US peddles its biased human rights views again despite own flaws

US Secretary of State John Kerry (second from left sitting in the roundtable) and Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (second from right in roundtable) are among several dozen Chinese and US government officials attending last Thursday's opening ceremony of the 19th round China US Human Rights Dialogue held in Washington on Aug 13-14.[Provided to China Daily]

The US Congressional-Executive Commission on China issued a report on Oct 8, which pointed accusing fingers at an array of issues in China including human rights, the rule of law, and the situations in the Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Such an irresponsible practice could poison the good atmosphere that has been fostered in bilateral ties by Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States and once again lays bare the US' penchant for interfering in another country's internal affairs.

The US report said it saw in China "a disturbing deterioration in human rights and rule of law conditions that pose a direct challenge to US national interests and US-China relations."

Such biased allegations are not based on facts since China has been making great strides in protecting human rights and upholding the rule of law in recent years.

Compared to several decades ago, China's human rights protection has made great progress, and many practices from Western countries on human rights have been adopted by China as well.

As a developing country, China is in the process of ensuring its citizens have access to constitutional and social rights. Part of this development process is the acknowledgment and understanding of its own human rights issues.

A white paper on human rights released by the State Information Office in June showed China is taking a path toward the development of human rights protection that best suits its realities. It highlighted the achievements of human rights protection in the legal system, as well as economic and social development.

Legal reform has been one of the most notable areas of progress in human rights protection in China in recent years, with new measures put into place to improve the transparency and efficiency of judicial organs.

In fact, the country's human rights protection is now at its highest level in history, and its confidence in this regard has prompted it to annually issue records of the US' own human rights protection in recent years.

To developing countries, China included, there is nothing new in the US' outdated practice of wielding human rights issues as a political tool in the world arena. Unfortunately, despite its self-proclaimed role as the world's human rights champion, the world's sole superpower is far from a respected role model, let alone a qualified judge on human rights in other countries. Against the backdrop of the chaos that has stripped people of their human rights as a result of its meddling in the affairs of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and the non-indictments of two white police officers' who killed two unarmed African-Americans in separate incidents. The US' accusations against China simply lay bare the double standards it employs.

Besides its deeply rooted racism and flawed foreign policies, the surveillance scandal that targeted its own citizens as well as the leaders of other countries also blatantly breached human rights.

As such, the US should look into a mirror and examine its own human rights record first before pointing a finger at China.

The differences in human rights perceptions and objectives between developing countries and developed ones can only be bridged through dialogue and cooperation. Over the years, the country has conducted rounds of dialogues in human rights with various Western countries including the US, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia, among others.

As Xi said when he met US President Barack Obama last month, the Chinese people are in the process of realizing the great revitalization of the nation, and in essence, it is a process that promotes social justice and advances human rights.

On human rights issues, the US is obviously in dire need of the basic honesty to acknowledge the truth, the breath of mind to recognize others' achievements and the courage to discard its double standards.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily. wanghui@chinadaily.com.cn