After 1840, the Chinese nation faced two important historical tasks: one was to seek national independence and the people´s liberation, and the other was to achieve the country´s prosperity and the people´s common prosperity. Accordingly, the Chinese human rights cause also faced two historical tasks in general: one was to attain the group rights of the entire country and the entire nation, and the other was to achieve and guarantee the individual human rights of every citizens in the entire society, and first of all, the citizens´ rights to subsistence and development. Under the leadership of CPC, China has experienced great human rights liberation for twice. The first was that CPC led the people to overthrow the reactionary rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, and found a New China where the people were the masters of the country; and the other was that CPC led the people to completely repudiate the "Cultural Revolution", boost the reform and opening to the outside world, and improve democracy and legal system, rendering the multitude to achieve human rights that they had never had in the history. Such great emancipation of human rights is distinctive in the following aspects: First, the Chinese citizens´ human rights were achieved step by step in the course of safeguarding the country´s group human rights; Second, the Chinese citizens´ human rights were achieved step by step in the course of all-round economic and social development; Third, the Chinese citizens´ human rights were achieved step by step with the correct leadership and painstaking efforts of CPC. After the founding of New China in 1949, the Chinese human rights cause experienced a course from rapid development to twists and turns, and then to the setting of things to rights and all-round improvement, largely in five stages. After the reform and opening to the outside world in 1978, especially since the 1990s, the Chinese human rights cause has achieved a series of breakthrough development in the spheres of theory, legislation and practice. In China, many institutions specialized in the research of human rights have been established, extensive academic research on the issues related to human rights has been carried out, and a large number of academic monographs and treatises have been published.
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