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
HKTKWW:
My question is for Mr. He. You've mentioned before that we need to pay great attention to the spatial and temporal dimensions of historical development and social environment during human rights research and analysis. How shall we understand this concept? How shall we think about the internationalization of human rights on the premise of a community with a shared future for mankind? Thank you.
He Zhipeng:
Thanks for your question. First of all, I have to admit this idea is just a point of view I personally raised during my academic research after discussing it with my colleagues and students. Here is the reason behind the idea. When having dialogues on human rights internationally or having exchanges on human rights domestically, some people believe that there is a common and universal standard for human rights. That means that every country, wherever it is located and whatever historical period it is in, should act in accordance with the same rule or standard. During the illegal "Occupy Central" movement, some people cited the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). We later commented that some rules are not applicable in China, because not all rules apply to all countries.
On this basis, I would like to put forward an idea. The real situation of human rights in a country depends on what historical position and period it is in. The so-called space-time condition, on the one hand, is "time", that is to say, in this sense we should understand that what are considered human rights change with the development of the times. They are not static. If we can see from the overall historical trend that human rights are constantly improving, we can also see from a certain historical section, for example, in the event of an epidemic, the situation of human rights protection may fluctuate. This is the so-called historical dimension. We cannot simply hold fast to the conclusion that human rights have just come and gone.
The other one is the spatial dimension, that is, different cultural traditions and national customs lead to different actualizations of human rights. As we all know, China has a system of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities, which is actually a different way of safeguarding the rights of different cultural traditions. If you accept my basic understanding, what conclusion do we reach? I think there are two aspects.
First, the level of human rights protection should be decoupled from the political dynamics. There was a question just now saying that some countries say that there are problems in China's human rights. In fact, they are making a fuss out of nothing and fabricating rumors to stir up trouble. As Professor Lu said just now, the objective is very simple. It is to achieve political containment. That is to say, China's rapid, balanced and stable economic, political and cultural development has deeply worried many countries. You may all have heard of a concept called "Thucydides Trap". They believe that major Western powers and China are destined for conflict. If they don't contain China now, then they won't have a chance in the future. This, in my opinion, is the first decoupling, which is to decouple human rights issues from political struggles.
Second, human rights should be decoupled from economic competition. Some countries have raised the so-called "cotton issue" in Xinjiang as a human rights issue and then used it to curb China's development. In fact, anyone with a clear vision knows that their objective behind the issue is very simple. From their point of view, China is developing too fast economically and we have competitive advantages in many aspects. Anyone who has studied economics knows that the basic operating rule of international competition is acquiring absolute advantage or comparative advantage. We have an advantage in this respect and they feel they are no match for us. What can they do? They began to use various human rights excuses to suppress China, which in my opinion should be kept in mind after understanding the spatial and temporal scale of human rights.
What does the building of a community with a shared future for mankind mean in terms of human rights? To put it simply, it means that human society faces more and more common risks and has many areas of common concerns. For example, a global panic is likely caused by climate change, global warming, epidemics, and the internet. Under such a premise, we should recognize the possible risks, actively cooperate globally, work for a common future, and promote human rights in the dimension of governance cooperation. That is my understanding. Thank you.
