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Title: Human Rights in China and America
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.unz.com/article/human-rights-in-china-and-america/
Published: May 26, 2019
Author: Godfree Roberts
Post Date: 2019-05-26 08:05:28 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 120
Comments: 2

“Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.” Confucius, Analects.

We Greco-Christians seek personal liberation from worldly bondage and prioritize abstract rights like unfettered, irresponsible public speech, export these values as ‘human rights’ and use them to justify invading smaller countries. That does not impress the Chinese, says Randall Nadeau⁠1, “Christian-based Western values like radical autonomy of the individual, the soul in a transcendent relationship to the world, the prioritizing of the individual over the family and the prioritizing of the individual over the state are alien to the Chinese. The West defines human rights as ‘freedom from’ oppressive tendencies of the family and state and grounds human rights in the fundamental equality of all persons. Thus, human rights are equated with human liberation–liberation of the autonomous individual from the restrictive community.”

The Chinese prioritize the family over the individual and the state over the family, they seek liberation through fulfilment of their communal responsibilities and see material well being as a primary right and public speech as secondary. They prioritize[⁠2] morality over law, community over individuals, the spiritual over the material, responsibility over rights, national well-being over democracy, order over freedom, this life over the next, harmony over conflict, civilization over impoverishment and family over social class. Their creation of a xiaokang society next year will, in their eyes, be the greatest human rights achievement in history.

To be clear, they have no fundamental disagreement with us after all, Confucius[⁠3] himself insisted that all rights begin with individual responsibility, “From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything else” and Mao[⁠4] said, “By political human rights we mean the rights of freedom and democracy.” In 2010, PM Wen Jiabao explained, “Science, democracy, rule of law, freedom and human rights are not concepts unique to capitalism. Rather, they are common values pursued by all mankind throughout history, the fruits of human civilization. It is only that–at different historical stages and in different countries–they are achieved through different means and in different forms.”

National priorities may differ but treaty obligations don’t so, since both China and the US have ratified The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let’s compare their compliance with that document’s strictures. Since we hear much criticism of China’s human rights and little of our own, it is sobering to begin with Jimmy Carter’s reminder,⁠[5] “The United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights. Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended. This development began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been sanctioned and escalated by bipartisan executive and legislative actions, without dissent from the general public. As a result, our country can no longer speak with moral authority on these critical issues.” In the examples, below, I have not sought to be even-handed but, rather, to show that we, the world’s leading human rights critic, rarely observe even the basic rights we swore to uphold.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Preamble: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was voted into existence on December 10, 1948 so that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. In the World Values Survey⁠[6], more Chinese than Americans said they felt free.

2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. China’s liangshaoyikuan policy–privileging minorities, preferencing their education and showing greater leniency towards their offenses–contrasts with our treatment of minorities.

3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Says Jimmy Carter⁠[7], “Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended.” While we must judge China’s 1979 attack on Vietnam severely, America’s attacks on other nations are more numerous and less justified.

4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Forced labor abuses are common in American prisons and on its farms.

5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Jimmy Carter: “Our government’s counterterrorism policies are now clearly violating at least 10 of the 30 Articles, including the prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. We hold prisoners in Guantanamo specifically to avoid recognizing them as persons before the law. We trust our legal system half as much as the Chinese trust theirs.

7. All are equal before the law and are entitled, without any discrimination, to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. The US executes one-thousand people and imprisons two million without trial every year and does not prosecute its criminal elite. China does not.

8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. America denied effective remedy to Guantanamo prisoners, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden and imprisons and executes more blacks than South Africa at the height of apartheid, mostly without trial.

9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. The US kidnaps and imprisons hundreds of people at home and abroad each year.

10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Carter: “Recent legislation has made legal the president’s right to detain a person indefinitely on suspicion of affiliation with terrorist organizations. This law violates the right to freedom of expression and to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration. In addition to American citizens’ being targeted for assassination or indefinite detention.”

11.1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. America holds twenty-five percent of the world’s prison population, mostly without trial, including forty in Guantánamo Bay who committed no penal offense, some of whom have been tortured a hundred times.

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#1. To: Ada (#0)

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- Thomas Jefferson

ghostdogtxn  posted on  2019-05-26   10:14:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: ghostdogtxn (#1)

I am pretty sure from the inside of a Uyghur concentration camp, America looks pretty good.

Depends on where the Uyghur is looking. If its Gitmo, maybe he is better off where he is.

China's Moslem domestication program

Ada  posted on  2019-05-26   12:52:44 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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