Chinese scholars endorse assertive stance on human rights talks(2)

In mid-1993, then US President Bill Clinton set additional human rights conditions for the renewal of China's MFN status.

By meeting with individual countries for human rights talks, China seriously evaluates human rights issues, Hu said. But if China hadn't joined the talks at that time, it would probably have hurt the economy, Hu said.

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, told the Global Times that she thinks the cancelation is in line with the Chinese government's attitude in the past. It has happened before, she said, adding that the government has been going back and forth on talks with the European Union as well.

Besides, when dialogues happen, it isn't always to the satisfaction of the Western countries, she said.

"When both sides have agreed what issue to discuss, or a particular issue to discuss, when both sides go into it with good faith … that's a very constructive exercise," she said. "But it doesn't happen all that often."

However, some think the human rights situation in China cannot be improved by forces outside the country.

Shen Dingli, the deputy director of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, wrote on haiwainet.cn that China doesn't need other countries to "dress up as a teacher and reprimand China on its human rights situation despite the fact the government is helping to improve the situation."

"If the UK honestly wants to have human rights talks with China, it should communicate with the government on equal terms so the two countries can help each other," he wrote.

Hu Xingdou told the Global Times that the human rights talks are only a formality, and that China and the US or Europe have always been going back and forth on the talks, criticizing each other on the situation. It just shows their attitudes rather than having any constructive effect, he said.

China doesn't need to necessarily follow these countries' footsteps, Hu said.

"[Western countries] don't know China's political system and culture, so they usually copy human rights standards and methods from the West," he said. "But improving human rights in China takes more skill than that."

Public voices

While the government has a tug-of-war with other countries' governments, Richardson finds it fascinating that there are academics and organizations who are speaking out.

Richardson said individual Chinese and activist organizations have started getting actively involved in this cause, even though they don't necessarily share the same goals as the government.

For example, during the second human rights council periodic review, individual groups inside China wanted to participate and they understood how, even though it was a complicated process, she said.

The review is a global peer review mechanism that takes submissions from governments and domestic organizations from all UN member states. The first review China took part in was in 2009.

Hu argues that the differences between the Chinese government and the West are caused by different stages of development in terms of human rights.

"The West has a higher standard on human rights than China because it has been developing for a couple of hundred years, it has also shown huge improvement," he said.

Mo thinks a country cannot completely ignore the rules and standards set by the international community. Every country has its unique situation, but it cannot survive using only its own standards, he said.

"The universal declaration of human rights is written on UN papers. As a permanent member state of the UN security council, it's not appropriate for China to ignore such standards," he said.

Compared to catching up with international standards, Hu believes the focus in China right now should be on the improvement of peoples' livelihoods. A couple of weeks ago, the government declared that the National Entrance Exam would be made available for the blind, which shows progress, he said.

The government also abolished the controversial laojiao (reeducation through labor) system in an announcement from the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in early November, 2013.

He thinks the priority lies with freedom of speech and migration, then gradually moving on to assembly and association.