Can China and Western nations agree on a common definition of human rights in 2020? It is blatantly obvious that the communist country does not observe the Universal Declaration of Human Right passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. For the past 72 years this document, drafted by representatives with varying cultural backgrounds from around the world, has served as a common standard of achievements for all peoples. Yet today China, a member of the UN leadership, seems to disregard totally its preamble that the “inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
China is committing genocide against its own minority populations in Buddhist Tibet and Xinjiang, home to many Muslim Uyghurs. Under the new National Security Law in Hong Kong, Beijing has squelched virtually all freedom of speech and assembly and has criminalized dissent to the point that recently a 15-year-old girl was among hundreds in Hong Kong arrested and is facing possible life imprisonment for waving a flag calling for its independence. The Chinese threat doesn’t stop at its shores.
This week FBI Director Christopher Wray argued at a Hudson Institute event that the Chinese communist Party (CCP) is now the “greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality… our economic security – and by extension, to our national security.” The aggressive actions of the CCP leadership stand far outside acceptable international norms of behavior for a modern and powerful nation-state. It calls into question the very premise upon which its government is based. It is a form of law far removed from western concepts of democratic rule and human rights. No dissent is tolerated under China’s version of communist hegemonic leadership. Xi Jinping, president of China, believes that this form is the only one that works and that the world should and will be made to follow China’s model.
Xi views the West’s failure to push back against Chinese actions in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong as a clear indication that the democratic West is vulnerable and weak. Under his leadership, he says, there is a “unity of purpose” in China and the rules are clear. Any deviation results in the use of totalitarian tools designed to supervise power and enforce discipline and compliance with CCP rule. Is it too late for democratic nations to teach China a human rights lesson?
Sir Ian Duncan Smith, a Member of the British Parliament, says that the West must act now. On June 4, the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, a cross-party alliance of parliamentarians from 17 democratic countries founded the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) to focus on relations with China. With over 100 high-ranked legislative leaders representing their countries, the organization intends to hold China accountable for its actions at home and abroad. It won’t act as a think tank issuing white papers. Instead it intends to aid legislators involved in developing laws in their home countries to counter China’s negative influence. IPAC’s agenda aims to counter the threat that “China’s growing influence poses to global trade, security, and human rights.” India is considering joining IPAC, too. For the first time it appears there is a unified position against China’s flaunting of the rules-based international order.
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In a statement released by IPAC, it said that “By developing a common set of principles and frameworks that transcend domestic party divisions and international borders, our democracies will be able to keep the rules-based and human rights systems true to the founding purposes.” This week in response to IPAC, China’s representative in London, Chen Wen, claimed “China is a force for positive change.” China is exposed now. The Emperor is not wearing clothes! Xi Jinping will have to face a united front in the West and new foreign policy challenges from the democracies he is trying to undermine. Whether IPAC can force China to improve its record of domestic breaches of human rights, mass atrocities of its minorities, and its intolerance of personal freedoms for its population remains to be seen. IPAC does offer a new glimmer of hope for a world slowly awakening to the threat posed by the communist regime.
DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.
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