Telling China’s Story of Advancing Human Rights in the New Era

 

Good afternoon!
 

I’m Lü Tao from China Media Group (CMG). Today, I’m honored to participate in the seminar commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the end of 2022, under the guidance of the China Society for Human Rights Studies and produced by China Global Television Network (CGTN), a five-episode documentary series The New Era: Human Rights in China was broadcast on CCTV-1 General and CCTV-4 Chinese International channels. The documentary garnered widespread attention from the public opinion field and received a warm public response. In his article Developing China’s Human Rights Discourse and Telling China’s Story of Advancing Human Rights in Qiushi Journal published on February 1 this year, Mr. Shen Haixiong, vice minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and CMG’s president and editor-in-chief, praised the documentary The New Era: Human Rights in China as a meaningful attempt by CMG to publicize and explain the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and explore ways to “accelerate the development of China’s discourse and narrative systems.”
 

In the recent 33rd China Journalism Award, the documentary won the first prize in the category of news documentaries. At the same time, it just won the Excellent Documentary and Best Copywriting Awards at the 29th Top Ten Chinese Documentaries, presented by the China Television Artists Association. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the leaders, experts, and colleagues who have contributed to the success of the documentary.
 

As the chief director of the documentary and a journalist with a longstanding commitment to the forefront of international communication, I would like to draw upon my creative journey with The New Era: Human Rights in China to share some insights and reflections on telling China’s story of advancing human rights in the new era.

First and foremost, returning to the essence of human rights is essential to better tell the story of human rights protection. Telling the story of the human rights philosophy and the development path of human rights with Chinese characteristics through the format of a news documentary is unprecedented. Prior to this, no one has undertaken such an endeavor, and there are no existing works to serve as references. To accomplish this challenging task, with strong support from the China Society for Human Rights Studies, we visited numerous experts and scholars, conducting extensive research and reviewing a wealth of materials. Through continuous learning, we have come to deeply appreciate the rich and evolving nature of human rights. It is a concept that continually develops with the progress of time, and different eras and national contexts endow it with diverse meanings. We were also profoundly aware that the essence of human rights fundamentally lies in the needs of individuals, the imperative for the unrestricted and comprehensive development of human freedom. To tell the story of human rights protection well, it is imperative to explore whether human needs are met, whether human dignity is upheld, and whether human freedom is safeguarded. This aligns with the core of China’s people-centered human rights philosophy.
 

Therefore, we decided to show the achievements of China’s human rights cause in the new era and explain China’s human rights philosophy and development path of human rights through real, vivid, and everyday life stories about people. With the establishment of such a creative philosophy, it becomes clear as day, and there is a plethora of excellent topics and compelling stories everywhere as we look back on the historic achievements made in the new era. Our creative team dedicated more than a year, venturing into cities and villages, traversing snowy plateaus, and exploring rocky terrain and deserts. Covering over tens of thousands of kilometers, we used our lenses to capture a multitude of vivid and uplifting stories about human rights.
 

For example, stories like the entire Drung ethnic group lifting themselves out of poverty and making a leap across a millennium vividly showcase China’s concerted efforts to win the battle against poverty. These stories implicitly convey the principles and experiences of “the primary and basic human rights of the rights to subsistence and development” and “promoting human rights through development.” The lively courtyard meeting hall, where “discussions are held for important matters, and collective decisions are made for the concerns of the community,” truly reflects the essence of whole-process people’s democracy. In the extensive Civil Code, there is a profound belief in good laws and good governance. These are just a few examples. These life scenes full of hope and strength echo the idea that “Living a happy life is the primary human right” In our interview with Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, former director-general of the World Health Organization, she praised the documentary for showing abstract human rights concepts through vivid people stories and explaining China’s people-centered development path of human rights.

 

Second, we draw confidence in China’s human rights protection from the inheritance of Chinese civilization. To be honest, the term “human rights” was once a sensitive topic in public discourse and many people were hesitant to touch upon or discuss it. After discussions with numerous experts, we found that the lack of confidence in the past was, in fact, due to being confined to a single Western standard of human rights. Therefore, we didn’t want to fall into the trap of discourse; Instead, we hoped to break the zero-sum game within narrow human rights perspectives through a diverse, open, and inclusive view of human rights. This required finding answers from the cultural roots.
 

At the beginning of “People First,” Episode 1 of The New Era: Human Rights in China is a carefully designed opening scene, in which children of Fuping County, north China’s Hebei Province sing the Olympic anthem at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. This led to a dialogue between the Taihang Mountains and Mount Olympus across time and space: More than 2,000 years ago, when the ancient Greek sophists proposed that “man is the measure of all things” and created the idea of humanism, Chinese Confucian sages put forward the concepts that “benevolence has been the greatest priority of governance since ancient times” and “people are the basics of the country and people consolidate the peace of the country”, forming the “people-oriented” concept. The lights of Eastern and Western civilizations shine at both ends of the Eurasian continent, laying the cultural foundation for the concepts of human rights in both the East and the West. This opening scene combines artistic and philosophical elements, elevating the understanding of human rights to the level of civilization. It cleverly breaks free from the discourse trap of defining human rights by a single standard. This scene has also become the best part of the whole documentary and is well-received by the academic community and the media.

 

Third, we tell China’s story of advancing human rights for the world to have more and better such stories. In his report to the 20th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that China “We will deepen exchanges and mutual learning with other civilizations and better present Chinese culture to the world.” Therefore, to excel in the international communication of human rights, our goal is to encourage exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations to promote human rights. I believe that everyone present here today understands the role Mr. Zhang Pengchun played in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Based on traditional Chinese thought, Dr. P.C. Chang proposed “benevolence” and implemented it in the word “conscience” in Article 1 of the Declaration. It can be said that the drafting process of the Declaration itself is a good example of exchanges and mutual learning among human rights civilizations.
 

To tell China’s story of advancing human rights to the world through this documentary, we decided on the principle of “looking at China from the perspective of foreigners” from the project’s inception. This involves understanding China’s human rights philosophy and interpreting its human rights achievements through the perspectives of foreign political leaders, heads of international organizations, authoritative international human rights experts, and even the viewpoints of ordinary foreigners. Paul Zilungisele Tembe, one of our interviewees and a senior researcher with the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute under the University of South Africa, believes that human rights do not need to have a fixed development model, and highly appreciates China’s people-centered and people-oriented human rights model.
 

However, beyond these communication methods and techniques, we have consistently pondered a fundamental question: What do we hope the world, especially the vast developing countries, will gain from China’s story of advancing human rights in the new era? Is it merely about altering one-sided and stereotypical impressions of China? This is indeed a real challenge that has long troubled international communicators. What’s pleasantly surprising is that, in a signed article published by President Xi Jinping on the Iranian newspaper Iran in 2016, we found inspiration and discovered the answer. The article describes two vivid and visually compelling images:

“The much-prized Persian carpet is weaved out of a fusion of China's silk and Iran's sophisticated techniques. And the exquisite blue and white porcelain is produced thanks to a mixture of Iran's "smaltum" (a type of material containing cobalt, unique to Iran) and China’s advanced skills.”
 

President Xi Jinping used Persian silk carpets and blue and white porcelain as examples to elucidate the significant meaning of exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations. This strengthened our determination: interpreting China’s story of advancing human rights is not just about acquainting the world with the true China and modern China. Additionally, by showing the success of the human rights development path with Chinese characteristics, we must encourage the developing world to firmly follow the human rights development path in line with their own national conditions and then contribute more wonderful and exciting human rights stories to the world. Therefore, when telling stories about the China-Laos Railway, Juncao Assistance, and the joint construction of "the Belt and Road" Initiative, our documentary highlights the fate and feelings of ordinary foreign people, shows their real sense of gain, and conveys their confidence in a better future. This is exactly what President Xi Jinping has always advocated: “A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden.”
 

Our documentary was broadcast to the world through CCTV-4 where I work and CCTV.com and aroused strong resonance among overseas Chinese groups. Wu Hao, chairman of the Overseas Chinese Youth Federation in Russia, left a message, saying: “The airing of The New Era: Human Rights in China has strengthened the voice of overseas Chinese and Chinese citizens residing abroad on human rights issues. We will tell China’s story of advancing human rights and share stories about China putting the people above all else with foreign friends, so that they can learn more about China’s progress in human rights and prevent human rights issues from being used by some Western politicians against China.”
 

To find a larger international audience, CMG has translated the documentary into multiple languages and broadcast it on CGTN channels in the languages of English, Russian, French, Spanish, and Arabic this year. The documentary has also been brought to various international conferences by the leaders and experts of the China Society for Human Rights Studies for international exchanges. I am pleased to see that the small USB flash drive engraved with the Chinese and English logos of the documentary has become a symbol for the more confident and open concept of China’s human rights in the new era.
 

Despite receiving numerous honors, we are well aware that documentary filmmaking is always an art filled with regrets. The documentary The New Era: Human Rights in China is not a flawless work either. But it marks a beginning. We hope that through its reach and influence, it can bring about a change in the international communication of human rights in China, transforming the once “restricted zone of public opinion” into a “focus of public opinion” and a “rich mine of communication.” And we have discovered that such changes are indeed taking place. My team and I are also committed to continuing to leverage our professional expertise to tell the stories of China’s human rights and the stories of China in the new era.
 

Thank you!

 

December 4, 2023