Critics of China Becoming Their Defender

For its part, the Chinese government, viewed with fear and suspicion in some circles in and around the US, tends to interpret any attempt to reform its institutions and policies as a threat to its power and influence. She believes she needs to twist her arms to protect her image in international forums. Visitors to China are initially viewed with disdain, and tend to assume that the People's Republic of China's economy is too successful to be communist. [Sources: 1, 7, 10, 15]

A government committed to human rights should be aware that double standards and China's exceptionalism can creep into its behavior, enabling Beijing to get away with abuses that would be challenged by poorer, less powerful governments. If the government stops promoting the idea that trade alone promotes human rights in China, it will give up its role as a defender of human rights in the international community. [Sources: 15]

Consumers would be better placed to insist that institutions do not succumb to Chinese censorship as a price for acquiring Chinese business, and that they should never profit from or contribute to its abuse. Universities, in particular, should provide observations and reports in which overseas students and scholars learn about and criticize the Chinese government. [Sources: 15]

European governments fear that such a move could unnecessarily provoke Beijing, and health experts fear that it would fuel fears of an increase in human rights abuses in China's health system. A final, even more duplicated possibility is that allowing the public to criticize human rights could be a way for elites to criticize their own country's leadership. American companies complain that "Chinese hackers" steal trade secrets, that Chinese officials force them to hand over technology, or that state subsidies to Chinese rivals make competition impossible. [Sources: 2, 8, 18]

Many of these things were said about China only a few months ago, but few governments have spoken out against these developments in their own countries, while foreign companies have publicly supported their positions. The WHO defended the Chinese government's actions and even praised China for its so-called transparency. Instead, they willingly took China's assurances at face value, or simply took them at face value, criticizing those who praised China as transparent. [Sources: 0, 12]

Beijing has turned the narrative upside down, burying the negative stories under a blanket of positive stories about China's human rights record and economic development. [Sources: 13]

China has used the openness of democratic societies as a method of exploiting them, denied human rights abuses at home, and sought to fend off criticism by claiming that racism and fears of China's rise have triggered the rise of anti-Semitism in the US and other countries. China has intimidated other governments by insisting on applauding China in international forums and joining it in attacks on the international human rights system. [Sources: 5, 15]

For years, I have written that it would be a mistake to view China's recent actions primarily as the product of aggressive leaders. Chinese liberals who believe that the CCP is too authoritarian to trust have been heavily criticized. By contrast, the view of "Chinese power" is clear: a median of 70% says that "China's role on the world stage has grown over the last 10 years. While critics of the Chinese government can be found on both sides of the aisle, older-age conservative white fans are more likely to be among the groups that see China as a potential threat to the United States than conservative black and white younger fans. [Sources: 6, 9, 16, 17]

China's economic success has strengthened the ability of the Chinese government to conduct its external relations and maintain its position (28%). China's growing global power has made human rights abuses an issue of concern, including at the United Nations (where China tried to prevent its critics from participating in 2018). [Sources: 7, 12]

The Chinese government has not commented on the CECC report, but it has defended its own while criticizing the US. It is doubtful that the panel would have appointed an investigator to review China's human rights record in the wake of the US investigation. The Chinese government began in 2015 and is accused of imprisoning, torturing and disappearing political opponents and human rights activists, using mass surveillance to invade people's privacy and violating civil liberties such as the right to freedom of speech, association and association with the media. [Sources: 3, 4, 14]

The authorities have also tried to silence Chinese human rights activists abroad by harassing and imprisoning them. The CCP has portrayed the United States as a great geopolitical rival, with the AU being the least critical or worse. Chinese diplomats have reached out to local media, while China faces growing international condemnation for the government's persecution of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and defends Beijing's policies. This report is apparently meant to link the CCP's failure to denounce the US investigation into human rights abuses in China to the incident, reinforcing the perception that the United States has entered into a "strategic partnership" with China to undermine its stability, according to a State Department report.