China Says Western Countries Have No Standing to Lecture It on Human Rights
Dragon Media News Desk
Sun Lei, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, criticized several Western countries for making what he called groundless accusations about China’s human rights record. Responding during the general debate of the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on Tuesday, he urged them to stop spreading falsehoods about China and using human rights for political purposes.
According to Sun, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania had made baseless accusations and malicious remarks about China’s human rights situation. He said those countries often portrayed themselves as superior and as “human rights teachers,” despite having serious problems of their own, and were in no position to lecture China or make irresponsible comments about it.
Sun said China had eliminated absolute poverty nationwide and improved people’s well-being through development. Nearly 100 million people had been lifted out of poverty, he said, while a middle-income group of more than 400 million people had emerged. By contrast, he said, more than 14 million people in the UK lived below the poverty line, half of them in extreme poverty. Japan’s relative poverty rate among households stood at 15 percent, and child poverty was a growing concern, he added.
Sun said China had continued to advance whole-process people’s democracy and that public support for and satisfaction with the government had remained above 90 percent for years. He said Hong Kong’s National Security Law had moved the city from disorder to effective governance and from stability to prosperity, while improving and developing its democratic system. By contrast, he claimed, about 75 percent of people in the UK were concerned about the future of democracy, while public trust in government had fallen to record lows in Australia and the Czech Republic.
Sun said all ethnic groups in China were equal members of the Chinese nation and that the political, economic, cultural and religious rights of all groups in the Xinjiang Uygur and Xizang autonomous regions were effectively protected. He said the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law was intended to advance shared prosperity and development. He accused Japan of failing to treat the Ainu and Ryukyu peoples as equal ethnic groups. He also said the effects of colonialism persisted in the UK, Australia and Ireland, where racism and ethnic divisions remained serious problems.
Amid global instability and pressure on multilateralism, Sun said China had contributed to the international human rights cause through its development and efforts to promote dialogue and cooperation. He accused the UK, Australia, Japan, the Czech Republic and Lithuania of invoking morality while remaining indifferent to what he described as injustices faced by people in Palestine, Iran and Cuba. He said they used human rights as a pretext to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and impose unilateral coercive measures, harming the interests of developing countries.
Sun said the global trend toward multipolarity and more democratic international relations was irreversible and called for greater solidarity and cooperation on human rights. He said China would pursue a human rights development path suited to its national conditions, engage in constructive dialogue and oppose the politicization of human rights. He urged a small number of countries to stop spreading falsehoods about China and using human rights for political purposes, warning that otherwise they would ultimately harm themselves.
