SCIO briefing on the CPC's philosophy and practice of respecting and safeguarding human rights
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 30, 2021
CNR:
We all know that respecting and safeguarding human rights is the consensus of human civilization, however, different countries have different views on human rights and the path of development often differs from country to country. How shall we see the notion in the white paper that China has added diversity to the concept of human rights? Thank you.
Lu Guangjin:
I will answer this question, and other professors may give additional remarks. I think that China's progress in human rights, which is indeed different from that of Western or other countries, is a typical example. Regarding the need to understand China, I think we should focus on the following three aspects. First, China is the world's largest developing country, which is a basic national condition we often talk about. Second, China is the world's most populous country, which is also a national condition that has lasted for hundreds of years. Third, China is the world's fastest developing country. Its speed of development since the 1970s is unprecedented. The journalists here, who were generally born after the 1980s and 1990s, have also experienced a huge change. China after 1970 is totally different from that before 1970, its development is the progress of civilization and quite representative.
Looking at this progress of civilization from the human rights perspective, I think the following three aspects in particular are worth thinking about.
First, China's human rights development has exceeded Western liberal views on human rights and the development of their practice. The progress was made under the guidance of China's people-centered approach to human rights. In my opinion, the approach has transcended the narrowness and limitations of the Western capitalist view of human rights, focusing on people-centered human rights rather than men's natural rights, socialist collective human rights rather than liberal individual human rights, and specific and vivid human rights rather than abstract, empty human rights. So, it is a particularly representative model of human rights and the new manifestation of human rights civilization.
Second, China has developed the Marxist theory of human rights. Upholding the basic positions and views of the Marxist theory of human rights, the CPC is grounding its efforts in the new century, new development stage, new era, China's development features of the times and the future development trend. China attaches great importance to the position of the people, authenticity, development, specificity and the comprehensiveness of human rights, which is the great progress and development of the Marxist theory of human rights under the new historical conditions. We can also call it the 21st-century Marxist human rights theory.
Third, we have opened new frontiers of human civilization. The CPC upholds historical materialism and dialectical materialism, and has always viewed and developed human rights from a historical perspective, development perspective and the standpoint of the people, which enabled the CPC to open a new path of human rights protection based on China's national conditions. The development path in fact exploded the myth that only the Western model could develop human rights, and has also opened up a new path for the development of human rights. My thinking is summarized in those three points for your reference.
