Waging Peace:  China

Go to: Advancing Political Reform Through Opening Internet Dialogue | Access to Information | Good Governance and Community Development | China-Africa Initiative | Monitoring Elections | Educational Development

Advancing Political Reform Through Opening Internet Dialogue

Websites sponsored by The Carter Center since September 2002 have become an important portal for political reform in China, engaging large audiences with articles in both Chinese and English and offering a platform to debate current affairs in a traditionally closed society. The goal of the websites, http://www.chinaelections.org/ (Chinese language) and http://www.chinaelectionsblog.net/ (English language), is to foster discussion among Chinese citizens on political reform, better governance, and elections in China.

The Chinese language site provides Chinese officials at all levels a resource center for governance and election affairs and gives scholars worldwide the opportunity to study Chinese politics and offer reform measures. Users can access news, articles, academic papers, laws and regulations, and data on Chinese elections and governance on all levels. The site also features special reports on election and governance matters commissioned by the project and carries recommendations generated by the project. Read full
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Access to Information

With implementation of new regulations that give citizens access to government information, China recently marked a turning point toward greater transparency in government operations. To enhance citizen knowledge of their new rights, the Center has created http://www.chinatransparency.org/, an Internet clearinghouse including all of the new regulations and comparative studies of successful access to information practices in other nations. The Center is also working with two local governments in implementing the Open Government Information regulation, passed at the national level in 2008, and in creating exchanges among access to information officials and scholars in China and other nations.

Good Governance and Community Development

In addition to conducting voter education and monitoring elections for villager committees, the program cooperates with Chinese partners to introduce better election procedures and strengthen the capacity of elected deputies to oversee government performance. The program has formed close relationships with academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations in China to advance political and social change.

The Center recognizes that meaningful democracy requires informed and involved citizens. To that end, the program works in rural villages, in cooperation with China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, to expand channels for civic participation and build volunteer corps. In urban areas, the program works with local nongovernmental organizations to address the rights and practical needs of new homeowners. Read full text >

China-Africa Initiative

In 2011, the program launched an initiative that focuses on understanding China's role in Africa and facilitating multistakeholder collaboration between the regions. The initiative convenes a policy advisory group consisting of experts from Africa, China, and the West that works toward building mutual understanding and trust between China and Africa as well as exploring potentials for a pilot project in Africa featuring community-level collaboration between Chinese stakeholders and African civil society organizations. The initiative's website, www.sinoafrica.org, is available in both English and Chinese and provides news updates, translations of important articles, and academic research as well as information on experts and organizations working on issues related to China-Africa relations.

Monitoring Elections

The Chinese government began direct village elections in 1988 to help maintain social and political order in the context of unprecedented economic reforms. Today, village elections occur in some 700,000 villages across China, reaching 75 percent of the nation's more than 1.3 billion people.

In a groundbreaking agreement, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China granted The Carter Center permission in 1997 to observe village election procedures; provide assistance in gathering election data, educating voters, and training election officials; and host Chinese officials to observe U.S. elections. After the Center's completion in 1999 of a successful pilot project, The Carter Center and the ministry signed a three-year cooperation agreement. Upon invitation, the Center also began observations of township elections – elections above the village level – in conjunction with the National People's Congress in 1999.  In mid-December 2002, the Center observed elections at the county level for the first time. In March 2010, The Carter Center sent its largest delegation ever to assess two villager committee elections in Zhaotong city, Yunnan province. Read full text >

Election Reports

View Carter Center election reports for China >

Educational Development

From 1987 to 1992, in collaboration with the China Disabled Persons Federation, the Carter Center's Global 2000 Program trained more than 9,000 teachers to improve educational opportunities for physically and mentally handicapped children. Overall, the China Special Education Project established 886 special schools and 1,239 special classes, in which 85,000 disabled children were enrolled. This is a 75 percent increase in the number of special education schools and a 114 percent increase in the number of special education classes in China.

A second Carter Center initiative, the China Prosthetics Project, helped address the need for modern methods and devices to provide care for and assist China's 3 million amputees. The highlight of the three-year project was construction of a new six-story building to house the Beijing Prosthetic Center, the Prosthetic Research Institute, and the Model Making and Testing Center. Work at the centers and institute has included: designing the first hand-pedaled tricycle for amputees, teaching future prosthetic specialists, fitting affordable plastic devices to patients, and designing new prosthetic components for manufacture in nonprosthetic factories. As planned, Carter Center involvement in the prosthesis project ended in 1991 after its successful startup. However, the Chinese government has sustained and expanded the project.