-- Speech at the opening ceremony of the 12th Sino-German Human Rights Symposium, July 13, 2014

Cui Yuying, vice minister of the State Council Information Office

The 12th Sino-German Human Rights Symposium opened today in Beijing. On behalf of the State Council Information Office, I would like to express my warmest congratulations on the opening of the forum, extend my welcome to Ms. Herta Daeubler-Gmelin and other German friends and my gratitude to symposium organizers and all participants for your long-term contribution to communication and exchange in human rights between China and Germany.
 

In September 2012, many experts and I convened in the historic city of Chengde, Hebei Province, to discuss issues on human rights development. In the past two years, both China and Germany and the world as well have witnessed many big events and major changes. Since the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened its 18th National Congress in November 2012, China has entered a new stage of development, with work in all aspects, including human rights development, showing a new momentum of development. I would like to take this chance to brief you on the latest developments in China’s human rights cause.

First, the strategic thinking of the Chinese Dream has created a good blueprint for China’s human rights development. President Xi Jinping initiated the strategic thinking of the Chinese Dream, which focuses on the future development of the country. The Chinese Dream is a dream of the state, the nation and each Chinese individual. The Chinese Dream is rich in connotation and concrete in expression. It covers all aspects such as economic, political, cultural, social and ecological civilization construction and diplomatic relations and embodies the common aspiration of hundreds of millions of people and their respect for all rights. In this sense, the Chinese Dream has the same origin as China’s human rights. Realization of the Chinese Dream requires integration of collective rights and individual rights, coordinated development of all human rights, better protection for all fundamental rights and a comprehensive boost to the human rights cause. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee decided to comprehensively deepen reform, reinforcing respecting and ensuring human rights and specifying improvement of judicial protection for human rights. We have every reason to believe China’s human rights cause will have an even brighter future in the historical process of realizing the Chinese Dream.

Second, China has made great achievements in human rights development. There are a few facts and figures to prove that. Regarding the rights to existence and development as well as economic and social rights, in 2013, China’s GDP had a growth rate of 7.7 percent. Per capita income of urban and rural residents increased by 7 percent and 9.3 percent respectively year on year. About 16.5 million rural people emerged from poverty. China has built the world’s largest social insurance network and a medical insurance network that covers virtually all the population. Regarding political rights and the freedom of speech, China has formally implemented a system whereby the proportion of urban and rural delegates to the National People’s Congress reflects the actual ratio of urban to rural residents in the population, with the number of deputies from the grassroots level and migrant workers increasing significantly. The central leadership has also obviously increased its fight against corruption and significantly restricted power, actions that have been acclaimed by the people. As the country with the world’s largest Internet population, China has 1.2 billion mobile phone users, 500 million microblog users and 500 million WeChat users, all of whom send more than 20 billion messages each day. The government provides an open and free platform for communication and information exchange. Regarding judicial protection, the CPC has pushed forward the construction of the rule of law, deepened judicial restructuring, required independent and fair exercise of prosecution and adjudication, prohibited torture and abuse, prohibited the use of illegally collected evidence, and abolished the re-education through labor system. Regarding protection for environment rights, the government has paid great attention to ecological civilization construction, stipulating an air pollution prevention action plan, made great efforts to curb smog, passed amendments to the environmental protection law, and taken a harsher stand against environmental polluters. Regarding human rights international exchange and cooperation, China was elected, with a large number of votes, to be a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2014 to 2016, smoothly passed the second round of country review by the council, and was open to suggestions and proposals raised by other countries in the process of the country review.

No single country can be the best in human rights development. China is now the second largest economy in the world, despite being ranked about 80th in per capita GDP. China still has a big imbalance between urban and rural development. According to World Bank criteria, more than 200 million Chinese people are still living in poverty. It is already 10 years since China included the term “the state respects and ensures human rights” in the Constitution. The government will continue implementing the National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015), consistently push forward the human rights cause, and pay close attention to and boost international human rights development. This symposium, with international law and human rights as its theme, will be a place for all of us to express our views on international cooperation and common efforts to boost international human rights development. I would like to express my own viewpoint regarding these matters.

In order to promote the healthy development of the world’s human rights cause it is first necessary to maintain world peace. History teaches us that wars greatly violate human rights and peace will always be a cornerstone for safeguarding human rights. Taking lessons from the two world wars in the 20th century, the United Nations endorsed the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and other human rights conventions and resolutions, which have played an important role in promoting the just cause of human beings. In today’s world, peace and development are two themes of the era, however, the risk of war has not entirely dissipated. We regret that some still ignore solid evidence from history, turn a blind eye to innocent deaths in wartime, whitewash the history of invasion, destroy mutual trust and create regional tension at a time seven decades after the Chinese war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the world anti-Fascist war ended. The international community has to respect history, make concerted efforts to maintain common ground on some major principles such as WWII history and learn lessons from history. Doing so will help prevent wars from happening again and help maintain world peace.

Development of international human rights requires respecting the diversity of development modes. Fully enjoying human rights is the common ideal and aspiration of all people in the world, which is richly diverse. People in different countries have different understandings of the aspiration for human rights. International human rights documents have clarified that the implementation of human rights principles should consider different national, geographical, historical, cultural and religious backgrounds. Under the precondition of acknowledging the universality of human rights, various countries should choose the human rights development path most suitable to their own conditions. This may be regarded as respecting the rights of people in various countries. A single flower does not make a spring. Only diverse modes of human rights development will ensure the vitality of such development.

The healthy development of the world human rights cause requires international cooperation that respects the sovereignty of individual countries. Human rights are an issue that falls within the scope of a nation’s sovereign power. Each country should abide by the mission and principle of the United Nations Charter and oppose interference in the domestic affairs of other countries under the pretext of human rights issues. In the course of globalization and informatization, various countries’ interests have interacted with each other, cooperated with each other and become interdependent. Therefore, international human rights cooperation, equal respect and protection by each country, and respect for the dignity and rights of each individual are particularly important. Both the Edward Snowden case, which attracted global attention, and the irresponsible comments and behavior of some countries that have tried to dodge responsibility for human rights violations associated with past aggression reveal the urgency of respecting the sovereignty and human rights of other countries and opposing double standards. In a world that sees an imbalance in development and an enlarging wealth gap, the international community should pay more attention to the right to development and take real action to help developing countries, the least developed countries in particular, to enhance their capability to develop themselves.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited China last week. The leaders of the two countries reached a consensus on pushing forward the all-round strategic partnership between China and Germany. As Chancellor Merkel pointed out, bilateral cooperation will contribute not only to the two countries themselves but also the world as a whole. There have been 11 Sino-German human rights symposiums, during which all participants carried out fruitful discussions on human rights issues on the basis of mutual respect and the principle of seeking common ground while shelving differences, enhancing mutual understanding and further expanding common ground. The symposiums have played a positive role in advancing the dialogue between China and Germany and between the civilizations of East and West. This shows the sense of responsibility of the relevant organizations from the two countries. The State Council Information Office will continue supporting more dialogue and exchange in human rights between the two countries and making new contributions to the bilateral friendship between China and Germany.