The issue of human rights is a problematic one with respect to both China and Russia. Centuries of human rights abuses have been maintained by governments in both countries. There mere mention of Tiananmen Square or Josef Stalin conjure up images of bloody, repressive regimes in which human rights are routinely abused by powerful and totalitarian leaders. The collapse of the former Soviet Union and both ChinaÆs and RussiaÆs economic need to become integrated with democratic institutions around the world have witnessed some progress against human rights abuses in each country. Nevertheless, recent actions by the governments of both China and Russia demonstrate that human rights abuses still routinely occur in each with the support of the respective governments. For example, in 1995 the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, proclaimed: ôHuman rights violations in the PeopleÆs Republic of China (PRC) remain systematic and widespread. The Chinese government continues to suppress dissenting opinions and maintains political control over the legal system, resulting in an arbitrary and sometimes abusive judicial regimeö (China, 1995, 1). In Russia, the history of human rights abuses is one of infamy and legend. In the midst of enormous economic, political, and social change, contemporary Russia is still the scene of heinous human rights abuses. The war in Chechnya witnessed the Russian army razing the capital town of Grozny, where an estimated 25,000 people û Chechens and Russians û have been massacred (Brumberg, 1995, 3). This analysis will compare the similarities and differences between China and Russia with respect to human rights abuses.
One of the main similarities between the totalitarianism that manifests human rights abuses in both China and Russia is the centralized planning and socialist nature of the State. Both governments have enormous power and control over the economy. Because of this the...