Commentary: Truth dismissed by claims of rights group

You can never wake up a man pretending to be asleep, just like facts and rational voices can never be heard by deaf ears.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) is one such sleeper. It issued a report on Tuesday claiming that China was trying to weaken the United Nations' human rights mechanisms, accusations that are biased and totally groundless.

The report alleged that China harassed "independent activists", used its membership to block NGOs critical of China from being granted UN accreditation, and most severely, "rarely provides substantive answers to queries by UN human rights bodies".

HRW even asserted that "UN officials have capitulated to Chinese pressure" to deny access to Dolkun Isa, a so-called "well-known ethnic Uyghur activist".

But there's an important truth forgotten or deliberately neglected by the organization, that Isa is still on the wanted list of the International Criminal Police Organization.

And the Chinese government has repeatedly explained that Isa is the leader of a terrorist organization, "suspected of committing several criminal and terrorist acts".

So, the real problem here is not that China rarely provided substantive answers, but the drafters of the HRW report just don't want to listen.

Asked why China was targeted by the report, Kenneth Roth, executive director of HRW, asserted heinously that China's UN Security Council membership and global influence make it "a model of bad faith that challenges the integrity of the UN rights system".

How can a country that has been relentlessly championing UN principles, including those of human rights, by improving the economic and social conditions of its people at home and providing a variety of ever-increasing assistance to UN causes abroad, be called "a model of bad faith"?

The authors of the HRW report claim that it was based largely on interviews with people "who have direct knowledge of China's interactions with UN human rights mechanisms", but they seem to forget to also include the real important voice of Chinese mainstream society.

As it was said, one of the reasons that they chose China to make the report is China's "bad human rights record at home".

If so, the voice of home should never be neglected. If you were to ask the millions of villagers living in remote mountains who, for the first time in generations, are not living in poverty; if you were to ask the millions of rural workers who moved to cities to enjoy a much richer and colorful life; and if you were to ask the millions of people with disabilities who have started to live a better life with government help, you would hear a different story.

Or, if you were to go to the plaza in front of the UN office in Geneva, which is just hundreds of meters away from where the report was issued on Tuesday, you would meet a lot of happy and free-talking Chinese tourists and they, too, will draw a different picture of China.

No need to cite the figures and long list of facts, the achievements of China's human rights course during the past decades is big enough for everyone to see, except for those with their eyes deliberately closed.

Perhaps labeling China as the "bad guy" of human rights will win HRW some favor from certain groups, but it will do no good in promoting international human rights.

On Sept. 11, there will be an exhibition at Geneva's Palais des Nations on China's efforts and progress in human rights. Hopefully the authors of the HRW report will attend so that they can see what China really looks like.

Xinhua

(China Daily USA?09/07/2017 page1)