ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of the massacre, and also China's evolving participation in the international human rights regime. It shows how foreign governments, despite the limitations on the extent to which the international community can affect a country's internal affairs, have attempted to influence the human rights situation in China and to encourage the country to develop in a more democratic direction. The Chinese government has long hinted at a willingness to accede to both covenants and finally did sign the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1997. It also accepted the principle of universality of human rights in general— at the same time seeking, along with other countries such as Malaysia, to have some of the provisions of the Universal Declaration reconsidered. The People's Republic of China leaders tend to be hypersensitive to attention to its human rights practices. They argue that such concern is interference in China's internal affairs.
