(East and West Questions) Exclusive|Minority rights protection, why is China and the West so different?
China News Service, Beijing, May 6th, title: Why are China and the West different in protecting the human rights of ethnic minorities?
China News Agency reporter Lu Mei
Shen Guiping.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In recent times, the West has continued to slander Xinjiang as “forced labor” and “genocide”.
Some Western politicians and media put on the cloak of "defending human rights" and constantly discredit China. They actually took advantage of the foreign public's lack of understanding and awareness of China's historical changes, ethnic integration, cultural diversity, and policy intentions.
Professor Shen Guiping, deputy director of the United Front Theory Teaching and Research Department of the Central Institute of Socialism, recently said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency that compared with Western developed countries, China's protection of the human rights of ethnic minorities is more active and comprehensive.
The following is the content of the interview.
China News Agency reporter: There are minorities in all countries in the world, and the ways of distinguishing and addressing may be different. What are the similarities and differences between China and developed countries in Europe and the United States regarding the identification of relevant identities?
Shen Guiping:
At the level of international law, there is the concept of "minorities", which mainly refers to "racial or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities" and indigenous peoples or aborigines within a country.
Developed countries in Europe and the United States generally refer to language and cultural communities as ethnic groups, and China as ethnic groups.
In today's world, there are approximately 3,000 ethnic groups distributed in more than 200 countries and regions.
With the increasingly frequent flow of immigrants around the world, ethnic diversity has become a common phenomenon in countries all over the world.
For example, England is dominated by English people, and there are also minorities such as Turks and Arabs; in France, there are Gaul, black, Jew, Muslim, and Asian ethnic groups.
However, developed countries in Europe and the United States do not recognize the ethnic identity of citizens at the legal level, and the government does not recognize the ethnic identity of citizens.
China recognizes the ethnic composition of citizens from the level of national laws and policies. Every Chinese citizen’s identity card has ethnic composition information.
From the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China to 1979, the Chinese government carried out a large-scale ethnic identification, and identified groups of citizens with consistency in language, customs, and traditional production methods as 56 ethnic groups.
Since the population of 55 ethnic groups other than Han is relatively small, they are customarily called "minorities".
Data map: The scene of Guangxi "March 38 Gui Carnival of Zhuang Nationality".
Photo by Yu Jing
Reporter from China News Service: Are there any considerations for identifying and marking the ethnic identity of citizens? What is the different impact on these minorities?
Shen Guiping:
Because developed countries in Europe and the United States have historically had a lot of discrimination and persecution based on race and culture, such as the persecution of Jews and blacks, many ethnic minorities are unwilling to expose their ethnic identity in public life.
Because there is no legal recognition of ethnic identity, many European and American countries cannot take targeted human rights protections against social problems of minorities, let alone protect the cultural rights of these minorities in law, and bring the most direct impact to minorities. It is the rapid decline of ethnic minority cultures.
For example, during the French Revolution in 1789, in addition to the vast majority of nationals who spoke French, there were also minorities such as Bretas, but after the Revolution, these minorities all used the name "French nation". Over time, different ethnic groups in France gradually " "Frenchization", some people call this practice of not recognizing the nationality of citizens as "assimilation."
In China, unlike minority ethnic groups in Western society who are unwilling to expose their ethnic identity in public life, China’s 55 ethnic minorities actively participate in the country’s political and social life with their ethnic identities.
Many ethnic minority people’s congress deputies wear their own traditional costumes, are proud to be active in the political life of people’s congresses at all levels, and exercise the right to be the masters of the country and manage state affairs.
Around 2010, some people in Chinese society advocated learning from Western countries and abolishing the registration method of citizens' ethnic composition, because the national identity of citizens is not only the basis for the state to protect the human rights of ethnic minorities, but also a source of invisible discrimination in society.
However, this proposal to abolish the national identity of citizens has been strongly opposed by ethnic minorities.
Chinese ethnic minority citizens are active in China’s political, social and cultural life as ethnic minorities. This phenomenon clearly shows that Chinese ethnic minorities do not suffer from social injustice due to their national identity, let alone many Western countries. The historical experience of racial discrimination and racial persecution experienced by minorities.
If there are so-called "forced Uyghur labor" and "genocide" problems in the West, China's ethnic minorities will surely hide their national identity just like today's Western countries.
Data map: Tourists dressed in Miao costumes took photos as a souvenir.
Photo by Yang Huafeng
China News Agency reporter: With regard to the protection of human rights of minorities, what is the difference between China and developed countries in Europe and the United States?
Shen Guiping:
Minority rights mainly refer to individual civil rights and group cultural rights.
Compared with developed countries in Europe and America, China implements a comprehensive and active minority rights protection policy.
The western liberalist view of citizen equality holds that every citizen has the right to equal participation in political power, employment, education, and social security.
Protecting the civil rights of individual citizens also naturally protects the civil rights of ethnic groups.
Therefore, in most Western countries, although there are multiple ethnic groups in the country, the national legal system emphasizes the protection of individual rights of citizens, neither identifying ethnic groups (ethnic groups) in the legal sense, confirming ethnic composition, nor involving ethnic equality and ethnic groups. Legal provisions for cultural protection and development.
However, minority citizens are restricted by their own language and cultural differences, and have varying degrees of difficulty in realizing individual citizenship rights. For example, an Arab British citizen with low English proficiency and limited job opportunities, how to protect this group to achieve employment, as required by law, Citizenship in political participation, education, etc.?
Starting with the Race Relation Act (Race Relation Act) passed in 1965, the United Kingdom has gradually explored solutions to the problem of minority discrimination in the field of employment.
Later, many European countries also learned from this legal protection model, aiming to stop ethnic discrimination. As for the inheritance of minority ethnic culture, it was handed over to capable folk ethnic cultural associations.
Therefore, the human rights protection of minorities that Western countries call out is actually human rights protection that prohibits discrimination by law. There are no specific difficulties for minorities and special policies are adopted to improve the socio-political status and employability of minorities. There is no law to protect minorities. Cultural inheritance and development, but a policy of cultural self-destruction.
Scholars tend to believe that this model of human rights protection is a negative view of human rights.
China’s national identification of citizens is to implement the equal rights of ethnic groups as stipulated in the Constitution, which includes the protection of individual citizenship rights as well as the protection of political and cultural rights of ethnic minorities. It is a comprehensive and active minority human rights protection policy.
For example, China has established 155 ethnic regional autonomous areas, including 5 provincial-level autonomous regions, 30 prefecture-level autonomous prefectures (leagues), 120 autonomous counties (banners), and 1,000 Multiple ethnic townships.
The Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law stipulates that the chief executive of an autonomous area shall be a citizen of an ethnic group exercising regional autonomy.
Data map: programs full of ethnic customs.
Photo by Ling Nan
China News Agency reporter: Can you give some specific examples to illustrate how the above-mentioned minority policies are reflected in Xinjiang?
Shen Guiping:
Since ancient times, Xinjiang has been a place where many ethnic groups live, and there are currently 56 ethnic groups.
Regardless of the size of the population, the level of development, and differences in religious beliefs, people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang enjoy the same rights and perform the same obligations in accordance with the law.
In Xinjiang, in accordance with the Constitution and laws, citizens of all ethnic groups directly elect deputies to the people's congresses of counties (cities, districts) and townships (towns), and on this basis, they elect deputies to the people's congresses of the whole country, autonomous regions, and prefectures (cities).
The Twelfth National People’s Congress has 60 representatives from Xinjiang, of which 38 are representatives of ethnic minorities, accounting for 63.33%.
The Twelfth Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region People's Congress has a total of 550 deputies, of which 363 are representatives of ethnic minorities, accounting for 66%.
China protects and inherits the fine traditional culture of ethnic minorities through laws and policies.
For example, as of the end of 2016, Xinjiang has 2 world cultural heritage sites, 5 national historical and cultural cities, 113 national key cultural relics protection units, 558 autonomous region-level cultural relics protection units, and 182 state-owned units have collected and kept 616,000 movable cultural relics. Remaining pieces.
Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam Art, Kirgiz’s epic "Manas", and Uyghur Mexirefu are respectively included in the UNESCO “List of Human Intangible Cultural Heritage Masterpieces” and “List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Urgent Need of Protection”.
Each ethnic group in Xinjiang has representative intangible cultural heritage items listed on the national and autonomous regional intangible cultural heritage lists.
Data map: Urumqi, Xinjiang holds cultural and natural heritage day promotion activities.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Xin
China News Agency reporter: China's constitution stipulates that "all ethnic groups have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages". How is it implemented?
Shen Guiping:
Since Western countries do not have minority identification, it is impossible to protect the rights of minority groups to inherit and develop languages with laws. Instead, folk groups and associations are allowed to pass on language and culture. Minorities without economic strength can only allow traditional language and culture. The decline.
When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, among the 55 ethnic minorities in China, except for the Hui, Manchu, and She ethnic groups, 18 ethnic groups had their own scripts, and the rest had languages but no scripts.
The state helped 10 ethnic minorities, including Zhuang, Buyi, Miao, Dong, Hani, and Li, create Latin alphabet phonetic scripts. Today, 55 ethnic minorities in China use more than 80 languages and 28 scripts.
In Xinjiang, the constitutional provisions of "all ethnic groups have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages" are embodied in judicial, administrative, education, press and publishing, radio and television, the Internet, and social and public affairs.
There are currently 13 publishing houses in Xinjiang publishing books, audiovisual products and electronic publications in six languages: Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Kirgiz, Mongolia, and Xibe.
The Xinjiang Daily, published in Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, and Mongolian languages, is the provincial newspaper with the most languages in China.
Xinjiang People’s Broadcasting Station currently has 15 radio programs in 5 languages: Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Mongolia, and Kirgiz.
Xinjiang TV Station has 12 TV programs in 4 languages, Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, and Kirgiz, and is the provincial TV station with the most channels and languages in the country.
Shen Guiping.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
China News Agency reporter: China has established 155 ethnic regional autonomous areas. What kind of development have the ethnic minorities in these areas achieved?
Shen Guiping:
There are many countries in the world that have implemented regional autonomy based on ethnic factors, such as Finland’s Oran Autonomous Province, Italy’s 5 autonomous regions, Spain’s more than a dozen autonomous regions, and so on.
Due to autonomy, the state lacks strong political, economic and social integration in these regions, resulting in a low degree of integration between these regions and the external economy, society and culture, or even a certain disconnection. This often leads to the disconnection of the economic and social development of autonomous areas and other regions of the country. Breeding separation tendency.
There are wealthy autonomous areas that try to get rid of the "burden" of other regions, such as Catalonia in Spain; there are also traditional settlements "abandoned" by modern society, such as about 300 Indians in remote places in the United States. Reservation.
This is usually a shortcoming derived from the so-called high degree of autonomy in the West.
For the 155 ethnic regional autonomous areas established in China, due to various reasons such as geography and history, the economic and social development of most areas is relatively lagging.
The state has adopted various measures such as financial subsidies, counterpart assistance, targeted poverty alleviation, prospering the border and enriching the people, and ecological protection to help compatriots of all ethnic groups in ethnic autonomous areas to accelerate their development.
For example, since the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965, more than 94% of Tibet's fiscal expenditure has come from central government funding.
Xinjiang From 1950 to 2008, the central government's investment in Xinjiang reached 386.23 billion yuan, accounting for 25.7% of Xinjiang's total investment in the same period.
From 1955 to 2008, when the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established, the central government’s financial subsidies to Xinjiang totaled 375.202 billion yuan.
Especially since 2000, with the implementation of the Western Development Strategy, the central government's financial subsidies to Xinjiang have increased year by year, with an average annual increase of 24.4%, reaching 68.56 billion yuan in 2008... This kind of financial support has been ongoing so far.
Thanks to the country’s strong support, various undertakings in ethnic autonomous areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang have developed rapidly in the past few years. People of all ethnic groups, including Uyghurs, have realized their living standards ranging from buckets to water pipes, from oil lamps to electric lamps, from dirt roads to electric lamps. The progress of the oil road has completely got rid of the poverty problem that has been restrained for thousands of years, and has made great strides to catch up with the national average.
(Finish)