China News Agency, Beijing, May 22 Question: Why do you say that the West owes China a genuine apology for human rights?
Author Wang Wen, Executive Dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China
The world's observation of China is often focused on accusations of human rights in China due to misleading by some Western media and politicians.
In the past, due to the relative lag in the development of human rights in China, Chinese society often chose to remain silent or refute in a limited way when faced with Western accusations, which was generally not self-confident.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, China's economy has grown rapidly, especially with great achievements such as the rapid improvement of infrastructure construction, the full popularization of the digital economy, and the victory in the battle against poverty.
At the same time, many human rights issues in Western society have been fully exposed in the information society, and Chinese people have begun to become confident. They not only dare to have an equal debate with the West in the field of human rights development and ideology, but also more confidently explain the impact of Chinese human rights on world development. important contribution.
On May 19, 2022, China News Service held the "Symposium on the Development of Human Rights in China" in Beijing, inviting seven well-known Chinese and foreign experts and scholars to conduct in-depth discussions on related topics.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
In my opinion, China's human rights progress has at least three global implications that have been ignored by most Western media and politicians.
First, the progress of human rights in China is a new bright spot that positively promotes human civilization in the 21st century.
Since the 21st century, the progressivism logic of human civilization has encountered a huge impact.
Shocks such as military conflicts, economic crises, climate change, food famines, and pandemics have completely failed the expectation that the development of human civilization should be better than the situation in the second half of the 20th century.
Without the progress of human rights in China, the history of human civilization in the first 20 years of the 21st century would be bleak.
Since the 21st century, the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine have resulted in more than 20 million refugees and millions of people in the world. Died in war.
The international financial crisis in 2008 reduced the wealth of more than 100 million people around the world.
Natural disasters caused by climate change kill 5 million people every year.
The global outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020 has caused more than 500 million infections and about 15 million deaths.
At the same time, even the United States, which is regarded as the "beacon" of human civilization, and Europe, which is the "model" of international governance, have experienced many crises such as social disorder, populism, polarization between the rich and the poor, and security threats, resulting in unprecedented pessimism in the West. trend of thought.
The relatives of a soldier killed in Afghanistan weep in an embrace at the Arlington National Cemetery where he was buried.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Wu Qingcai
China's human rights progress can be described as bucking the trend.
In 2021, the number of people insured in China's national basic medical insurance will be 1.36 billion, which will stabilize at more than 95% of the national population. It is announced that all rural poor people under the current poverty standard will be lifted out of poverty, and the problem of absolute poverty has been solved historically.
This year, the number of Chinese netizens exceeded 1 billion. Through the popularization of the digital economy (takeaway, express delivery, online shopping, online appointments, etc.), the equalization of basic services in urban society has been achieved, which has greatly shortened the enjoyment of social progress caused by the difference between the rich and the poor. Dividend gap.
In the past 40 years, China has not launched or participated in wars, food shortages, or financial crises. China has made every effort to prevent and control pandemics, doubled its forest coverage, and made every effort to promote low-carbon development. Compared with other countries, it has impacted human beings in the 21st century. Those disasters of civilization progress (war, economic crisis, climate change, famine, etc.) have the least impact on the daily life of Chinese people.
Citizens in Nanning buy medicines through 24-hour unmanned vending machines in the "Smart Pharmacy".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yu Jing
It can be said with confidence that, on the one hand, it is the substantive promotion of China's human rights progress, and on the other hand, it is the disaster protection against human rights impact, making China's human rights progress a new bright spot in the positive promotion of human civilization in the 21st century.
Second, the progress of human rights in China is a new breakthrough in the realization of the world's human rights theory in practice.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 established that the maintenance and protection of human rights has become an important normative value standard for the constitution, international law and the judgment of the international community.
Since then, a series of international human rights treaties have been adopted, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), the International Bill of Human Rights (1966), the The Convention on All Forms of Discrimination (1979), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) are lawful in promoting human rights and the rights to life, liberty, dignity, justice Rights, property rights, and development rights have all played a huge role in supporting rules and theories.
However, there is often a distance between theoretical conception and practical realization. Even in the United States, which has the strongest comprehensive national strength, racial discrimination and the proliferation of guns have always existed, and universal medical insurance has been difficult to achieve for half a century. Human rights theory presents a dilemma that is easier said than done.
The progress of China's human rights provides the possibility of practical breakthroughs in human rights goals that even Western developed countries have not achieved.
China has created the best and most stable social environment for urban security in the world, effectively realizing residents' rights to life, property and dignity from the threat of guns.
A few days ago, 13 shootings occurred in the United States in one day. In the past five months, the death toll from gun shooting in the United States exceeded 15,000, which is equivalent to more than 100 people killed by guns every day, which is eye-popping.
The population of ethnic minorities in China has increased several times in the past 40 years, effectively fulfilling the provisions of international conventions against racial discrimination.
China promotes people's democracy in the whole process, improves the infrastructure coverage at the network and transportation levels, and effectively protects the citizens' right to freedom in politics and life.
Tourists buy flowers in a flower industrial park in Beitun City, Xinjiang.
Photo by Li Haiting issued by China News Agency
It can be said with confidence that China's human rights progress has provided a methodological breakthrough for the practice of human rights theories in the world, and it has also given hope that the great human rights ideals of the mid-20th century will be fully realized.
Third, China's human rights progress is a new reference to help developing countries counterattack on human rights.
In 2021, about 700 million people in the world will still live in extreme poverty, most of them in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The extreme poverty rate in South Sudan, Burundi, Somalia, Madagascar and other countries is above 70% all year round.
In the past 10 years, even established developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Italy, and Sweden have experienced a regression in the extreme poverty rate from zero to 1%.
Western society has long paid attention to the core concept of political suffrage, emphasized free competition as the social logic, and preferred the development path of human rights based on the principle of capital first. Where there are elections, there are human rights. Where there is capital, there are human rights. These human rights The concept of development is not only unable to provide a fundamental prescription for the complex world human rights road, but also leads the development and transformation of many developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America astray.
China does not copy the Western human rights path, but regards the people's right to subsistence and development as the top priority, emphasizes and realizes the principle of non-interference in sovereignty, and independently follows the path of human rights development that suits its own national conditions. Support and affirmation have also been referenced, referenced and even copied by more and more developing countries.
On June 22, 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed the resolution "Development Contributions to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights" advocated by China, which for the first time introduced the concept of "development for human rights" into the international human rights system, which has been well received by countries around the world, especially the development of human rights. Broad support from China.
It can be said with confidence that China's human rights progress has expanded the inherent path of human rights in the world since the 20th century, and has become the most steadfast major power in supporting the UN Human Rights Council, providing new options for developing countries to embark on the path of human rights promotion.
From the above three perspectives, the West ignores the global significance of China's rapid development of human rights, and constantly criticizes individual details and cases of China's human rights, and even magnifies them to smear the image of the entire Chinese country. This is a violation of basic facts and reflects It reflects the narrowness of the West in terms of theory and vision, and it also reflects the arrogance and even evil of the West in foreign exchanges.
The West owes China a sincere apology for human rights, and it owes China a sincere praise for the development of human rights.
Of course, expounding the global significance of human rights in China to the progress of human civilization, the theory and practice of human rights in the world, and to developing countries does not mean that there are no flaws or deficiencies in human rights in China.
In fact, as the largest developing country in the world, China is still in and will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time, and there is still a lot of room for development in terms of national income, environmental protection, social equity, rule of law, cultural services, and political rights. .
Since April 13, 2009, when China formulated its first national plan with the theme of human rights development, China has released four phases of work objectives and specific measures for the promotion and protection of human rights.
In September 2021, the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China issued the National Human Rights Action Plan (2021-2025), on the basis of summarizing the implementation and experience of the previous three human rights action plans, in accordance with constitutional principles and the "14th Five-Year Plan". , follow the spirit of international human rights conventions, and determine the phased goals and tasks for respecting, protecting and promoting human rights from 2021 to 2025.
I believe that China's human rights cause will continue to develop, and I also believe that China will make greater contributions to the further progress of human rights in the world.
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About the Author:
Wang Wen, Executive Dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, Deputy Dean and Distinguished Professor of Silk Road Institute, Executive Director of Sino-US Cultural Exchange Research Center, Secretary General of Green Finance Professional Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, Researcher of Financial Research Center of Counselor's Office of the State Council .
Specially compiled books focusing on the global situation, macro policies, green development, etc. include "A Hundred Years of Change", "The Long March for a Powerful Country: Looking Back at China's Rejuvenation and the Future of the World", "Optimistic About China: A Global Speech by a Think Tank Scholar", and "The Long March of a Powerful Country" Conspiracy: The Way of Chinese Think Tanks Influencing the World” and more than 30 books.