ABC Net. 20 July 2021

Below is an article published by ABC Net. Photo:Reuters: Lucy Nicholson.

It’s not unusual for sparks to fly when foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes to the podium for China’s daily foreign ministry press conference.

Last week, a report handed down by the Biden administration, which included China on a list of nations accused of human rights abuses, provoked an attack dotted with language that sounded like it could be out of former United States president Donald Trump’s playbook.

Mr Zhao said the accusation that China was committing atrocities against ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang was “the biggest lie of the century”, labelling the report “nothing more than a piece of waste paper”.

Instead, he said, when it came to genocide and crimes against humanity, “‘the ‘hat’ is a perfect fit for the United States”.

“[America] should not forget the African Americans who died in the Tulsa massacre 100 years ago, the Indians who were expelled and slaughtered during the Westward movement, and the cries of people like George Floyd.”

Similar criticisms have become increasingly common and it’s tirades like these that have cemented Mr Zhao’s reputation as one of Beijing’s most effective “wolf warriors”.

Last weekend, China’s mission to the United Nations delivered a furious attack against Australia’s human rights record too.

As pressure mounts on China over accusations of widespread human rights abuses in Xinjiang, arbitrary detention of dissidents and the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong, Beijing is hitting back.

Human rights experts warn Beijing is mounting a sophisticated campaign to both deflect scrutiny away from China’s government, and upend established norms and definitions around human rights. 

Human Rights Watch China director Sophie Richardson says, “Beijing is seeking to neutralise UN human rights mechanisms”, while also trying to highlight the human rights failures of its rivals, through its diplomats and its media.

In February this year, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi became the first Chinese official to address the UN’sHuman Rights Council.

Much of the speech was devoted to defending China’s record in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

But it also gave us a glimpse of how Beijing views — and how it wants the world to view — human rights.

“Socialism with Chinese characteristics … [has] found the path of human rights development that suits China’s national conditions and needs,” he said.

“[Nations] must promote and protect human rights in light of their national realities and the needs of their people.”

Yun Jiang, managing editor of China in the World at the Australian National University (ANU), said the CCP hailed its economic success “as evidence for China’s human rights achievements”.

It differs from the view that some rights are universal, and Ms Jiang said “some of the human rights framing that the CCP has been doing is quite widely accepted in China”.

She said some in China have commented that “people in the US want human rights more than life”, after widespread resistance to COVID-19 lockdown measures in the name of freedom.

But for those who don’t agree, there is no room for debate, she said. 

“From their own perspective, only the CCP can ensure the human rights for people in China, and only the CCP can speak for people in China,” Ms Jiang said.

Alarmingly for international observers,China is seeking to rewrite procedures at the UN that would not only shield Beijing from criticism on human rights, but all governments. 

Ted Piccone, chief engagement officer at the World Justice Project, has paid close attention to China’s rising role in the international human rights arena. 

“In the last five to seven years, we’re seeing a much different China under Xi Jinping … China has gone on the offence, most particularly in the human rights system,” he said.

Since 2018 when China became a member of the UN Human Rights Council, their diplomats have pursued resolutions that are “systematically trying to undermine and weaken” the organisation, he said. 

“[The resolutions] take what has been largely a process of calling nations out on their violations into something that they call ‘mutually beneficial cooperation’, which is a term that really means only states can criticise each other,” Mr Piccone said.Beijing’s Xinjiang secrets revealedA leaked cache of secret Chinese Government documents reveals how authorities in Xinjiang red-flagged 23 Australian citizens during a security crackdown.Read more

He said China wants to make human rights a bilateral issue, one that is dealt with between nations, rather than subject to independent and broad international scrutiny.

“It should all be done behind doors — diplomacy. That’s China’s preference for how to do human rights.”

And they’re finding willing partners to support its resolutions. 

The UN Human Rights Council includes Syria, Venezuela and Russia as current member states alongside China — all of whom are accused of gross human rights violations.

“[These countries] like the idea of sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, most nation-states do,” Mr Piccone said.

Chinese state media has been on the offensive to highlight human rights failures in the West too.

Over the course of three days in late May through to early June, China’s English-language broadcaster CGTN published more than a dozen stories about the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa massacre in the US. 

Notably, it published nothing on or around June 4 about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.

Meanwhile, state-run tabloid the Global Times has been equally vocal, publishing dozens of stories and graphics highlighting historical and contemporary human rights failures in the US, Australia, the UK and Canada this year alone. 

Ms Richardson said scrutiny of human rights in any country was welcome, but it would be a “cold day in hell before Beijing is willing to accept” a similar level of scrutiny over its own alleged abuses.‘

Despite repeated attempts at establishing an independent investigation, the UN has failed to gain full access to Xinjiang to assess claims of human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.

Meanwhile, China’s mission to the UN has attacked America’s record on race relations in recent times and called for an international investigation.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week welcomed further scrutiny and announced a formal invitation for UN investigators.

And last month China’s representative on the UN Human Rights Council urged an investigation into Canada’s historic treatment of Indigenous people.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded.

“Where is China’s truth and reconciliation commission? Where is the openness that Canada has always shown and the responsibility that Canada has taken for the terrible mistakes of the past?”

With more economic and military clout than ever before, China is applying pressure to other nations to conform to its human rights agenda.

When Ukraine was poised to join more than 40 other countries in a joint statement condemning China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghurs earlier this month, Beijing intervened. 

“The Chinese government made very clear that if Ukraine went ahead and joined that kind of initiative, it could not expect to get Chinese made vaccines [that had been offered],” Ms Richardson said. 

Ukraine subsequently withdrew — and days later signed a new investment deal with China. 

More broadly, Ms Richardson said Chinese development projects were also being tied to support on human rights. 

“I can tell you this — very few of the governments that we talked to … believe the Chinese government’s narrative about how it is treating Uyghurs,”she said. 

“But they will also say to us ‘we need that aid package, we need that trade deal, we need those vaccines, we need the BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] investment, and we literally just can’t afford to alienate them’.” 

Mr Piccone said human rights had always been politicised, and despite their flaws, that’s what makes bodies like the UN Human Rights Council so important. 

“They have value from the point of view of reminding states what those obligations are, interpreting them, applying them to real-world situations,” he said.

“The most important thing is to counter this idea that there’s such a thing as ‘human rights with Chinese characteristics’.”

Human rights, Mr Piccone added, are universal. 

The ABC approached China’s UN mission and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.