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Don't point finger at China on human rights

By Zhu Yuan ( chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-12 16:06
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Editor's note: In its annual survey of human rights in 194 countries released on Thursday, US State Department rebuked China of stepping up abuses of human rights. China Friday retorted US criticism by publishing its own report on the US human rights record.

Why does the United States publish a report every year accusing China of its problems on human rights? I guess that the world strongest superpower has accustomed to acting on the moral height to point fingers at others when it comes to human rights issues. But it forgets that human rights are a matter of improvement by perpetual efforts in all countries and none of nation in the world is audacious enough to brag about its human right conditions.

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Don't point finger at China on human rights China reports on US human rights record 

True, there is much to be desired when it comes to human rights in China. But the same is true in the United States. What we should never turn a deaf ear and blind eye to is the fact that Chinese government has made great efforts to improve human rights for the Chinese people in the past three decades. And Chinese people themselves have also stood up to strive for the rights they are supposed to enjoy.

Anyone who had ever stayed in China before 1978 and after that will easily find that great progress has been made in social democracy. And Chinese people have much more freedom of speech than before 1978. And they have much more channels to have their voices heard and the Chinese government has never been paid so much attention to public opinion in making policies.

When evaluating the human rights conditions, one should never forget that this country has a long history of more than 5,000 years, and it is not easy to shake off the influence of traditions. It takes time to new things to take root in China and for Chinese people to change their way of doing thing. Look at the great change that has taken place in the past three decades after the reform and opening up in 1978. Can anyone say that China is still what it was three decades ago?

Then why do some Americans always rivet their eyes on what is to be desired in this country? I think that they stick to the Cold War mentality, believing that China is a Communist State, apart from being used to acting as world police.

I hope they come to China and see with their eyes the changes that have taken place in the past decades, which will quite probably change their mind about China.

Don’t point fingers at others on the matter of human rights. If you are really concerned with the human rights conditions in China, please do more to help China with its development, which will undoubtedly promote the political reforms here.