The harsh comments recently made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on China’s human rights record proves once again that no smooth process exists in the complicated and sensitive field of human rights talks between China and the West.
China’s foreign ministry rebuffed Clinton’s accusation on Friday, saying any attempt to bring the Middle East turbulence into China and to change its future development is a “fool’s errand.”
It was undignified for Clinton to say that the Chinese government was “trying to stop history, which is a fool’s errand” on human rights. In an online poll conducted by huanqiu.com on Friday, 86 percent of the participants held that her remarks had violated “diplomatic etiquette.”
Chinese society has given a smart answer.
Given the huge systemic differences, Western countries’ criticisms of China usually reflect the pressure stemming from their diplomacy, domestic media and home affairs. Though the West speaks louder on today’s international human rights arena, history will show who will have the last laugh.
During human rights dialogues with China, the West’s tactic is to divide countries by ideology and use the so-called human rights issues to suppress developing countries. This has resulted in conflicts in the international human rights arena and even political confrontations. As it adopts a different social system, China naturally fails to meet the human rights standards set by the West.
With China’s rise in recent years, criticisms from the West have ignored the real situation of China and of its people. The West has dreamed of imposing its system by throwing stones and repeating charges instead of providing beneficial suggestions to China. As for China’s role, it has no reason to accept the West’s “human rights roadmap,” as it fails to address China’s concrete situation.
Chinese society is not yet confident enough to shake off all external criticisms. The West’s indoctrination of human rights has had some effects on some people, who echo the West’s vilification of the nation’s human rights record. But they are the minority and cannot represent the mainstream. These people’s voices could be heard in recent years due to the openness and diversification of Chinese society. But that does not mean Western ideology can be accepted by the majority of Chinese people. China’s growing national confidence will help it parry the influence of power politics from the West.
China needs to hammer out a countermeasure in dealing with the frequent disturbances from the West rather than making a hurried choice between “absolutely opposing” or “turning a deaf ear” to the issue.