TNAG-2353-FCO40-3423-Visits-by-Lord-Caithness--Minister-of-State-for-Foreign-and--1991 — Page 126

8 Nov 91

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be made by hospitals and other appropriate departments and approved by the election committees.

Chinese law guarantees the property rights and other civil rights and interests of the disabled. For the disabled who are unable to file a civil suit, the law stipulates requirements for their qualified guardians. The Inheritance Law of the People's Republic of China details measures protective of the right to inheritance of property of the disabled people who are unable to work and without resources. Chinese law also prohibits ill- treatment and abandonment of the disabled by family members. The disabled who cannot work or live independently have the right to require other family members to support them. The legal provider of a disabled person must fulfil his duty of supporting him.

The Chinese government and social organizations have made great efforts in ensuring rehabilitation, education, employment, cultural life, welfare and a good environment for the disabled. Chinese laws prohibit discrimination, insult and injury against the handicapped or their ill-treatment and abandonment. Those who take advantage of the disability of the disabled to infringe upon their personal rights or other legitimate rights and interests and thus commit a criminal act will be punished severely according to law. Disabled violators of the criminal law will be exempted from criminal responsibility, or have their punishment mitigated or waived in full consideration of their intellectual, mental or physiological capacity in being responsible for their action. The laws also offer the disabled, especially the mentally or intellectually handicapped, who are involved in criminal, civil or administrative procedures, special protection of their procedural rights and the necessary legal assistance.

In March 1988, with approval of the Chinese government, 1. Chine Disabled Persons' Federation was established. The federation represents the common interests of all the disabled, protects their lawful rights and interests and mobilizes social forces to serve them. It has established its local branches on

the basis of national administrative divisions.

Federations of the disabled have been set up in all provinces, municipalities and counties, except in Taiwan. And grass-roots associations of the disabled have been set up in about one-third of the townships, sub-districts and factories with a concentration of disabled workers. The federations help local governments to administer and develop undertakings for the handicapped and play an important role in safeguarding their rights.

For example, the Beijing Federation of the disabled has in recent years helped the government in doing five things: work out the Beijing Regulations on the Protection of Disabled Persons; mobilize society to open nearly 100 training courses for mentally retarded children, hearing and speech training courses for deaf children and work-rehabilitation centres for the mentally retarded and establish a community rehabilitation network of several levels; set up one school for the blind, five schools for deaf-mutes and six schools for mentally retarded children; find jobs for the urban disabled, raising their employment rate to 90%; and conduct a general survey and registration of five kinds of disabled persons in Beijing, building files, finding out the causes of child disability and recommending preventive measures. The country's unified

organization of the disabled has played an important role in developing services for the disabled and has achieved great

successes.

In order to help the disabled recover or remedy their capacities and enhance their participation in social life and ability to enjoy their rights, the State Council in 1988 approved the National Programme of Three Projects for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled. The government and society have poured huge human and material resources in the three rehabilitation projects: curing of cataracts, rectifying sequelae of polio, and hearing and speech training for deaf children. In the past three years 500,000 cataract operations have been performed with a success rate of 99.76%; 160,000 polio sequelae have been rectified with an effectiveness rate of 98.7%, enabling many young disabled to improve their limb functions, enter schools or take up jobs; and 10,000 deaf-mute children under seven have received speech training, with an effectiveness rate of 80%. Some deaf-mute children entered ordinary schools after they were rehabilitated, and some won first prizes in national children's poem recitation competitions. Every year the federation and health departments at all levels dispatch medical teams to cure cataract and polio patients in minority areas such as Xinjiang and Tibet and remote, impoverished and mountainous areas. These teams work under difficult conditions and yet their success has been remarkable.

A national network of community rehabilitation centres in both urban and rural regions is being built. About 2,300 grassroots community rehabilitation centres, 750 handicapped- children's care centres and training classes, and 1,300 work- rehabilitation centres for the mentally and intellectually handicapped have appeared in cities and towns.

The 16 neighbourhood offices of the Shenhe District in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, have established hon tapped children's pre-school education and care centres, along with a variety of disabled service programmes for training, rehabilitation, welfare, match-making and social security funds.

China has made great efforts to develop education for the disabled by opening special classes in ordinary schools and setting up special education schools. Twenty-seven provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, as well as 70 prefectures and cities have mapped out and implemented local education development programs for the disabled.

In the past three years various kinds of special education schools have increased annually by 20%, and the special classes in ordinary schools have doubled. The number of blind, deaf and mentally retarded pupils attending these special schools and classes increased by 30% every year. The number of disabled youth receiving higher education is constantly increasing. In the last two years about 4,700 self-taught disabled persons won college diplomas through special examinations.

The Chinese government, attaching great importance to vocational education for the disabled, has established for them 28 vocational education centres. The special education schools also offer professional skill training courses. The state has set up massage medical schools for the blind în Luoyang, Yian, Nanjing and Taiyuan. Each province and city also started courses and trained a large number of blind massage doctors.