Some Western countries are trying to forcibly promote the concept and system of “democracy” as they understand it, and use the slogan of protecting human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, said Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In his view, it is the promotion of Western democracy that has led to wars and chaos, forcing vast numbers of people around the world to flee their homes, the South China Morning Post reported.
Terms such as “democracy” and “human rights” should not be used by the West to embellish its policies. Chinese leader Xi Jinping said this as he looked at the West’s social and political problems. He believes that attempts to forcibly promote “Western-style democracy” have caused many military conflicts, chaos and human suffering around the world, provoking the emergence of masses of refugees, writes the South China Morning Post.
Xi Jinping said this during a speech to Chinese high-ranking officials at the spring session of the Politburo, but the full text of his speech was not published until this Wednesday in the Chinese magazine Qiushi, the article explains. He also stressed that some Western countries are using democracy and human rights as a pretext to interfere in the internal affairs of other states, although they themselves have not fully escaped social and political problems.
However, he defended the human rights situation in his country and stressed that China would not accept any lectures from the West. Beijing has continued to defend its own position in this area amid criticism in the West over its policies in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet, the paper noted.
The Chinese leader did not name specific countries. But Beijing has repeatedly accused the US in recent months that White House policies have triggered numerous conflicts, from Afghanistan to Ukraine. The Syrian civil war and security issues in Iraq are also regularly mentioned in this context, the article said.
Xi Jinping said some Western countries have faced severe “political bias” and instances of “abuse of trust” by voters by the authorities in recent years, leading to social problems and unrest.
“Political polarisation has intensified, the gap between rich and poor and ethnic antagonisms have grown. Racism, populism and xenophobia have prevailed, and human rights issues have become increasingly important,” he said.
He also called for greater involvement in UN human rights affairs and greater Chinese influence on various multilateral institutions in this field. Beijing is increasingly going on the offensive here, joining hands with other countries at the ongoing UN human rights session to oppose interference in China’s internal affairs under this pretext, the article said.
In particular, Cuba, on behalf of 69 countries, said at this session that the situation in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet is an “internal matter” of China, the South China Morning Post reported. The joint statement was in response to a statement on behalf of the Netherlands, the US and 45 other countries, mainly from the West, which had earlier expressed their “grave concerns” about the human rights situation in Xinjiang.
The Chinese delegation was excluded from a democracy summit organised by the White House last year, the South China Morning Post recalls. However, a few days before the event, Beijing hosted its own International Democracy Forum, a virtual event attended mainly by representatives from developing countries.
In addition, in February this year, Beijing published a report entitled “Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021”, which underlined that various “political manipulations” by the US authorities had led to a sharp spike in COVID-19 deaths, with the number of shooting deaths in the country also reaching record levels.
Meanwhile, “US unilateral actions have created new humanitarian crises around the world”, the Chinese report claims. It also condemns Western “fake democracy that tramples on people’s political rights”, the South China Morning Post reported.
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