Coordinating human rights development(3)

Secondly, the emphatic improvement and all-round development of human rights should be coordinated. It should be noted that no country can put into practice all human rights at the same. Human rights protection can be better performed only when people start with the national situation and reality of their own country to determine the emphasized items of human rights. China underwent heavy calamities and became weak due to poverty in modern times. It has been the greatest aspiration and pursuit of the Chinese people to shake off the backwards state and live a happy life. Therefore, China has always taken economic and social rights as a primary cut-in point for human rights protection, emphatically solving the problems of people's livelihood and benefits that are most direct and most practical, with which the masses are most concerned. It endeavors to enable each social member to live more happily with more respect. At the same time, China pays attention to view various human rights as an interdependent and indivisible organic whole, pushes forward the cause of human rights in a coordinated way together with economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and ecological civilization construction, boosts the harmonious development of economy, society, cultural rights, citizen rights and political rights, and improve the coordinated development of individual human rights and collective human rights.

Thirdly, the unity of rights to peace and development should be adhered to. Peace implies security, stability and harmony, while development means being free from poverty and disease. Development lays a foothold for peace, while peace is the very condition of development. One cannot expect a huge tree of peace in an infertile land, or the abundant fruits of development from war. China has always held that the right to peace and the right to development are just like the two wings of a bird, and that it will not do without either of them. For China, the exercise of the people's right to development requires two basic conditions: one is a harmonious and stable domestic environment, and the other is a peaceful international situation. These two conditions just mean to guarantee the people's right to peace, if they are generalized into one point. For years, China has adhered to the path of peaceful development, which has effectively guaranteed the Chinese people's rights to peace and development, and meanwhile made contributions it should to the improvement of such rights of the world people.

Fourthly, the relations of human rights development between the present and the future should be handled well. The cause of human rights is boundless, and so it is with human rights development. The history of mankind repeatedly shows that the cause of human rights protection cannot be finished at one breath. It is certainly a long historical process to develop from ought-to-be human rights to legalized human rights and finally to actual human rights. The progress that China has made in the development of its cause of human rights is visible to everyone, but China is a large developing country, and the problems of unbalance, disharmony and unsustainability in the development is still serious. In China, the realization of human rights protection at a higher level still requires more efforts, and has still a long way to go. China insists on starting with its own national situation and reality. While based on the current to do well various work on respecting and protecting human rights and lay a sound foundation for the sustainable development of human rights, it keeps a long-term perspective to constantly improve its level of human rights protection, and work hard so that all the people enjoy more sufficient rights.

Fifthly, international dialogues and cooperation on human rights should be adhered to. China has always held that only through equal dialogue and practical cooperation can countries, which are with different social systems and at different development levels, boost together the healthy development of international cause of human rights. For years, with respect to the question of human rights, China has always advocated dialogues and opposed confrontation, and yet strongly rejected intervening in the domestic affairs of other countries in the name of human rights. Hegemony does not accord with the principle of democracy, and pressure cannot bring about any human rights culture. China has proposed that various civilizations should respect, understand, learn from and support each other, and that all countries in the world should, through dialogues, exchanges and cooperation, endeavor to boost the development and progress of various causes, including human rights, and work together to create a rosy future of mankind.

The cause of human rights cannot be the best but the better. And human rights improvement and protection have no perfect tense but a progressive tense. For the realization of sufficient human rights protection, we still have many to do. We sincerely hope, through the Beijing Forum on Human Rights as a platform, that people both from China and other countries are able to deeply communicate and learn from each other, coming up with new ways for the better development of human rights in China.

China Forum | Cai Mingzhao

Editor's Note: Cai Mingzhao, director of the State Council Information Office of China, addressed the opening ceremony of the 7th Beijing Forum on Human Rights on Wednesday. The following are excerpts of his speech.