National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2016-2020)

(7) Cultural rights

The Outline of the National Plan for Cultural Reform and Development of the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (2016-2020) shall be implemented, and the public cultural services shall be improved, so shall the cultural industry and cultural market, to ensure citizens' basic cultural rights.

・ Quickening the pace of enactment of laws on public libraries, the promotion of the cultural industry, the provision of public cultural services, and promotion of the movie industry. The Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics, the Copyright Law and supporting administrative regulations shall be amended.

・ Promoting the standardization of and equal access to basic public cultural services. The public cultural facilities network shall keep to be improved, and the building of primary-level cultural service capacity shall be strengthened. Support shall be strengthened for cultural development in former revolutionary base areas, ethnic-minority areas, border areas and impoverished areas. Public digital culture development shall be accelerated. Cultural products and services should suit the public's cultural needs. All social sectors are encouraged to take part in the provision of public cultural services. Free access to public cultural installations shall be further encouraged.

・ Promoting the development of emerging cultural industries. Innovation shall be encouraged in the forms of cultural operations, and great efforts shall be made to boost the development of creative culture. The cultural market entry-and-exit mechanism shall be improved, and the cultural resources shall be encouraged to flow nationwide.

・ Establishing a dissemination system of China's fine cultural traditions. Protection and development of key state cultural and natural heritage sites, major ruins, key cultural relics protection units, and historic and cultural cities, towns and villages shall be strengthened, and so shall policy support to non-state-owned museums. Efforts shall be made to press forward with the building of facilities for protecting and utilizing state intangible cultural heritages, and implement a research and training program for the inheritors of intangible cultural heritages. Traditional craftsmanship shall be further developed, and the project to collate Chinese classics and records shall be launched.

・ Launching a nationwide reading project.

・ Strengthening the development of the Internet and cyber culture. Fiber-optic networks shall cover all urban areas and provide a connection capacity of 1,000 Mbps, allowing home users of the Internet in medium-sized and large cities to choose from a variety of plans with speeds above 100 Mbps; fiber-optic networks shall cover 98 percent of rural administrative villages, an Internet connection capacity of 100 Mbps shall be available for areas where conditions allow, allowing more than half of rural home users to choose from a variety of plans with speeds above 50 Mbps. An Internet content development project shall be implemented, support shall be extended to the digitalization of traditional publishing resources, the knowledge-services capacity shall be enhanced, and encouragement shall be given to the creation of outstanding original works on the Internet.

(8) Environmental rights

Implementing the strictest possible system of environmental protection, forming an environmental-governance system involving the government, enterprises and the general public, and striving to address such pressing environmental problems as air, water and soil pollution, so as to strive for an overall improvement of the environment.

・ Effectively implementing the Law on Environmental Protection and the Law on Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control, and improving environmental public interest litigation and other supporting mechanisms. The pace of legislation for water and soil pollution prevention and control, and nuclear safety shall be promoted in an orderly manner.

・ Sparing no effort to curb air pollution. By 2020 the ratio of days with good air quality in cities above the prefecture level shall exceed 80 percent, the density of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in such cities that have not yet met the required standards shall drop by 18 percent, and the total emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitric oxides shall drop by 15 percent.

・ Strengthening water pollution prevention and control. Efforts shall be intensified for pollution prevention and control in water-head areas and river basins, and a list of priority pollutants shall be screened and established for the country's seven major river basins. By 2020 bodies of water at or above the Grade-III level shall surpass 70 percent, with bodies of water at the Grade-V level reduced to 5 percent or less, and black and odorous bodies of water in built-up areas of cities above the prefecture level shall be limited to 10 percent or less. The chemical oxygen demand amount and total emission of ammonia nitrogen shall drop by 10 percent, and excessive exploitation of groundwater shall be brought under strict control.

・ Formulating and implementing the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. By 2020 200 pilot programs shall be completed for the application of soil-pollution control and remedy technologies; six pilot areas of soil-pollution prevention and control shall be built; and area of polluted farmland treated and restored shall reach 10 million mu (less than 700,000 ha), with the area of lightly and moderately polluted farmland treated for safe utilization being 40 million mu (less than 3 million ha).

・ Improving hazardous waste pollution prevention and control. Special programs shall be carried out in hazardous waste pollution control, and efforts shall be intensified for the prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in key areas and key industries such as non-ferrous metals. Capacity building shall be strengthened in environment and health risk assessment of toxic and harmful chemicals. Further efforts shall be made to promote the security improvement of nuclear facilities and prevention and control of radioactive contamination, and strengthen the security supervision system and capacity of nuclear and radioactive materials.

・ Improving the protection of marine resources and environment. Strict control shall be enforced on the scale of sea reclamation, and protection and restoration of coastal belts, seeing to it that at least 35 percent of the country' s shorelines remain in their natural conditions. A system shall be implemented under which terrigenous pollutants shall be treated and meet required standards before they are discharged into the sea and the total amount of waste discharge shall be capped. An early-warning mechanism shall be established in relation to marine resources and environment carrying capacity. Strict control shall be imposed on fishing intensity; protection of rare marine species shall be enhanced; and a marine supervision mechanism shall be implemented.

・ Promoting the improvement and upgrading of the energy structure. By 2020 the energy consumption per unit of GDP shall drop by 15 percent, water usage per RMB10,000 of GDP shall drop by 23 percent, non-fossil energy resources shall make up 15 percent of primary energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP shall decrease by 18 percent.

・ Promoting ecological conservation. The pace of delimiting the "red lines" for ecological conservation shall be accelerated, and efforts shall be made to forge ahead with the establishment of a negative list of industries that are not allowed in key eco-function zones. By 2020 the country's forest coverage shall be raised to 23 percent of its land; the wetland inventory shall be stabilized at 800 million mu (over 53 million ha); and nature reserves shall remain steady at 17 percent of the country's total land area, in addition to another 10 million ha of improved desert land and another 270,000 sq km of land of which soil erosion control has been completed. In addition, the number of national "forest cities" shall increase to 200, and the ratio of green land shall reach 25 percent in over 80 percent of the administrative villages nationwide. A bio-safety inspection mechanism shall be set up at land and sea ports to prevent the spread of plant and animal epidemics and diseases across borders, as well as invasion by alien species.

・ Improving environmental monitoring and supervision mechanisms. A trans-regional governance model shall be enforced for joint environmental prevention and control that covers all river basins and integrates urban and rural efforts. A system for paid use and trading of emission rights shall be established. So shall a system of environmental credit records for enterprises and a blacklist system of illegal waste discharge. The environmental damage compensation system shall be improved.