By Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director
©APGraphicsBank
Many are parsing Hu Jintao’s comments for something new. The fact is, he has not taken a different stand on human rights than the Chinese government–or even he–has in the recent past. But he did talk about human rights on foreign soil, in the United States of America, in the White House. That is significant for a Chinese president. We are happy to hear the him speak about the universality of human rights, but there are so many other Chinese we wish we could hear from, because Chinese citizens who are attempting to exercise those rights for the economic and social good of the country are still being jailed.
Said Hu yesterday:
“China recognizes and also respects the universality of human rights. And at the same time, we do believe that we also need to take into account the different and national circumstances when it comes to the universal value of human rights.”
“China is a developing country with a huge population, and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform. In this context, China still faces many challenges in economic and social development. And a lot still needs to be done in China, in terms of human rights.”
Although it is no different to China’s usual position on human rights when it reports to the United Nations, we do see this as a positive acknowledgement of how much more work China’s government still has to do on human rights.
The Chinese government feels the pressure from Chinese citizens pressing for improvement of the country’s human rights record. Unfortunately, the Chinese government has responded by tightening restrictions on critics, in particular over the past three years.
Chinese authorities justify this approach by pointing to economic and social rights and the Confucian concept of ‘harmony’ as being more important than civil and political rights in the context of the country’s development.
But more and more, Chinese citizens are seeking to defend their economic, social and cultural rights, and have been jailed for it – like Zhao Lianhai, who tried to hold the Sanlu corporation accountable for the melamine poison baby-milk scandal; or Tian Xi, who campaigned for compensation for people with HIV/AIDS infected by state hospitals.
There are many more journalists operating in China, but journalists who expose corruption and grassroots petitioners protesting corporate abuses and forced evictions have been silenced and detained.
China’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo remains incarcerated for the peaceful expression of his opinions, while his wife Liu Xia is under arbitrary house arrest.
Ironically, one stumbling block to China’s economy is the internet censorship of the ‘Great Firewall of China’, which causes daily frustrations for businesses in China that have any stake in knowing what is really going on in the country or in the rest of the world.
The Chinese government will fall short of the country’s full potential – and fail to meet the international obligations it has voluntarily undertaken – as long as it does not trust the Chinese people to play a larger role in improving the country’s human rights situation themselves.
Inproving human rights situation in China is about a major political change, which should take place. for ths to happen, actvists should be asured that Chains could come with their own module and that no pressure on them to adopt a particular political system. Chains is trying to make a change white its eye on Former eastern europe eperince and irs prons and The situation in Chain is woryying
chinas human rights are in a 60 year abusive rut
Workers rights,religious freedom, freedom of speach and better race relations
are very important.
It’s clear to me that something needs to be done to address the human rights issues that the PRC has, certainly before its power on the world stage gets much higher. On the other hand I can also see how it is difficult as China often reiterates it has its own interpretation of these ethics and codes of human rights and doesn’t need to pander to those of the developed world. Sadly a large part of the wealth in the developed world relies on the exploitative situation that exists currently in the PRC.
exactly. here is another side of china that a lot of people tend to ignore. i dont care how well your economy has improved over the past 20 year. the people of china are still as opressed as before…