Can China sustain its human rights vision with Xinjiang and Hong Kong in spotlight?
- Beijing’s efforts to shift focus to economic development have found favour in the global south but resistance from the West is growing
- There is renewed scrutiny from Western nations as they evaluate their relationship with China
Calls for action against China have been ramping up, from the UN, US Congress to the European Parliament, over the mass detention of Muslim minorities in its western region. The momentum is putting human rights front and centre in how these institutions are considering China, and challenging the narrative Beijing has been trying to build and work into international human rights norms, experts said.
Duelling ideologies – between the international standard that human rights are universal and China’s vision that looks to factor countries’ circumstances into human rights – were at the fore of a European visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, earlier this week.
Speaking at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels think tank, on Monday, Wang stressed China’s “historic progress in human rights” in pulling 850 million people out of poverty, and said the universality of human rights could only be realised when applied in the context of the specific needs of different countries.
Meanwhile, in a meeting with Wang the day before, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said human rights was “a universal issue” as he brought up Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million Muslims are detained, and Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protests are in their seventh month.