Chinese outlook on human rights enriches global cause

Beijing: China has formed a contemporary Chinese outlook on human rights with “people” as the center, “development” as the driving force and “a life of contentment” as the goal, and has enriched the global human rights cause, a new think tank report said on Monday.

The report, titled “For a Life of Contentment — The Rationale for China’s Human Rights Development,” was jointly released by the China Foundation for Human Rights Development and the New China Research under Xinhua News Agency.

It said China’s outlook on human rights has been continuously enriched and improved in practice, with its own cognitive perspective and ideological connotation based on the actual conditions of the country.

According to the report, China has followed a path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times and suits its national conditions in the practice of promoting human rights progress.

It said human rights have historical, specific and practical contexts, and there are no fixed standards or identical models for its development and protection. The path of human rights development in each country should be respected, and the human rights conditions of that country should be judged by its own people.

Based on the human rights philosophy that centers on the people, China has proposed that “living a life of contentment is the ultimate human right,” the report read.

A staunch defender of human rights, the Communist Party of China has since its founding united and led the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in making unremitting efforts to fight for, respect, protect and develop human rights.

It is under the leadership of the Party that China’s human rights cause has achieved all-round development, made historic achievements, and created a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability that has rarely been seen in world history, the report said.

Over the past decades, China has lifted some 770 million rural residents out of poverty, increased its per capita disposable income by more than 180 times, and raised its average life expectancy to 78.2 years from less than 35 years before 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded.

China has also built the world’s largest social security network. As a result, every life is well protected with the utmost effort in the COVID-19 outbreaks.

China has constantly developed its whole-process people’s democracy and improved the system of institutions through which the people exercise their role as masters of the country.

As a credible proof of human rights progress in China, the Human Development Index (HDI), which the United Nations Development Programme created by integrating basic indicators such as life expectancy, education level and quality of life, rose from 0.499 in 1990 to 0.761 in 2019 in China, sending the country to the ranks of those with high HDI scores.

While advancing its human rights cause at home, China fully participates in global human rights governance by engaging deeply in UN human rights affairs and extensively carrying out international human rights cooperation, read the report.

The country has successively ratified or acceded to more than 30 international human rights instruments, provided assistance to 166 countries and international organizations, and sent over 600,000 people on aid missions.

It ranks first among the permanent members of the UN Security Council in terms of the number of peacekeepers dispatched, having sent more than 50,000 personnel on peacekeeping missions over the last three decades.

Chinese peacekeepers march at a medal parade ceremony in Hanniyah village, southern Lebanon, July 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Zongya)

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has made great efforts to promote fair and reasonable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world, and has become the country providing the largest number of vaccines to the rest of the world.

China also shares its experience in poverty alleviation with the world and assists developing countries in seeking ways to shake off poverty and achieve development. For example, the Juncao technology project, which uses grass instead of wood to cultivate edible fungi, has taken root in more than 100 countries.

According to the report, by upholding the idea that the rights to subsistence and development should be taken as primary basic human rights, China has met the basic living needs for an extra-large population and finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

With a combined population of more than 80 percent of the world’s total, developing countries are faced with similar tasks.

In this sense, China’s explorations and experiences, which feature determined leadership, down-to-earth and development-oriented approach, legal guidance, and open-mindedness, are of great value for their reference, noted the report.

Noting that China has successfully blazed a human rights development path that conforms to the times and befits its own national conditions, the report went on to state that China respects the diversity in the approaches to human rights development and holds that there is no such thing as a perfect “Utopia” for human rights.

It said the country opposes double standards in human rights, rejects attempts to politicize and weaponize human rights, and objects to interventions in others’ internal affairs in the name of human rights.

The report said that countries should base their efforts on equality and mutual respect, actively engage in human rights dialogues and cooperation, expand consensus while bridging differences, and learn from each other and pursue common progress.

It called for efforts to promote fairer, more equitable, reasonable and inclusive global governance of human rights, and work together to build a human community with a shared future.