Redefining human rights. This is how China responds to Western criticism

China has recently been making strenuous efforts to promote its own human rights vision, in the face of growing Western criticism of its human rights record.

In recent days, Beijing held the "South South Forum for Human Rights" with the participation of diplomats and officials from dozens of countries, including representatives of the Syrian and North Korean regimes, and this forum was launched in its first edition in 2017.

According to Agence France-Presse, China is seeking to establish a model that places security and economic development higher on civil and political freedoms.

"The people of every country have the right to decide for themselves the path to promoting human rights," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu during the forum.

Syrian regime delegate
Among those who spoke before the forum was Buthaina Shaaban, the advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is accused of killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and carrying out a series of chemical weapons attacks.

"I believe that China, with the help of all developing countries, can redefine human rights," Shaaban said in her speech.

The Syrian official criticized the Western countries for wanting to "make all of us the same."

On the other hand, Amnesty International researcher Patrick Boone told the French press that the global campaign launched by China aims to "counter criticism about its failure to respect international human rights standards."

Redefine
The agency notes that China's efforts to redefine human rights are accelerating and growing in international forums.

Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang told the agency that last year Beijing passed a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council "that destroys procedures for holding countries accountable for human rights violations and proposes dialogue instead."

Last October, 23 countries backed a British-drafted statement at the United Nations condemning China's practices against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

But China's allies responded with another statement that received more support, with 54 countries endorsing that text that lavished praise on Beijing's "remarkable achievements" in the field of human rights.

Concentration camps
Western countries' criticism of China's human rights record has escalated recently, accusing it in particular of detaining about one million people - most of whom are Muslims - in "rehabilitation" camps in Xinjiang (northwest China).

Western media released leaked official Chinese documents explaining how the authorities ran the concentration camps. After denying the existence of such camps, Beijing says it has set up "vocational training centers" aimed at preventing extremism in the region, which has been in turmoil for years.

Economy first
"The main goal (of the authorities' campaign) is to suppress the political aspirations of the Uighurs, but they (the Chinese authorities) are trying to place the matter in an economic context," political analyst Willie Lam told the French press.

A Chinese government document last September described poverty as "the greatest obstacle to the realization of the human rights of the Chinese people," and stressed that China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty since the 1970s.