OPINION / EDITORIAL
HRW’s criticism of China is a lie
Published: Jan 15, 2020 09:08 PM

File photo: Xinhua



US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its World Report 2020 on Tuesday. Kenneth Roth, executive director of HRW, said in his speech that China has launched an assault on the international human rights system.

An NGO as it is, HRW has been openly coordinating with the US on its tough China policy. The organization's funding source and personnel structure have shown it will embed US national interests deeply into its goals. Roth once served as a US federal prosecutor. HRW's extreme antagonism toward China results from his prejudice and political stand.

The organization's main business is global human rights, but it seems it is unfamiliar with human rights conventions and standards under the UN system. The right to development - a human right that the UN stresses the most - is almost completely missed out in the latest HRW's report.

People like Roth are only suitable for talking big in New York's high society. If their interpretation of human rights is examined from the perspective of developing societies and emerging markets, people will easily find they are narrow-minded and paranoid. They are keen to show their sympathy for the lack of human rights in developing societies, but they have no idea what the most important thing is there.

It is acceptable to criticize China. But HRW has been propagating a huge lie by smearing China, a country where modern life has spread rapidly and people's living standards have been greatly raised. HRW has been living in an abnormal atmosphere of public opinion about China.

Have people like Roth ever visited Chinese cities and spoken with ordinary Chinese families? Have they ever been to the shopping malls and streets that have sprung up all over China, and talked with ordinary Chinese people there? Have they left nightclubs and walked back to the hotel at night in China? Is China's human rights system the worst in the world? Are they talking about human rights or the privileges of the very few followers of the US value?

The life span of the Chinese people is becoming longer. Conditions of food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, public health services and provisions for the aged have been improved. Pollution has been effectively controlled. Chinese people have become the main force of global tourism and studying abroad. China's internet is also one of the most developed worldwide. These have formed the basis of the continuing development of China's human rights.

China is different from the US and the West politically. Thus, China has its own characteristics in political participation and governance of public opinion. The Chinese system supports the country's development. Our system does not threaten that of the West and should gain respect from the West.

Some extreme Western political elites have attacked China violently for geopolitical purposes. People like Roth are not really advocating the general advancement of human rights, but are following the needs of US politics. They are tarnishing the great human rights cause of mankind, and should be ashamed of it.

People like Roth should go deep into a huge society like China and really understand what is going on there and what people really care about. The likes of Roth should seriously study the world, not arrogantly represent the world.