Patrick Poon
Because of my previous jobs on advocating for the rights of workers and human rights lawyers and my current job for fighting for the freedom of expression of writers, I have had many opportunities to meet with many diplomats to share my views on human rights situations in China.
From time to time, I get the impression that they are concerned whether they should adopt a more critical approach to criticize China's appalling human rights records or focusing on the positive developments in China.
I am always skeptical about why we should focus on the positive developments while not addressing the deteriorating human rights records. My question is: China has now developed to become the second largest economy in the world. Why do we still want to hold double standards when we address the human rights problems in China with the usual excuse that "China is still not ready for legal and political reforms"?
Sometimes, I am very shocked to hear comments like we should appreciate that there have been more passionate and heated debates about new laws and policies among academics and officials, especially the younger ones who have studied overseas. Some people might believe these are positive signs. My another question is: "What about the implementation of these laws and policies?" I am puzzled to hear some comments that implementation is a separate issue.
I am sorry to say that but I do feel that some diplomats have missed the point and don't understand Chinese politics. Of course, we have many reasons to be optimistic, including believing in the goodwill of some young and rising academics and officials. But are we telling the 1.3 billion people that they should believe in the less than 1 percent of elites and rely on them to hopefully make some progress in pushing for legal and political reforms?
While we recognize that there have been some improvements, we should not give in on any fundamental principle of universal human rights standards. Why should China be exempted? It is strange for diplomats from well developed democracies to accept China's excuse to delay its commitment to legal and political reforms while acknowledging merely the small improvements. Remember, China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1998 but still hasn't ratified it yet. If liberal democratic countries are only concerned about doing business with China and compromise on human rights concerns, what is the point of claiming to uphold the international human rights standards in the United Nations?
