China’s Human Rights Situation is Improving?
America, for right or for wrong, considers Human Rights the biggest problem that China has, the source of strain in relationships and the basis for anger by a lot of movie stars who might not be able to find places like Tibet on a map.
Opinion leaders and the general public were polled by the www.committee100.org in their recent polled about whether or not they consider Chinese human rights situation has impoved over the past decade.
Barely 40% of the opinion leaders said they think Chinese handling of human rights have improved. Half of the general public thinks the Chinese government is doing a better job. And no movie star thinks.
I am not an activist and no little about the human rights record of China. I am sure www.ChinaLawBlog.com and www.ChinaConfidential.com and others have insights on this. Perhaps they will share.
How about you? What do you know? What do you think?
Hate to do this to you, but I really don’t have insight on this and I certainly don’t have insight from first hand experience, or even from what people in China tell me. The reality is that as a foreign lawyer/businessperson, one is essentially isolated from the human rights violations going on in China. This is why so many businesspeople who go there are so pro-China. I am bullish on China, but I readily admit that is because my law firm deals with those in China who have money and 99% of our time in China is spent in CITIES that are doing well. My feeling for China’s countryside (where so many of the problems are) comes from reading the same things everyone else does. All I can speak to is the optimism I get from the Chinese people with whom we deal. But it would be naive on my part to extrapolate, let’s say, a Shanghai lawyer’s optimism to the entire country.
If you are an expatriate working in Shanghai, you might not find out anything wrong about human rights in China.
The definition of human rights in China is totally different from the West. The Chinese national culture that is embedded in Maoist and Confucian values establish structure of meanings and define rules and convention as well as accepted behavior of people. For example, the national culture places great emphasis on respect for hierarchy and so that a good citizen should be slanted towards unquestionable obedience to the authority.
If we think that the Chinese government is in violation of human rights,we judge it from the US perspective. China is not US!
Thanks for this honest answer, Dan.
I don’t know either. I have been all over the countryside and still don’t know.
The point of this post is to express what people THINK is the situation…whether that is actually the case or not.
Hubert, you are so right. The standards are different. China is NOT the US and vice versa. I do NOT want people coming into my house and telling me how to raise my kids. No thank you.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, both of you.
As a fairly typical American citizen in the U.S., I know very little about how China works, and I get the sense that there is a lot going on that I would feel upset about if I knew it was happening. That’s just my gut talking.
Is this a case of “what you don’t know, will hurt you?”
I have a feeling, and I have a very sizable gut to work with, that some things possibly are NOT as bad as some paint them out to be.
Thanks for reading, Easton.
Have you visited my friends at lingscars.com and partaken of her view of her home country and Google? (radio and TV rants) You ought to it’s very funny and very brave.
According to Amnesty International there are over ten thousand executions a year in mainland china. Seems a little inconsiderate, don’t you think?
Kindest, Margaret
I’d say there are a lot of people in Vancouver, especially Chinese Immigrants who hold a silent vigil and protect daily. It’s very interesting and has opened up my eyes to the conflict. But really, unless the UN steps in, I’m not sure what else can be done to help.
I spent many weeks in China… and especially enjoyed this lively discussion… Thanks for the views on several sides… Like many of you I am unsure of all the details on this topic. However, I made very close friendships with business and professional leaders there and we had open discussions about these topics. The answers are complex… but I left China disturbed that too often we westerners see and respond without the thoughtful exchanges we read here. Thanks for helping us to take of gentler view of other nations… You could be starting something great here Bill!
It bothers me when people hear only one side of a story… or when they tell stories as if only one side could possibly exist….We all do it… and still I am often surprised at how facts are used merely…
Expat…do you really think the UN has power to do anything?
I only wish they did.
It seems China and Russia often take sides against the US just to have some leverage against them. But, then if China is the issue, then what?
It seems it will take some grass roots activity to make a difference in my mind.
Time will tell.
Thanks again for visiting.
It bothers me when people hear only one side of a story… or when they tell stories as if only one side could possibly exist….We all do it… and still I am often surprised at how facts are used merely…
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=418&print=1
This is an interesting article that might throw some light on all this.
Thank you for passing that on, Ani.
May I ask how you came about that article?
Come here and make your own judgements? As a guide, i met a person who only took pics of unpleasant situaions here in China, for nobody will believe what he has taken if he only took pics of the good side. jokingly, an English woman told me the papers there told them only babies drink milk here, so she was shocked that many people did.
Very glad to join the discussion.As a matter of fact, no one will deny that different people think differently. Strangly enough,many Chinese can tolerate what the Americans are for in their country. However, they can never understand why the US are eager to force their opinion on them. If the US really wants to improve the so-called human rights situation, why doesn’t offer money to help the relatively poor regions in China? Moreover, why doesn’t it allow all the Chinese who are eager to move to America, a land that originally belonged to the Indians,freely? The US, in this sense, is merely a trouble-maker,a country that merely talks big.
In my opinion, if the US is for liberty, its government should welcome all the Chinese who are willing to immigrate there. If the US were really for liberty, it ought to have let all the states become independent if they would. However, the Civil proved that it were a mere liar.Just imagine, China has no states. And they claim so. However, the US has so many states. It started one war after another. If it were for justice, it ought have let the Southern states become independent;it ought to have returned the southern states it had taken from Mexico to Mexico; it ought to have turned the whole land to the hands of the Indians.
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