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 | Wednesday, April 19, 2000, updated at 09:49(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Politicizing Human Rights UnpopularAttempts to politicize the human rights issue and use it against China have been proved unpopular again, said a leading official of the China Society for the Study of Human Rights in Beijing on April 18.The official made the remark during an interview following the U.N. Human Rights Commission rejected today an anti-China motion submitted by the United States. The U.S. motion was foiled by a majority of votes at the Commission, and once again the U.S. attempts to use the human rights issue to interfere in China's internal affairs was defeated. This was the ninth time the United States and some other countries proposed an anti-China motion at the Commission, and also the ninth time they failed, the leader said. He said that the past 10 years, during which the United States and some other countries continuously proposed anti-China motions, have been a decade in which Chinese human rights conditions saw their most notable advancements. "This shows that the United States does not really care about human rights in China," he said, "but rather intends to reach its ulterior political goals under the pretext of human rights." The official said that the United States and some other Western countries are extremely reluctant to see China adhering to the socialist road, and extremely reluctant to see China that abides by an independent foreign policy of peace continuing to develop and becoming even stronger. This attitude is based on their political need to promote the Western social system and hegemonism following the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe, he said. The sole reason the United States, in collusion with a few other Western countries, repeatedly brought forward anti-China motions at the U.N. Human Rights Commission was to disfigure China 's image, change China's social system, undermine China's stability, and contain China's development by making use of the human rights issue. Such practice of utilizing the human rights issue as a political tool to create ideological confrontation and exercise hegemonism is a typical illustration of politicizing the human rights issue, the official said. It is absolutely against the purpose and principles of the U.N. Charter, and runs counter to the wishes of the international community, which calls for dialog and cooperation, and, therefore, was naturally rejected by a majority of the members of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, and opposed by the just world opinion, he said. He said that the promotion and protection of human rights is the common task of every country in the world. Human rights conditions in every country are in a dynamic process of development, and no country may brag that its human rights situation is perfect, nor can any country act as the "world human rights judge," he stressed. The United States, for example, has many human rights problems. It has the highest violent crime rate in the world, and tops every other country in the proportion of its population behind bars; its deep-rooted discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and wealth is well known everywhere, he added. In addition, the human rights of the weak, including minorities, the poor, and women and children, are violated repeatedly in the United States; the country is mired in and marked by scandals of repeated violations of human rights in other countries by the use of force, heedless of the generally acknowledged principles of international laws, he said. The official stressed that the United States should face its own human rights problems and reflect on what it has done to human rights worldwide, and should not turn a blind eye to these problems while zealously condemning other countries at the United Nations. He pointed out that those who know China's human rights conditions best and are most qualified to judge China's human rights are the 1.2 billion people of China. China is a developing country, and the Chinese government and people are doing their best to improve human rights. Over the past 10 years, in particular, China has seen political stability, economic development, and social progress and unity among different ethnic groups. As a result, human rights are constantly being improved. "This is a fact undeniable to anyone without political bias," he said, adding that "Any attempt to deny this fact, to use the human rights issue to block the way of the Chinese people in their march forward and reverse the development process of China's human rights will be met with firm resistance and opposition by the Chinese people." He pointed out that the human rights issue in each country should be resolved by that country's government and people, and the human rights issue around the world should be resolved through the joint efforts of the governments and people of all countries. Each country is obliged to respect and protect the human rights of its people, and promote the healthy development of international human rights through dialogue and cooperation in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, he said. Because of different histories, cultural backgrounds, and development levels, it is normal that different countries may take different paths and approaches in their promotion and protection of human rights and have different views of human rights. But, he pointed out, these differences should not be taken as an excuse for confrontation, pressure, and intervention on the part of one country toward another. Rather, it should be the basis for countries to learn from one another to make up deficiencies. All countries should, in the spirit of seeking common ground while reserving differences, and on the basis of equality and mutual respect, conduct dialogues and exchanges on the human rights issue with the aim of increasing mutual understanding, reducing differences, and achieving common development, he added. The failure of the U.S. anti-China resolution once again shows that dialogue and cooperation are the general trend worldwide, and therefore favored by the majority of people. "Using the human rights issue as an excuse for confrontation is unpopular, and will lead nowhere," the Chinese official concluded.
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