ABSTRACT
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has something of a dubious record when it comes to human rights. For many observers, images of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 are still fresh in the mind. The punitive treatment inflicted on religious groups such as Tibetans, the Falun Gong and the Uighur minority is also well documented. So, too, is the incarceration of high-profile critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) such as the 2010 Nobel Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo, the artist Ai Weiwei and the civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng, recently exiled to the USA. The Mao regime was even more renowned for its human rights abuses, especially during hard-line political campaigns such as the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution.
