Happy life, smiling faces best clues to China's human rights policy: envoy

A Chinese envoy said on Thursday that the best answer to China's human rights situation is found in people's happy life and smiling faces.

"The best answer to China's human rights situation lies in the happy life and smiling faces of the Chinese people," Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), told the General Debate of the Third Committee of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Zhang cited a poll conducted by a Western institution as showing that the Chinese people's satisfaction with the government exceeds 90 percent.

"It is the people's support that gives us the greatest strength in advancing our human rights path with distinctive Chinese features," said the ambassador.

"This year, we again witness some strange phenomenon at the Third Committee: The U.S. and a few other countries are provoking confrontation, pointing fingers at other developing countries' human rights situation, and brazenly launching smear campaigns," he said.

The ambassador pointed out that "they choose to stay silent on their own problems and turn a blind eye to the terrible human rights records of their allies."

"Such selectivity and politicization have seriously poisoned the cooperative atmosphere of the UN," said the ambassador.

A few countries, including the United States, fabricate lies about Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, making baseless accusations against China, and using human rights to interfere in China's internal affairs, the ambassador said.

"These moves are firmly opposed and resolutely rejected by the Chinese government and people," Zhang said.

"I must point out that the accusations by the U.S. and a few other countries are totally unfounded, unjust and go against the prevailing trend of our times. Instead of caring about human rights in China, their real intention is to sabotage China's stability and development," Zhang said.

"China's progress is a result of the hard work of the Chinese people. We never see it as a gift from other countries. And we will never allow anyone to deprive the Chinese people of their rights to development and a happy life," the ambassador added.

"China's progress will by no means be stopped by any external disruption," he said.

The UNGA Third Committee, also known as the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, is one of six main committees at the UNGA. The committee meets every year in early October and aims to finish its work by the end of November. All 193 member states of the UN can attend.