have their roots in citizen's rights. The development of citizen's rights has been centring on property rights. Property rights own its root to Rome. Private property rights are crucial elements in the Roman law, but were less recognized in the Middle Ages. Then it revives in the medieval cities. This thesis explores the development of property rights in Europe with the transformation of agricultural economy to commercial economy as the background, concluding that citizen's rights are products of a commercial economy. The expansion of commercial economy to the world is the essence of colonization, particularly in its British version. Conflicts over colonization are among the causes of the two World Wars and the establishment of the United Nations, which in turn ushered an age of human rights. The thesis then explores China's failed attempt to transform agricultural economy to commercial economy in a very broad historical context, which ultimately resulted in the emergence of a totalitarian regime in 1949. However, a totalitarian regime can be friendly to some human rights, as illuminated by the substantive poverty reduction during the last three decades' economic growth. Unfortunately, economic growth alone is not enough to liberalize China, which is made clear by analysing China's state report to the Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Committee's Concluding Observations of said state report. Finally, the thesis draws the conclusion that transformation of land regime is the key for China's full realization of human rights.