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Quality of Life

Overall, China is performing better than average in economic and social rights compared with other East Asian countries, according to our income-adjusted benchmark, though it still has significant challenges. We produce scores for China for the rights to education, food, health, housing, and work.

Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which China has signed, all countries agree to devote their maximum available resources to making things progressively better for their people in these areas.

HRMI has calculated what China could be achieving at its current level of income. The scores are given as a percentage of that realistic potential achievement.

China’s best scores are for the right to health, where it is achieving 98.1% of what we calculate should be possible, and for the right to food (96.4%). For these rights, China is doing nearly as well as it possibly can, given its level of income. China could still afford to make some gains now, but then would need to increase its income to make further improvements.

Of the five quality of life rights we measure, China needs to improve the most in the right to quality education, where it scores 61.4%, which falls in the ‘very bad’ range. Among 17 East Asian countries, this score puts China in the bottom half for quality education, just below Mongolia and Myanmar, and just above Malaysia and Thailand.

China’s other lower score is for the right to housing, where it is currently achieving only 88.7% of what we calculate should be possible at its level of income.

We further break the right to housing down into scores for the right to sanitation and the right to water.

With a GDP per capita of US$12,556 we calculate that China has the resources to ensure all of its people have running water and toilets in their homes.

However, China’s right to sanitation score of 86.3% shows that many people are missing out, even though China could afford to do better. If China efficiently used its available resources, it could achieve a score of 100%, which would mean that 108 million additional Chinese would gain access to basic sanitation in their homes.

If China improved its performance for the right to water from 91% to 100%, 101 million more people would have water on their premises.

The good news is that China’s scores for the right to housing have been steadily improving since 2001, when the nation scored 68.6%. The progress from 2019 to 2020 suggests around 28 million people gained access to basic sanitation over that period, and around five million people gained access to water in their homes. China’s scores for the right to sanitation are rising more quickly than those for the right to water.

When it comes to the right to food, if China lifted its score to 100%, around 1.1 million more children under five years old would have enough nutritious food to grow well – that would mean all children in China under five would have enough nutritious food to grow well. This is an achievable goal.

With a current score of 96.4%, China has improved a little in respecting people’s right to food over the last 20 years, with its score increasing from 86% in 2000.

On the right to work, China’s score has climbed strongly up to 95.8% in 2020 from 34.6% in 2000, meaning many fewer people have been living in absolute poverty over the last two decades, and bringing it into the 'good' band of scores. Still, the latest score means 4 million Chinese are unnecessarily living in absolute poverty (living on less than $3.65 per day, measured in 2017 PPP$), so significant improvement is still possible and necessary.

However, for the right to health, expert respondents noted significant problems with air and water pollution, food safety, and the impacts of the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Respondents also noted inequities in access to healthcare, including regional differences, and differences in access according to wealth and political influence.

China comes in second in the world in ensuring people’s right to health is fulfilled, with a score of 98.1%, when using the low and middle income assessment standard (when using the high income standard, China still comes in fifth in the world, when taking countries' income into account). For countries doing this well with their current level of income, an increase of income will be necessary to make significant further improvements. This is the right where China is most constrained by resources – for all of the other rights we measure, China should already be able to do nearly as well as any country in the world, at its current level of income.

People at risk

While China has room for improvement in all the rights we measure, a further consideration is inequity. There are several groups of people who experts identified as being at higher risk of missing out. These include:

See the people at risk tab on the Rights Tracker for the full lists. The data also show a strong connection between political activity, especially criticism of the government, and lack of enjoyment of economic and social rights.

Room for improvement

All our Quality of Life scores show that China could make significant improvements to its people’s lives, even without more resources.

If China were using its resources more efficiently to ensure its people’s wellbeing, it could achieve 100% for all the rights we measure. Yet, while its best score is close to that mark — 98.1% on the right to health — its worst score — 61.4% on the right to quality education — is far from that level.

If China better upheld its rights obligations, and achieved a full 100% score on all the rights we measure, we would see millions more Chinese people living lives of dignity, even without income growth. For example, if China reached 100% we would see the following number of extra people benefitting:

Safety from the State

China scores 2.9 out of 10 for our overall Safety from the State category, telling us that many people are at risk of arbitrary or political arrest or detention, torture and ill-treatment, forced disappearance, execution, or extrajudicial killing. This is the lowest score in our sample of 30 countries.

China’s worst score in this category is 1.3 out of 10 for freedom from the death penalty, the lowest score among all the countries we measure.

The human rights experts we surveyed said that agents of the state, particularly police, had total impunity to engage in torture of those detained.

Respondents overwhelmingly agreed that human rights advocates, protesters, and people who criticised the government were at particular risk of rights violations, especially arbitrary arrest and detention, forced disappearance, and torture and ill-treatment. Respondents particularly noted risks to people participating in the White Paper protests, and those criticising the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic, or disobeying quarantine and lockdown rules.

People from ethnic minorities were at extra risk for all five Safety from the State rights.

Other vulnerable groups include:

Among other East and Southeast Asian countries and territories where we measure these rights, China has the lowest scores for all five Safety from the State rights.