Nations with close economic and political ties to China – including both Russia and Ukraine, as well as serial human rights abusers Ethiopia and Iran, among others – applauded the Communist Party for its alleged “progress” on human rights on Tuesday during a periodic review of Beijing’s record at the United Nations.
China is one of 14 countries up for a “universal periodic review” at the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2024, which began on Tuesday. The review consists of the countries on the Council issuing their commentary, advice, and criticism on the countries’ performances on the issue of human rights, as well as a report later compiled by a “working group” of Human Rights Council states.
The Human Rights Council, despite its name, often operates as a haven for the world’s most aggressive persecutors and human rights abusers. The new class of members inducted to the Council in 2023 includes dictatorships such as Cuba, Qatar, Eritrea, and Vietnam, as well as repressive Islamist states such as Pakistan.
China is also on the Human Rights Council. The Communist Party is currently engaging in at least one genocide – against the majority Muslim Uyghur people of East Turkistan – executed through the mass imprisonment of millions of people in concentration camps, forced sterilization campaigns targeting thousands of women, and a state-sponsored campaign to steal children from their families and raise them under Han culture and communist values. China also stands accused of ethnic cleansing campaigns in Tibet, which it recently rebranded under the Mandarin name “Xizang” and littered with “boarding schools” to erase Tibetan language and culture, and in Inner Mongolia, where the government is campaigning to erase the local language and culture.
China also regularly represses its general population, who do not enjoy freedom of religion, expression, or any other basic civil right. It monitors their behavior through a “social credit system” that penalizes them if considered to be insufficiently enthusiastic about totalitarian dictator Xi Jinping and the communist system.
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During its periodic review on Tuesday, China received criticism from the United States, Britain, and a small number of Western states.
“We condemn the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and transnational repression to silence individuals abroad,” the American representative at the reivew, Michèle Taylor, asserted. Her British counterpart urged China to “cease the persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Tibetans and allow genuine freedom of religion or belief and cultural expression without fear of surveillance, torture, forced labour or sexual violence.”
Countries friendly to the Communist Party, however, failed to mention the genocide and pervasive repression in the country. Russia, often considered China’s top ally, claimed that Beijing had made “impressive progress in the field of social economic development” and applauded its alleged ability to “effectively uphold human rights.”
The government of Iran, an Islamist dictatorship with close ties to both Russia and China, similarly praised China’s alleged work in “promoting social, cultural, and economic rights” through “economic programs.”
The representative from Ethiopia, a nation whose government was mired in a civil war against a group representing the ethnic Tigray minority for two years, declared that the nation “applauds China for improving the criminal litigation system.”
Even nations nominally friendly to the West supported China despite its genocidal recent history. The representative at the review from Ukraine – which has benefited handsomely from Western support against the ongoing Russian invasion of its territory – declared, “We commend China’s commitment to the promotion of humanity’s common values which embrace universal and inalienable human rights,” according to the South China Morning Post.
The Hungarian government issued praise for China’s support of “several human rights instruments.” India, which also enjoys close ties to the West and has a recent history of conflict with China, also applauded Beijing’s alleged “progress” since 2018.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry celebrated the display at the United Nations as a success in its regular briefing on Wednesday.
“Parties widely commended China’s open and candid attitude and generally spoke positively of China’s achievements in human rights,” spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.
“More than 120 countries spoke highly of China’s human rights progress, and fully acknowledged China’s effort and historic achievements in advancing and protecting human rights,” Wang claimed.
He claimed:
These comments point to the code of success for China’s human rights progress—the leadership of the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics, for they have determined the socialist nature of China’s human rights cause.
“In China, the people are the masters, human rights are enjoyed equally by all, and that the fundamental interests of the people can be realized, protected and advanced,” Wang declared.
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