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China Q&A

Human warmth in China's perspective on human rights


| In 1994, the U.S. President Richard Nixon commented on China-U.S. relations as follows: "Today, China's economic power makes US lectures about human rights imprudent. Within a decade it will make them irrelevant. Within two decades it will make them laughable." You may agree with Nixon on that, I think.

Unfortunately, more than 20 years have passed, and some Western public opinions, when observing human rights in China, still have not stepped out of the narrow mode of thinking that Nixon disapproved of.

There is no one-size-fits-all model of human rights protection. According to the Chinese perspective on human rights, the happiness and well-being of the people is the paramount human right. The first thing to be solved is the people's rights to subsistence and development. On this basis, we should adhere to the organic unity of individual and collective human rights, and promote the balanced development of economic, social, and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights.

This approach constitutes the human rights values in line with China's national conditions.

| But people may find the human rights based on Chinese values seem to lack a sense of human warmth.

This could be a misunderstanding. Putting people and their lives first represents the fresh ethos of Chinese values in the new era.

In the fight against COVID-19 in 2020, every patient, regardless of age, received full protection, with successful cases of treatment ranging from a baby born more than 30 hours old to a 108-year-old man. In Hubei Province alone, more than 3,000 people over the age of 80 were cured.

There are many heartwarming stories to come out of putting people and their lives first.

In the most critical time of the fight against the epidemic, there was such a scene in the People's Hospital of Wuhan University: Doctor Liu Kai, from the Shanghai Medical team to Hubei, carted Wang Xin, an 87-year-old patient, out of the ward for a CT examination. Walking outdoors and seeing the setting sun shining slantingly, Doctor Liu went out of his way to stop the cart so that the old man could quietly enjoy the beautiful sunset he had long wished to see.

With the care of the medical staff, Wang Xin recovered and was discharged from the hospital. Afterwards, he was hoping to reunite with Doctor Liu Kai who had saved him. About half a year later, Wang Xin came to the hospital and met Doctor Liu. At sunset, the two of them once again came to the location where they watched the sunset half a year before and relived this heartwarming moment of doctors and patients watching the sunset together.

At the commendation conference, President Xi Jinping encapsulated the formidable spirit of the Chinese people during the COVID-19 pandemic with these words: "Life is of utmost importance. The nation stands united, facing life and death with courage, respecting science, and embracing a common destiny." These words reflect the organic unity of individual and collective human rights.

| "The organic unity of individual and collective human rights" is a proposition that Westerners don't quite understand.

This is quite different from the Western emphasis on individual freedom. China recognizes and upholds individual freedom while promoting collective values. Many people are used to making choices about their actions in the context of collective success or failure and collective honor.

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, people were most familiar with a saying that went around, "Heroes don't descend from the sky, but rise from the mortals." There was a girl born after 1995 named Gan Ruyi, who was a community doctor in Wuhan. When the epidemic broke out, she had returned to her hometown in Jingzhou, Hubei Province, for the Spring Festival. As Wuhan was locked down and the roads were blocked off, she had to brave the cold wind and rain by riding a bicycle and covering more than 300 kilometers in four days and three nights and finally returned to Wuhan to work and see patients.

| Such heroes can appear in other countries, but Westerners would not say that they embody collective values.

Westerners would put individual freedom and individual priorities first. They may not be used to defining or willing to define such heroes in terms of collectivism. In China, such value pursuits are common and passed down through generations.

Historically, the Chinese people have paid attention to cultivating feelings of home and country. The so-called national feeling is to connect the security, fate, interests, and values of individuals, families, and countries. All are connected. This is a collective value.

Everyone has the right to their names, which is also a human right. It is customary for Chinese people to carry on the father's surname, such as Zhang, Wang, and Li, and parents will give the child a first name according to their own wishes and aspirations. In China, countless people have their family names followed by such given names as "Jianguo," "Guoqing," "Jianjun," and "Yuanchao," behind each of which there was a great event of the country.

"Jianguo" refers to the founding of the People's Republic of China, or it can mean building and developing the country; "Guoqing" usually indicates that those with this given name were born on Oct. 1, the National Day that celebrates the founding of the PRC; "Jianjun" usually indicates the persons with this given name were born on Aug. 1, the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army; "Yuanchao" indicates the persons with this given name were most probably born between October 1950 and 1953, during which time China aided Democratic People's Republic of Korea in fighting against American invasion. These were all major events of People's Republic of China that belong to collective memories.

The individual fates and striving experiences of these people with the given name "Jianguo" "Guoqing," "Jianjun," "Yuanchao,"and their relationships with the country tell a vivid story of contemporary China's values.

Shi Jianguo, born in 1991, is one of the few people named "Jianguo" born after 1990. Shi, who failed to enter university, worked as an auto mechanic in Yunnan, a bridge builder in Xinjiang, and an electric welder in a shipyard in Shanghai. Through it all, he dreamt of being a calligrapher. In 2013, he and his two elder brothers began working as plasterers at a construction site in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. This job lasted for five years. He would set up a simple table outside the shed where he lived, and after work, he would spread waste newspapers and pick up a brush to practice calligraphy. Over the years, his handwriting has become quite good.

In May 2017, Shi registered on a short video platform under the name "Wenzhou Plasterer Brother Shi." His colleagues recorded videos of him practicing calligraphy and posted them online. In the videos, Shi often wore an overall covered with marl, walked in a pair of construction boots, and sometimes still had dust on his hands and hair. In the summer of 2018, the owner of a construction company in Hangzhou saw Shi's videos online and invited him to work in Hangzhou. From then on, every Chinese New Year, Shi would write hundreds of couplets and "福" (means happiness in Chinese) characters, which would be presented to the company's employees, and became special New Year gifts packed in their luggages to bring home.

Shi said, "I'm just an ordinary plasterer on a construction site, and I don't expect to make a calligrapher of myself one day, but I think it's a great thing to stick to what I love!"

This is the real human rights story of many Chinese people, and it is not difficult to discern their values in life from it. China's development and future are propped up by countless ordinary people like those named "Jianguo."


The interviewee is Chen Jin, Former committee member of the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of CPC.


Liu Xian /Editor    Wu Yongqiang /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Ren Qiang /Coordinator

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor


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