Deeds, not words, on human rights give China moral authority in today's world
China can no longer hide behind slogans like ''seeking common ground while preserving differences", but needs to step forward and translate the idealistic values expressed in its constitution into concrete actions upholding human rights, writes David Schlesinger.
Having lived in Beijing in the 1990s, in the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent crackdown, I saw scores of principled western delegations come to China to discuss human rights, only to see those discussions get overshadowed and at times diluted over the years by economic negotiations as China’s growth potential teased.
The unstated, but clear, message was that there is a hierarchy of national goals for every country and that human rights must take a place in line, and not necessarily at the front. Sending that unstated, but clear, message lessened the moral authority of the messengers.
David Schlesinger
America’s reputation in the world has been seriously diminished by reports of conditions at Guantanamo and, more recently, by Edward Snowden’s revelations about surveillance programmes given the imprimatur by secret tribunals. China’s reputation has been diminished by its imprisonment of a Nobel Prize winner, by its actions against those who criticise it, by its harsh control in Tibet and other areas where it fears separatism, by its crackdown on those perceived to be dangers to the State.