China open letter urges Beijing to ratify international human rights treaty

China’s most prominent activists, scholars and journalists have released an open letter urging leaders to implement political reforms, for the second time in three months.

More than 100 people signed the open letter urging Beijing to ratify an international human rights treaty.

The letter was posted on several prominent Chinese websites and blogs.

It comes just days before Chinese leaders gather for the annual parliamentary session in Beijing.

At the meeting, new Communist Party leader Xi Jinping will be installed as China’s president, taking over from Hu Jintao, completing the 10-yearly power transition.

“We solemnly and openly propose the following as citizens of China that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) be ratified, in order to further promote and establish the principles of human rights and constitutionalism in China,” the letter said.

The ICCPR is part of the International Bill of Human Rights created by the United Nations. It calls for basic civil and political rights of individuals, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Beijing signed the treaty in 1998 but the Chinese parliament has never ratified the document.

The open letter was signed by many prominent thinkers in China, including economist Mao Yushi, legal scholar He Weifang and Dai Qing, an outspoken political activist.

In December, many of the same people also signed a strongly worded open letter demanding political reform within China, including an independent judiciary and meaningful democratic change.

“If reforms to the system urgently needed by Chinese society keep being frustrated and stagnate without progress,” December’s letter warned, “then official corruption and dissatisfaction in society will boil up to a crisis point and China will once again miss the opportunity for peaceful reform, and slip into the turbulence and chaos of violent revolution.”

The language in the more recent letter was much more conciliatory, acknowledging the difficulties of enacting meaningful political change within China while also emphasizing that signing the ICCPR would be a “feasible” goal for Chinese leaders.

Journalist Wang Kexin said he was confident China’s leaders would ratify the ICCPR during the upcoming parliamentary session, a goal he acknowledged was “very mild and conservative”.

“We don’t dare to dream that China will make a lot of progress in one giant leap,” Wang Kexin said.

“The country develops step by step and our efforts are also aimed at changing things step by step. This is the embarrassing situation we are in now.”

He did not want to identify the person who first wrote the letter and collected the signatures, blaming his reluctance on “China’s special situation”.

According to the China Media Project, a group based at Hong Kong University which monitors the Chinese media, this week’s letter was scheduled to be released on Thursday.

However, the authorities reportedly heard about the letter early, leading its supporters to bring publication forward by two days. Mention of the letter has since disappeared from many internet sites within China.