The issue of human rights always touches on the most sensitive nerve of communications between China and the Western countries. On April 13, China published its first "National Human Rights Action Plan," which has caused much debate in the West. Some have thumbed it up, while others are skeptical. Within a short period of time, discussion of the topic has become heated again and attracted the attention of many.
The West has always been ready to throw its weight around and faulted China's human rights, which is one of the most important ways it exerts influence on the world stage. However, Westerners will gradually find out that Chinese people are no longer angered by their biased statements about China's human rights. This is because Chinese people have become more self- confident, and are increasingly clear that improving human rights is not a show for the Western world. Instead, the improvement of human rights is for the sake of the well-being of the Chinese people. Continuously improving human rights in keeping to the specific requirements of the people as well as the country's societal development trends has been accepted among the 1.3 billion Chinese people.
No doubt that the Western view of human rights, which was so far considered as an authoritative textbook, has influenced the development of Chinese society. Criticism from the West was once a motivating force to drive Chinese society forward, which led some Chinese people to envy and pursue the western way of human rights. Some people even went too far to accept and adapt China to all of these views overnight. In the process of development, however, more and more Chinese people have realized that China has its own specific conditions and that the Chinese people have issues involving their own interests that are of most concern to them, issues such as income, medical care, housing and employment. Only when these problems are solved can China's human rights issues make substantial progress.
After 30 years of reform and opening-up, most Chinese are aware that China's human rights have been remarkably improved during the process of development and that with further development, human rights will continue to improve. Lionel Vairon, a senior French diplomat, said in his newly-published book "Threat of China?" that among the Western criticisms toward China, regarding its human rights are full of word choice and game. Regardless of those lengthy speeches and articles, Western human rights organizations and their allies claim that the Chinese political system violates human rights, but their claims are results of their biased theoretical thinking, because they have been refusing to face up to the substantial progress that China has made.
Human rights in China have advanced by great strides in the past years. The conditions and situations for the development of human rights in China are completely different from that when Western countries made their progress in human rights. French women did not have their rights to vote until one and a half centuries after the announcement of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" in France. And, 187 years after the announcement of the "Declaration of Independence" in the US, Martin Luther King still had to make his voice heard that "all men are created equal."
History has given Western countries plentiful time and a tolerant environment to develop their human rights step by step. Nevertheless, China has to not only develop its human rights according to its reality, but should also keep the pace with its social development conditions and background. So, in a sense,, China needs more understanding and tolerance from the world regarding its HR development. The world should especially try to understand China's human rights progress from the perspective of its historical and social development.
Human rights with which the Chinese people are satisfied are the most worthy of the country's pursuit. While pursuing their own objectives of human rights, Chinese people are also making significant contributions to the progress of the world's human rights in general. China's determination to promote its human rights and the well-being through its own means should not be changed due to influence that comes out of the country.
By People's Daily Online
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