China Outlines Human Rights Policy
Regarding China's controversial human rights record, a commerce official said, "A tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that is growing."  I take this to mean that the West, principally the U.S., focuses on the isolated human rights abuses in China rather than overall effort China has made to improve its human rights record.  On Tuesday, the government news agency Xinhua published the official statement regarding China's goals regarding human rights.  For those interested in the issue of human rights in China, this article, while clearly defensive, offers an inward-looking view of China's record on rights.  Religious persecution, executions, forced abortion and child labor are some of the major human rights issues that the Chinese government has had to answer to in recent years.  None of these are addressed in the statement.  However, China does discuss legal rights, the alleviation of poverty, healthcare and the more widespread dissemination of government news and decisions. Dong Yunhu, vice-chairman of the China Society for Human Rights Studies compared human rights to fruit.  "Human rights is abstract like the concept of fruit, which is the collective notion of apples, pears and bananas, among others," he said.  "When a certain country wants to push its idea of human rights onto the whole world as the only standard, it's like saying only banana is fruit, the apple and pear are not."  I would say a more apt metaphor is that if one place has ripe fruit and another has rotten fruit, while both places have fruit, I'd prefer the place with the fruit that's not rotten.  But let's not compare apples and oranges.

•Xinhua: Frictions Over Human Rights Mirror Different Emphasis by West, China

 

 

 

 

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