The changing ground of human rights

US trying to influence practice of rights

The United States' efforts to advance Internet freedom in China have hurt Sino-US relations. China believes the US' efforts could threaten its political security.

As far as Chinese domestic politics is concerned, the US' advocacy is deceptive and misleading, and could confuse some Chinese people into blindly believing in the American idea of Internet freedom and questioning the legal Internet regulation practiced by the Chinese government.

The US also pressures China by taking advantage of the Internet freedom issue, which provides activity space for some political forces and is not conducive to resolving basic social conflicts and social management issues in China. According to the 28th Statistical Report on Development of Internet in China issued by China Internet Network Information Center, by the end of July 2011, the number of micro blog users in China grew by a whopping 208.9 percent from the end of 2010, increasing from 63,110,000 to 195,000,000.

Micro blogs have become the Internet application mode with the fastest growth. Some experts say that the US domination of the right to freedom of speech on the Internet could influence or instigate emergency and mass incidents in China and thus destabilize the political order of Chinese society. Also, Internet hacking and encryption are becoming increasingly sophisticated, which could encourage political crimes in China.

Besides, the US' efforts to "spread" Internet freedom in China may impair the two countries' strategic mutual trust. The US says it wishes to deepen Sino-US cooperation, but it secretly supports anti-government forces in China and fans the flames of discontent by using the Internet in the hope of engineering a regime change. This practice will inevitably harm Sino-US cooperation and the possibility to establish long-term strategic mutual trust.

Moreover, the US is spreading the "China threat" theory through the Internet, which has also harmed Sino-US relations. Using the right to freedom of speech on the Internet, the US has been influencing American citizens' perception of China. For example, in 1997 about 43 percent Americans saw China as a "threat" but today their number has grown to 58 percent. Similarly, 22 percent Americans considered China as a "superpower" in the economic and military fields in 1997 but today their number has increased to 46 percent.

A latest Internet poll shows that an increasing number of Americans believe China is becoming a potential enemy and the main competitor of the US. Given such public opinion, the US administration also considers China its main competitor and has adopted a policy to contain China's rise.

Luo Yanhua is a professor at the School of International Studies, Peking University.