Biased Report Puts Truths Aside

Biased Report Puts Truths Aside

In response to a report released by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which accused China of human rights violations, Xinhua News Agency pointed out in an opinion piece on September 7 that China’s progress in improving the livelihoods of its people is for all to see. An edited version of the piece follows:

Perhaps labeling China as the “bad guy” of human rights will win Human Rights Watch some favor from certain groups, but it will do no good for promoting international human rights

You can never wake up a man pretending to be asleep, just like facts and rational voices can never be heard by deaf ears.

HRW is such a sleeper. It issued a report on September 5, claiming that China was trying to weaken the UN human rights mechanisms, accusations that are biased and totally groundless.

The report alleged that China harassed “independent activists,” used its membership to block NGOs critical of it from being granted UN accreditation, and most severely, “rarely provides substantive answers to queries by UN human rights bodies.”

The U.S.-based organization even asserted that“UN officials have capitulated to Chinese pressure”to deny access to Dolkun Isa, a so-called “well-known ethnic Uyghur activist.”

But there’s an important truth forgotten or deliberately neglected by the organization; Isa is still on the wanted list of the International Criminal Police Organization.

And the Chinese Government has repeatedly explained that Isa is the leader of a terrorist organization, suspected of committing several criminal and terrorist acts.

The real problem is not that China rarely provides substantive answers, but the drafters of the HRW report just don’t want to listen.

In answering why the organization targets China for the report, Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of HRW, asserted heinously that China’s UN Security Council membership and global in fluence make it “a model of bad faith that challenges the integrity of the UN rights system.”

How come a country that has been relentlessly championing UN principles, including those of human rights, by improving the economic and social conditions of its people at home and providing everincreasing assistance to UN causes abroad can be labeled “a model of bad faith?”

The authors of the HRW report claimed that it was based largely on interviews with people “who have direct knowledge of China’s interactions with UN human rights mechanisms,” but they seem to forget to also include the real, important voice of Chinese mainstream society.

As it was said, one of the reasons why they chose China to make the report is China’s “bad human rights record at home.”

If so, the voice at home should never be neglected. If you were to ask the millions of villagers living in remote mountains who for the first time in generations are not living in poverty, if you were to ask the millions of rural workers who have moved to cities to enjoy a richer and colorful life, and if you were to ask the millions of people with disabilities who have started to live a better life with government help, you would hear a different story.

Or, if you were to go to the plaza in front of the UN of fice in Geneva, which is just hundreds of meters away from where the report was issued, you would meet a lot of happy and free-talking Chinese tourists and they, too, will draw a different picture of China.

No need to cite the figures and long list of facts, achievements in China’s human rights cause during the past decades are big enough for almost everyone to see, except for those with their eyes deliberately closed.

Perhaps labeling China as the “bad guy” of human rights will win HRW some favor from certain groups, but it will do no good for promoting international human rights.

On September 11, there is an exhibition at Geneva’s Palais des Nations on China’s efforts and progress in human rights. The authors of the HRW report should attend the event so that they can see what China really looks like. ■