China’s human rights: Is it the time the West turns humble?

World
Europe

By CGTN's Dialogue

Last month, Greece vetoed a European Union condemnation of China’s human rights record at the United Nations, marking the first failure of the EU to accuse China of alleged human rights abuses.

Greece said it acted from a "position of principle," noting that the EU statement had preceded a dialogue between China and the bloc on human rights in late June and its adoption could have impeded any positive outcomes from the meeting.

CGTN Photo

However, in dissecting Greece’s motivation behind failing to endorse the EU statement, Bert Lockwood, professor and director of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights argued that the country's decision is mainly based on the "economic assistance from China.”

“When countries evaluate their foreign policy, they take a number of things into consideration, human rights being one and their economic situations being another,” according to him.

But Brian Burkedin, visiting professor from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, challenged the "assumption that democracy equates human rights," noting that democracy is much more than that.

"What impressed me the most about China is the many things that are just not done in the United States, (for example) in terms of recognition of the necessity of raising people out of poverty," he noted.

Burdekin, who was a diplomat to the US for four years, is very outspoken and claims he does not think “the US has ever been a role model.”

“Some of our assumptions about democracy and the superiority of our own legal system need to be questioned. And we need to be very humble about how good our system is,” he argued.