Experts weigh in on China's human rights protection

China's people-centered human rights protection has proven suitable for the country's development and people's interests and the country won't follow a path set by the West, human rights experts said on Thursday.

Approaches to human rights protection can be diverse, and China has developed its own which sees people's well-being as the primary human right, Zhang Yonghe, executive dean of the Human Rights Research Institute of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said at an online forum held by China News Service and W.E. Talk Think Tank.

"In the future, the country will continue to provide Chinese solutions to promote human rights protection in the world," Zhang said at the forum, discussing the differences between the approaches of China and the West.

China's concept of human rights is realistic, and it develops its policies based on people's actual needs, ranging from the most basic ones like food and health to more complex ones like education, science and culture, said John Ross, a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of the Renmin University of China. He is a former director of economic and business policy for the mayor of London.

"China's system of human rights is determined by real results including the improvements of the real lives of people, not by purely formal, artificial and therefore misleading and false criteria. That is why China will win in a real international discussion on human rights," Ross said.

When people learn more about China's achievements in improving human rights, they can have a deeper understanding of the country, he added.