A/HRC/40/6 10. Over 700 million Chinese people – 70 per cent of the total – had worked their way out of poverty. Decisive progress had been made in targeted poverty reduction and alleviation efforts. 11. China was committed to developing socialist democracy, to strengthening institutional guarantees to ensure that the people ran the country and to consolidating and developing the system of people’s congresses. Its broad-based system of democracy safeguarded the fundamental interests of the Chinese people practically and effectively. 12. Continued efforts had been made to strengthen judicial safeguards for human rights. The Opinions on Advancing the Reform of the Trial-Centred Criminal Procedure System had been adopted, and the world’s largest website of court documents had been created, with 19.5 billion visits made. 13. Citizens’ freedoms of speech and of religious belief were protected in accordance with the law. The rights of women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities were promoted and protected in a comprehensive way, and the rights of ethnic minorities were safeguarded in accordance with the law. 14. China had actively participated in global human rights governance, and vigorous efforts had been made to implement the international human rights instruments to which it was a party. It had hosted many visits by human rights experts. In the past five years, it had held more than 50 human rights dialogues with over 20 countries and organizations. 15. Many difficulties and challenges in protecting human rights remained, but absolute poverty would be eliminated and a moderately prosperous society in all respects would be built by 2020. Socialist modernization would essentially be realized by 2035, and the goal of building a great modern socialist country that was prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful would be achieved by 2050. 16. Thirty new measures for the protection of human rights would be adopted by the Government. They would include an amendment to the Criminal Law and the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law. Litigation procedure for criminal cases would be improved. Laws on legal assistance and the protection of personal information would be formulated. Relevant sections would be drawn up for a civil code. 17. China would actively participate in international cooperation in human rights, with continuing support for the work of the United Nations human rights mechanisms. In the next five years, it would contribute US$ 800,000 annually to the OHCHR. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Chair of the Working Group on the Right to Development, the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities had been invited to visit China at mutually convenient times. 18. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region had been implementing “one country, two systems” and “Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong” under a high degree of autonomy. The rule of law, executive, legislative and independent judicial power, the power of final adjudication, human rights and freedom were all fully guaranteed by the Basic Law. Hong Kong, China, had been acclaimed as the world’s most open and freest economy by many international institutions, such as the Heritage Foundation of the United States and the Canadian Fraser Institute. Hong Kong, China, was one of the safest cities in the world. With a view to building a caring, equitable, inclusive and people-oriented society, the Government of Hong Kong, China, had been taking active steps to improve people’s livelihood. 19. Macao Special Administrative Region had enacted laws on preventing and combating domestic violence, on fiscal benefits for hiring persons with disabilities, on the rights and interests of the elderly and on tertiary education, and had revised the Criminal Code. It had established the labour creditor’s rights protection system and had introduced the 10-year non-tertiary education development plan and the 10-year plan for rehabilitation services. It had been conducting various promotional activities to raise public awareness on human rights. 3