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Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which China has signed, all countries commit to using the maximum of their available resources to progressively improve rights for their people in these areas.

HRMI has calculated what China could be achieving at its current level of income. The scores are given as a percentage of that realistic potential achievement. China’s best score is for the right to work, where its score of 99.2% means it is doing 99.2% of what it possibly can, given its current level of income.

China also has good scores for the right to health (97.8%), and the right to food (96.5%). For these rights, China is doing nearly as well as it possibly can, given its income. Its right to housing score of 94.6% is at the top of HRMI’s ‘fair’ range.

One of China’s lowest scores is for the right to quality education, where it scores 66.2%, which falls in the ‘very bad’ range. Among 6 East Asian countries and territories with data, this score puts China at the bottom for quality education, just below Mongolia.

The right to housing includes scores for the right to sanitation and the right to water.

With a GDP per capita of US$12,951 in 2023, China has the resources to ensure all its people have running water and toilets in their homes.

However, China’s right to sanitation score of 94.9% shows that it could afford to do better. If China efficiently used its available resources, it could achieve a score of 100%, which would mean that 39.2 million more people could have access to basic sanitation.

When it comes to the higher standard of safely managed sanitation, China’s score of 73.6% means that if China effectively and efficiently used its available resources an additional 350 million people could have access to safe sanitation.

If China improved its performance on the right to water from its current score of 94.3% to 100%, 59.8 million more people would have water on their premises.

The good news is that China’s scores for the right to housing have improved steadily over the past decade. China’s score on the right to basic sanitation increased by 20.5 percentage points and that of the right to water by over 9.2 percentage points. The gains have been even greater for safe sanitation. Here China’s score rose from 50.8% to 73.6%, an increase of nearly 23 percentage points. China’s improvements in income adjusted scores show that country’s policies have become more effective at turning resources into good human rights outcomes.

When it comes to the right to food, if China lifted its current score of 96.5% to 100%, around 1.2 million more children under five years old would have enough nutritious food to grow well – that would mean all children in China under five would have enough nutritious food to grow well. This is an achievable goal.

With a current score of 96.5%, China has improved in respecting people’s right to food over the last 20 years, with its score increasing markedly from 84.1% in 2000.

On the right to work, China has made dramatic progress in eliminating absolute poverty. Its score on ensuring people enjoy at least a subsistence income (that is, income above the absolute poverty line of $4.20 per day, measured in 2021 PPP$), has risen from 37.4% in 2002 to 99.2% in 2022, nearly eliminating absolute poverty.

The bigger challenge China currently faces, however, is eliminating relative poverty. That is, ensuring people enjoy at least half the median income and can therefore enjoy a decent life. China’s score on a fair (relative) income stood at only 37.5% in 2018 (the most recent year with data). Projecting the relative poverty rate forward to 2023, this means that while nearly 1,124 million people have enough money to enjoy decent lives, over 213 million are unnecessarily denied this right.

China comes second in the world in using its available resources to ensure people’s right to health is fulfilled, with a score of 97.8%. This is the right where China is most constrained by resources. An increase in income will be necessary to make significant further improvements.

However, at its current income level, China should already be able to do as well as any country in the world in meeting the rights to food, housing, and work.  

China has made outstanding progress in ensuring people enjoy their basic economic and social rights. However, all of China’s Quality of Life scores show that the country could still make significant improvements to its people’s lives by using its existing resources more effectively.

If China were using its resources more efficiently to ensure its people’s wellbeing, it could achieve 100% for all the rights we measure. Yet, while its best score nearly reaches that goal – 99.2% on right to a subsistence income – its worst score using the low and middle income country assessment standard – 66.2% on the right to quality education – is far from that level.

If China better upheld its rights obligations and achieved a full 100% score on all the rights we measure, we would see millions more Chinese people living lives of dignity. For example, if China’s scores reached 100% we would see the following number of extra people benefitting:

China scores 3.1 out of 10 for our overall Safety from the State category, telling us that a great many people are at risk of arbitrary or political arrest or detention, torture and ill-treatment, forced disappearance, execution, or extrajudicial killing. This is one of the lowest scores in our sample of 40 countries.

One of China’s lowest scores in this category is 2.1 out of 10 for freedom from torture and ill-treatment.

The human rights experts we surveyed said that people protesting against or criticising the government, people from ethnic and religious minorities, and people in prisons or being questioned by police were at extra risk of being tortured or ill-treated.

Respondents overwhelmingly agreed that human rights advocates, protesters, journalists, and people who criticised the Chinese Communist Party were at particular risk of a wide range of rights violations, especially arbitrary arrest and detention, forced disappearance, and torture and ill-treatment. Respondents particularly noted risks to political dissidents, detainees, and people supporting democracy.

Other vulnerable groups include:

Among other East Asian countries and territories where we measure these rights, China has among the lowest scores for all five Safety from the State rights, generally equal with North Korea.

The Chinese government limits civil liberties and political freedom, with China scoring a very low 2.5 out of 10 in empowerment rights. This is one of the lowest scores in our sample of 39 countries, with only North Korea doing worse.

For the rights to assembly and association, opinion and expression, participation in government, and freedom of religion and belief all of China’s scores fall into the ‘very bad’ range.

When it comes to the right to assembly and association, China scores 2.2 out of 10, and human rights experts identified a wide range of people not enjoying their rights, including human rights advocates, protesters, and people criticising or opposing the government, as well as those from ethnic and religious minorities.

China’s score for the right to opinion and expression is a very low 3.1 out of 10. Respondents highlighted restrictions on political expression. They also noted that online expression is also restricted and reported widespread surveillance and censorship.

China also scores in the ‘very bad’ range for the right to participate in government, with a score of 2.4 out of 10. Respondents noted that pro-democracy supporters, including those in the New Citizens’ Movement, the Southern Street Movement, the China Democracy Party, the White Paper Movement, and independent candidates were not free to participate in government. They also said that people from religious or ethnic minorities could not exercise their democratic rights freely.

For the right to freedom of religion and belief, China scored 2.9. Respondents noted that the government restricts all religious practices, and is particularly repressive towards people following unregistered minority religions such as Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Falun Gong members, and people who attend house churches.

Groups that are particularly vulnerable to empowerment rights violations include:

Among other East Asian countries and territories where we measure these rights, only North Korea scores worse than China.

The Chinese government engaged in transnational repression in a number of ways in 2025.

Transnational repression is activity that violates the human rights of people outside a government’s own territories.

According to77 human rights expert respondents whose work focuses on China and Hong Kong, in 2025 the Chinese government or its agents targeted people for transnational repression in the following places:

Graph shows how many respondents identified each country.