China and universal human rights standards

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Note: Footnotes Omitted

Introduction

The People¡¯s Republic of China (PRC or China, hereafter) is distinctive among the many nations of the world not only for its huge population, growing big market, but also for its notorious reputation in human rights performance.  According to the United States 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,[1] in China, an ¡°authoritarian state,¡± ¡°Citizens lack both the freedom peacefully to express opposition to the Party-led political system and the right to change their national leaders or form of government. ¡±[2]  The Report also accused Chinese government of committing widespread and well-documented human rights abuses, including suppressing dissent, persecuting unapproved religion groups, extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process.[3]  Moreover, the United States alleged that all these had been done ¡°in violation of internationally accepted norms.¡±[4] 

What contained in the U.S. Human Rights Report is largely reflective of the Western world attitudes toward China¡¯s ¡°poor human rights records¡±[5] since 1989, when the government brutally ended a democratic protest with force.  China¡¯s response to the report is a surprise to nobody: it declared that "the human rights and basic freedom enjoyed by the Chinese people have been upgraded an unprecedented historical level,"[6] and charged the United States with using ¡°double standards on the human rights issue¡± and running ¡°counter to the historical trend¡± in attacking China.[7]

By attacking China¡¯s behaviors the United States used the notion ¡°internationally accepted norms¡± of human rights, which is basically a synonom of ¡°universal human rights standards¡± or ¡°international human rights standards.¡±  On the Chinese side, as shall discuss later in this article, ¡°right to subsistence¡±, ¡°state sovereignty¡± and ¡°Chinese value¡±[8] have been relied upon as the most convinient and effective defenses.

While both sides claimed to be on the right side of history, neither has tried to touch the other side¡¯s stance with enough attention.  The question left is, whether the universal human rights standards and Chinese value are mutually exclusive or could China accept universal standards somewhat?  If China can, in what way should the universal standards be incorporated into China?  If China can not, how can the rest of the world deal with China in terms of respecting human rights?

This article attempts to explore this question in light of today¡¯s world situation and Chinese ¡°national condition.¡±  Part II of this article will examine the evolution of the universal human rights standards and part III examine the PRC¡¯s posion toward human rights.  Part IV will discuss the possibility of applying universal human right standards on China.  And part V, as a conclusion, will address the way for China and the west to deal with each other.