China receives wide support on human rights as it stands by righteousness

By Guo Chushan

Over 50 countries voiced support for China on issues related to Xinjiang policies in a joint letter to the UN recently.

Lauding China’s remarkable achievements in human rights development, they expressed clear stand to back China’s Xinjiang policies, praised China’s respect to and guarantee of human rights in counter terrorism and de-extremization activities, and stressed that the vocational education and training centers set in Xinjiang have effectively protected the basic human rights of the people of all ethnic groups.

These countries said they oppose relevant countries' practice of politicizing human rights, and urged a certain group of countries to stop using uncorroborated information to make unfounded accusations against China.

The move came just days after some 20 western countries smeared China’s de-extremization efforts in the region in a joint letter addressed to the UN Human Rights Council and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which powerfully responded to the western slander.

Some countries also sent notices or released news to express support for China.

These two joint letters reflected completely different stands and attitudes, and the facts are obvious. Those who accuse China are western countries that are known for setting up ideological opposition and politicizing human rights issues. They call themselves “defenders” of human rights, and are always waving the big stick of human rights just to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries.

However, their own record of human rights protection is seldom clean, with frequent infringement upon civic rights, prevailing money politics, increasing wealth gap, severe racial discrimination and tragedies of immigrants.

Among those who praised China are countries from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Americas. Many of them are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

It indicates that the western countries’ groundless accusation of others won’t work anymore, as such approach is not allowed by not only China, but also other countries that adhere to justice.

The achievements and development path of China’s human rights cause, as well as the country’s resolution to safeguard human rights have been broadly recognized. Those who stand by justice will be supported and the righteousness will finally win.

Justice always stands with facts. China has achieved remarkable progress in human rights development. It has made historic leaps in living standards for nearly 1.4 billion people, from living in poverty to having access to basic material needs, and then to moderate prosperity. The country has built the world’s largest education, social security and medical systems.

During the third round of the Universal Periodic Review led by the UN Human Rights Council, China’s social and economic development and human rights protection were praised by over 120 countries.

There is no universal development path for human rights, and every country has the right to choose a proper one according to its own national conditions. The practice of some western countries to defame others will not succeed or receive any support.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is a part of China, and Xinjiang affairs are China’s internal affairs that concern the country’s sovereignty, security and territory integrity. Xinjiang affairs do not target any specific ethnic group or religion, but are problems of terrorism and violence. The Chinese government and people are in the best position to evaluate Xinjiang-related issues.

Faced with severe threats from both terrorism and extremism, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region adopted a series of measures in accordance with the law that have not only struck at terrorism, but also made positive exploration of preventive counterterrorism and de-extremization approaches. These measures have effectively brought a turnaround to the situation in the region.

In the past more than two years, not a single violent and terrorist incident took place in Xinjiang. The region now enjoys social stability and unity among all ethnic groups. People there are living a happy life with a stronger sense of fulfillment and security.

Facts speak louder than words. China has for times invited foreign ambassadors, officials of international organizations and journalists to visit Xinjiang. They said what they experienced there was totally different from the western reports, and they also gave high reputation on China’s efforts to combat and prevent terrorism, protect religious freedom of the citizens, safeguard the traditions of ethnic minorities and develop economy to improve livelihood.

Many of those who have been to the vocational education and training centers said that they saw smiling faces, happy classes and rich curriculums. The rumors and smears collapsed in front of such facts.

Practices proved that the measures adopted by Xinjiang are effective, and are positive exploration of preventative counter-terrorism. These measures are important contribution made by China to the global counter-terrorism work.

Justice always stands with righteousness. The double standards of certain western countries on terrorism and human rights, as well as their practices of pointing fingers at others while neglecting their own problems have fully revealed their hypocritical nature.

The two white papers on Xinjiang-related issues released by China in the past year that introduced Xinjiang’s counter terrorism and de-extremization measures have declared a war between human civilization and barbarism, and they deserve support, respect and understanding.

By singling out China and interfering with China’s sovereignty and internal affairs, some western countries have completely abandoned human justice and conscience, which is completely unacceptable for everyone that pursues justice and progress. Such approaches are nothing different with the previous China-related human rights proposals, and will finally fail.

China will stay committed to the “Chinese path” suited to its national conditions, pursue mutual learning among different countries based on equality and mutual respect, and keep offering assistance to the human rights development of developing countries within its capabilities.

China sticks to fairness and justice, opposes politicizing human rights issues and double standards. Besides, it also rejects seeking to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs under the pretext of human rights. By speaking for developing countries, it has won wide respect and high reputation from the international society.