China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun on Thursday praised China's domestic human rights progress and its contribution to the global human rights cause.

Speaking a day before Human Rights Day, which falls on December 10, Zhang said China is committed to people's democracy and will never stop pursuing better human rights.

"The 1.4 billion Chinese people have truly become the masters of the country, society and their own lives. In the whole-process democracy, the Chinese people enjoy the most extensive, real and useful democracy," he said in a video speech. 

"We believe that the greatest human right is a happy life for the people. We have brought a historic solution to absolute poverty and achieved the poverty reduction goal of the UN 2030 Agenda 10 years ahead of schedule," he continued, adding that China has put people and their lives at the top of its agenda and achieved strategic progress in epidemic prevention and control at home at abroad.

The Chinese envoy said unremitting efforts are needed to achieve the goal of equality and proposed actions, including fair distribution of vaccines, the elimination of racism and racial discrimination, respecting the rights of people in all countries to choose their own paths for democracy, and rejecting politicization and double standards.