Chinese President Hu Jintao has called on the Party and
governments at all levels to help handicapped people around the
country, as part of the efforts to build a society that is more
caring and full of love.
The Chinese leader said it is a basic requirement of China's
socialist system to care for the disabled and guarantee them the
interests and rights and dignity due every citizen as well as equal
social status and opportunities, so as to enable them share the
fruit of material and cultural progress of society with able-bodied
citizens.
In the preface to a book on renowned handicapped people and
stories on aid for the handicapped, Hu, also general secretary of
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, called on the
Party and governments at all levels to support undertakings
designed to help the disabled.
The Party and governments should, according to the special needs
of the disabled, formulate policies and take measures for
rehabilitation, education, employment, welfare, social security,
cultural life and a no-barrier environment, Hu wrote.
Hu said that all walks of society should continue to carry
forward the humanitarian spirit and the fine traditions of
understanding, respecting, caring for and helping the disabled in a
order to cultivate human relations of equality, love and mutual
help and unity.
The words written by Hu were read Sunday afternoon in Beijing at
a national meeting citing 122 handicapped people for their
self-reliance and a number of people and units for their assistance
to the handicapped population.
Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu and leading officials of
government departments at central and provincial levels attended
the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Guo Jianmo, president of the Executive
Council of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, said China has
set up over 50,000 liaison centers for volunteers devoted to
helping handicapped people and the number of registered volunteers
has exceeded 1.69 million.
Guo said disabled people in China are enjoying equal rights with
other people in political life.
Currently, over 1,500 of them are working either as deputies to
the People's Congresses or as members of the committees of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the county
level or above, Guo said.
Over the past decades, China has established an effective
mechanism for assisting handicapped people, including registering
volunteers and setting-up of facilities to assist the
handicapped.
Meanwhile, he said, an increasing number of handicapped people
who have become well-off are trying to help other handicapped
people who are poverty-stricken or suffering from financial
difficulties.
(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2003)