* Cracking Down on Human Rights. The year 1982 saw the discourse on alienation of human nature in China. It was not suppressed at the beginning and was being actively discussed in the printing media as well as on the electronic media. However suppressing human rights is nevertheless the cornerstone of autocracy and thus in 1983 the ‘Elimination of Spiritual Pollution’ Movement was launched alongside a high-handed policy on ideology and theory. It was a massive cleansing on social behaviour. The launching of a ‘severe crack down on criminal activities’ was a massive persecution on human rights from theory to practice. The direct appeal for human rights by the Democracy Wall and the subsequent detouring demands for the same by theory and by practice were both cracked down and failed.

* Human Rights were Already the Target and Banner of Social Movements. Since 1983 , what expounded human rights were articles that found their way into campuses and into the society. Their social foundation and province were deeper than before. The protagonists were Fang Lizhi and Liu Binyan. In the student movement in 1986, human rights was one of the targets. However this was only a monologue by the intellectuals without popular support and participation and was eventually cracked down. In the 1989 Pro-democracy Movement, human rights was still a target to be striven for and was widenly concerned and accepted. Although it subsided temporarily, however human rights has already played a significant role in the political life in China.

* The Challenge of Human Rights Mentality in Terror. After the 1989 Pro-democracy Movement, the Chinese Government launched a full-scale purge, eradicating pro-hurman-rights and pro-democracy forces. On the other hand, the extreme-leftist within the Chinese Communist Party captitalized on the occasion to try to revert the country to autocracy as in the Mao era. However it was difficult for history to go back. For the past few years, the human rights mentality already had a certain social foundation, and coupled with great international pressure, foiled the attempt to revert to Mao-style governance.

* From 1989 to 1994 -- the Verge of Change. After June 4th, under internal and international conditions, it was more appropriate to strive for human rights. Internationally, human rights in China won considerable support. Socially, human rights mentality ran high. The strife for human rights was braver, more strategic, more peaceful and sustainable and appeared to be firmer and more stable. The Chinese Government still refused international criticism, insisting on its own way with the pretext of national peculiarity and substituting it with the right to life and the right to development. However the Chinese Government did have certain changes in human rights after June 4th, although superficial and without substantial improvement. The Chinese Government already found it difficult to take an offensive strategy. Rather it was on the defensive. The change and improvement in the essence of human rights in China has become the general trend of history.

* Is Human Rights Turning Back? Since China had signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in late 1997, a lot of events convinced the international community that China might gradually take initiative to improve human rights. However by a new wave of persecution and human rights infringement of a not very big scale recently, China has shown that it is turning back for crack down and persecution. At present China is firmly suppressing political rights while the populace are enjoying economic and cultural rights. However the development and consolidation of the economic and cultural rights will inevitably engender the need for political rights. The minority who strive for political rights will cluster with hundreds of millions of the populace to keep on striving and struggling for human rights.