ABSTRACT
The China Human Rights League took a strong interest in the issue of human rights. The League was to some extent inspired by the China League for the Protection of Civil Rights set up in the early 1930s. This chapter talks about the Chinese declaration that gives a good overview of the kind of human rights for which the democracy activists yearned. They were predominantly civil and political rights, such as freedom of speech, the press, publication, assembly, association, and demonstration. But the League also attacked such typical Chinese organizations as the work unit Party committee, and secret police, which all controlled people's lives, livelihood, and movement. Economic and social rights were also invoked: the League called for improvement of the cramped living conditions of urban citizens and economic relief for the poor and unemployed. The China Human Rights League was officially established in Beijing and the 1976 Tiananmen Incident was a human rights movement.
