Obfuscation by Design: ‘Human Rights with Chinese Characteristics’ and the Exposure of America’s Injustices

‘Nothing more than a piece of waste paper’

China’s current foreign policy has ensured that transparency over its humanitarian issues remains camouflaged under dense rhetoric. Confronted with overwhelming evidence, China will commonly label it as fake or politically motivated. Yet, this can still provide us with useful insight into China’s projection of its internal issues onto its external ones, and how their flawed rhetoric can sometimes produce a pearl worth serious analysis. 

In 2021, then-spokesman of China’s foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, responded to a U.S. report confirming violations of human rights towards Uyghurs. In a press conference, he declared it was “the biggest lie of the century”, adding the report was “so absurd it [is] nothing more than a piece of waste paper”. 

For years China has been promoting the deliberate extermination of Turkic Muslims, most notably Uyguhrs, through forced confinement, forced labour, forced sterilisation, suppression of cultural and religious practices, political indoctrination, and institutionalised harm, to name but a few. While denying these actions, papers leaked in late 2019 revealed the extent of China’s conduct and that it has been wholly deliberate since 2014 – most likely being premeditated as far back as the late 2000s.

This isn’t news to anyone – China’s neglect for human rights is well known and well publicised. Similarly infamous are China’s responses, being of the wolf warrior diplomatic doctrine, known for its hawkish rhetoric and loud participation in international controversies. As pressure mounts on China’s human rights violations, they have used the wolf warrior strategy to deflect responsibility and blame from their actions in Xinjiang, instead attempting to shift the focus to the United States and its Western allies.  

These tactics bleed into a more nefarious game in China’s playbook. China’s confrontational attitude towards their detractors hints at a defensiveness masking something more important: China’s attempt to systematically undermine human rights institutions and norms. 

Wang Yi, in the first ever Chinese address the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, attempted to defend China’s human rights record: “Socialism with Chinese characteristics … [has] found the path of human rights development that suits China's national conditions and needs”, going on to suggest, “[nations] must promote and protect human rights in light of their national realities and the needs of their people”. 

Chinese president Xi Jinping, sending a letter to a human rights forum hosted by China read, “The development of human rights worldwide cannot be achieved without the joint efforts of developing countries … In the meantime, human rights must and can only be promoted in light of specific national conditions and people’s needs”. 

China’s approach rejects the idea of universal human rights, instead implying they’re up to the individual country to decide. Their hailing of ‘state sovereignty’ and ‘non-interference in international affairs’ have led journalists to term China’s attack on human rights as human rights with Chinese characteristics, referencing their similarly incongruous economic policy, ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’.

This all converges back to Zhao’s criticism of America’s alleged hypocrisy. By shifting the blame and denying the existence of universal human rights, China’s double-barrelled defence could allow them to opt-out of nominally mandatory responsibilities they have agreed to uphold. This could possibly afford them a get-out-of-jail-free card if their crimes come back to haunt them.

Continuing his speech, Zhao would remark, “[America] should not forget the African Americans who died in the Tulsa massacre one-hundred years ago, the Indians who were expelled and slaughtered during the Westward movement, and the cries of people like George Floyd”. Human rights and their violations are being politicised now more than ever – yet, with the coming of this trend, there’s a fundamental question that presents itself to Americans.

Equivalencies and False-Equivalencies

Weaponising the US’s wrongs, while popular in Chinese foreign policy, does force Americans confront a stain largely ignored: that being the human rights violations of the United States. How should Americans respond to China without confronting their own misdoings? How can they?

First, there must be an acknowledgement that there is a difference between actions that took place over a century ago and those that are taking place now. It’s unreasonable to fault modern institutions for something that happened over one hundred years ago. The Biden Administration can’t be blamed for the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in the way the West blames China for its current genocides. That’s not to say the public, in the modern day, can’t push for a government to rectify its past injustices – there is a distinction between responsibility and blame. What must be considered, then, is how one is to interpret America’s current wrongs in relation to those of China. 

In regards to racial equality, social mobility, and others in the second- and third-generation human rights category, the United States has had the worst track record of all the West. With income inequality being at a (at least) 70 year high, cost of living at an all-time high, incarceration rates – especially of black and brown males – creating a state of institutionalised fear and violence, rights of non-citizens being routinely ignored, women’s rights shrinking for the first time in over a century, the American public has problems that can’t be ignored. The othering between Americans into trivial groups is a genuine concern. 

Government policies have made only a marginal difference. The intention to placate the American populace has been spearheaded by Republicans, yet other times backed by Democrats. The disproportionality between race and economic status, women’s rights, criminality, and others have been, while not outright ignored, routinely cast aside. In some ways, America has plateaued, in others, its going backwards. 

Is China right? Have Americans, this whole time, been lashing out against China’s injustices, too ignorant or reluctant to call out their own? No; or, not entirely. The United States’ human rights abuses are disproportionate to those of China. While the U.S. suffers from second- and third-generation human rights, China lacks even basic rights for its citizens. All countries carry wounds, but it's up to the public to decide whether they should be lessons or sticks to beat each other with. 

But, for all America’s past and present injustices, the public is able to discuss them in a largely free and open environment, and criticise them without risk of punishment. Yet, America has vast issues that can escape easy solutions. Given these contradictions, we can, at times, feel disoriented in our own confusion. At the end of the day, would we be more truthful to ourselves if we just say: ‘It’s complex’? 

Complexity is something central to all of these cases. It’s impossible to not acknowledge the fact that ‘nuance’ is something we must accept when dealing with problems like these. But, defenders of China have obscured the government’s responsibility through its use, arguing the problem is too complex and multifaceted for China to be guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. We must be careful in the way ‘nuance’ is used, then, as it can cloud our judgement. 

It's difficult, maybe to some even inappropriate, to genuinely criticise America’s injustices in the same article attacking China’s for fear of an implied ‘better-worse’ comparison. I don't believe I have compared China's atrocities to ours in that way. Instead, I hope to have recognised that the West, while criticising China must, too, be critical of itself – transparency is necessary. Similarly, some would argue that this is precisely what China wants; talking about U.S. atrocities, after all, is not talking about Chinese atrocities. But, I believe in order to genuinely confront China’s genocides America must, at the very least, acknowledge its injustices, particularly those continuing to happen today. 

Image courtesy of Ray Lac via Wikimedia, ©2008. Some rights reserved.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.