Human Rights in China In The Xi Jinping Era: From The Perspective of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International

China as a rising global power has realized a rapid modernization and significant economic, social and political changes in the last four decades. However, its development in the field of human rights has not been at an equal rate. While fundamental human rights principles have been explicitly identified in the Constitution, the Chinese government has failed to implement those principles. In this article, China's human rights record during the leadership of Xi has been examined from the perspective of international human rights organisations, namely Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) by addressing their reports and news. In this context, the article reveals that although Xi JinPing has made some reforms, he has been seriously criticised by human rights organisations regarding his suppressing policies on right to liberty and security, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and human rights violations in Tibet and Xinjiang. It has been also argued that he has adopted discriminative and repressive policies regarding the ethnic minorities in the country to assure stability and security. Therefore, the human rights situation in China is incompatible with both the Constitution and international conventions which China is party to.