China-US Mutual Respect and Enhanced Cooperation Is the Only Approach to Global Human Rights Governance

Looking back at the evolution of international laws on human rights, the USA, as a superpower after World War II, has changed its attitude towards human rights with different presidents in office. Generally speaking, in the early post-war period, the USA was more active in human rights issues and declared to maintain the "rules-based international order". However, with the formation and disintegration of the bipolar pattern between the United States and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War and a long period after the end of it, human rights have become a tool for the United States to carry out diplomacy and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, as well as a means to commit political attacks and stigmatize other countries, for the fundamental purpose of maintaining and consolidating its own hegemony and leadership position around the globe. In addition to the Reagan-administration's "exceptionalism" on human rights and Cold War policy in the 1980s, the so-called "global democracy movement" during Clinton's tenure, and the numerous human rights crimes committed by the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, which caused political turmoil and people's displacement in the Middle East for several times, the United States also carried out surveillance and wiretapping without distinction, living up to its name as wiretapping and hackers empire, and even incited some countries to launch "color revolutions" to change their constitutional order so as to enhance its own influence. Since the beginning of the 21st century, successive USA administrations not only have proceeded with these evil acts that harm others without benefiting themselves, but also, in fear of the rapid rise of emerging power, further emphasized "America First", pursued unilateralism in the name of multilateralism, and gone further and further on the path of violating human rights, ignoring the international system and order, and refusing cooperation. In this process, the USA has distinguished friends and foes based on ideology - taking those who agreed with its values and system as political ally while deeming those who opposes them as "axis of evil", and labeled any non-western political system as "autocratic" and "ochlocratic", playing tricks of "dual standard" in safeguarding its own interests and sparing no effort to contain the development of other countries. The USA has implemented a series of domestic and foreign policies and practices, only to show the world the power ethic of "America First" with carrots and sticks, rather than the general compliance with human rights, which has caused widespread disgust in the international community.

What the USA has committed in recent years is even contrary to its stated concept of global human rights governance in the past. At home, on the one hand, it claimed to face up to its own racist problems; on the other hand, it spread false information and hate speech under the guise of "freedom of speech," exacerbating racialism and discrimination. Internationally, it not only showed no respect for existing institutions and frameworks of human rights, but also withdrew from the Human Rights Council, the Paris Agreement, UNESCO, the World Health Organization and other global governance cooperation mechanisms. The USA often interferes in other countries' internal affairs in the name of human rights, takes any opportunity to conduct information and public opinion wars, criticizes and even fabricates false information to smear and slander countries with political, economic and social systems and ideologies different from its own. These inappropriate practices based on double standards have made the image of "justice" of the USA end in smoke, and gradually caused the international community to recognize its selfish and egoistic nature. The politicization of the human rights issue by the USA is essentially a hegemonic approach in the name of "democracy" and "human rights", and a politicized way of dealing with human rights out of geopolitical considerations. However, such measures fail to solve any problems, and on the contrary, have become a source of disturbance to the global human rights governance order, and even denounced by many countries that uphold justice and impartiality. USA's rhetoric of human rights is full of political interests and tricks, aiming to impose values and political discipline on other countries. However, this fixed American-centered thinking and the moral superiority in human rights are just the fantasy of the politicians in Washington, who ignore the legitimate sovereign rights and the existence of diverse values in other countries, lifting a rock only to drop it on their own feet.

It is notable that the current international human rights system and order is falling the dilemma of effective governance - slow and difficult economic recovery from the COVID-19; few sign of easing the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, ongoing chaos of war in some parts of Africa. A number of crises in the global epidemics, climate, economy, food and energy have severely impacted the economic development and social livelihood of the countries, especially developing countries, and people's right to life, health and development as well as a range of basic human rights are being severely challenged. It is due to, on the one hand, the imbalance of norms, the disorder of mechanisms, the alienation of human rights and the dilemma of impartiality in the global governance structure, featuring the unbalance between liberty right and social right, individual right and collective right; coordination within international human rights mechanisms requiring to be strengthened; politicization of human rights issues; and failure of some UN member states to equally participate in the construction and implementation of the global human rights governance mechanism; on the other hand, the debate on the approach to reformation of the global human rights governance, including, the ideological differences between liberalism and developmentalism, the disputes between universality and particularity of human rights, the differences between multilateralism and unilateralism, the ideological opposition between dialogue & cooperation and political confrontation, and the contradiction between respecting sovereignty and transcending sovereignty. All these difficulties and the underlying causes shall be seriously discussed by the international community for joint solutions. It is noticeable that, at present, such global governance crises and human rights dilemmas as racial exclusion and discrimination, religious intolerance and conflict, refugee crisis, "democratic trap", western-style democracy and the pain of the Middle East transition, terrorism, hunger and poverty, regional conflicts and the protection of the right to survival, are more specific and complicated than the theoretical scope of Western governance and human rights discourse, causing the "ideal" and "reality" of western human rights discourse to be seriously torn apart, and so the international community urgently needs to seek a new consensus on the international human rights governance mechanism. In the globalized present days, no individual or country is a lonely island. Therefore, if the human rights issue is dominated by Cold War mentality and political tricks, people all over the world will be in conflict and crisis.

Different to the USA, China is a civilization with a long history. The concept of human rights upheld by China has been understood and recognized by most countries in the world. China's vision of universal harmony, its vision of peace, charity, solidarity and harmony, and its concept of a community with a shared future for mankind which has gained increasing popularity in recent years, have all made significant theoretical contributions to global human rights governance and brought hope to the jungle practice of international politics. With the sustained and steady development of economic construction and comprehensive national strength, China is strengthening its voice and influence in the UN-centered global governance system, and playing an increasingly important role on the international stage. As of December 7, 2022, China had signed more than 200 cooperation documents with 150 countries and 32 international organizations on the One Belt One Road program, which has become a popular international public product and the largest cooperation platform around the globe. In the past three years, President Xi Jinping, on behalf of the CPC and the Chinese Government, has put forward the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. He has set an example by encouraging the international community to jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind, and taken the lead in promoting the development of international human rights cause. China has worked actively to restore diplomatic relations and strengthen cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Iran to help maintain peace and stability in the Middle East. China has put forward the Position Paper on the Political Settlement of the Ukrainian Crisis and, together with the international community, continued to play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. Working with Central Asian countries to fully revitalize the Silk Road, China has hosted the China-Central Asia Summit, and taken its own practical actions to help build a China-Central Asia community with a shared future for them. China continues to open wider to the outside world, actively develops economic and trade exchanges with other countries in the post-COVID-19 era, and injects new impetus into global economic growth and improvement of people's lives.

Based on these facts, I personally believe that the USA, China and the international community need to respect each other and strengthen cooperation among them in order to achieve effective global human rights governance.

(I) The USA, for its part, should recognize, learn and accept the new sense of rules and political ethics. Western countries represented by the USA should realize that a genuine multilateralism is the prerequisite for mutual benefits, "selective multilateralism should not be our option", and any human rights theory and discourse system that are inconsistent with traditional ideas of the USA should be respected and accommodated. In other words, the USA needs to take the initiative to adjust its position. On the basis of abiding by the three Joint Communiques of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, the USA needs to review its relations with China, understand and accept China's principled position, put aside political prejudice and Cold War mentality, and truly respect the rights of the people of all countries including China to seek their own development and pursue their happy life. The return of China and the United States to the track of mutual respect and win-win cooperation is of great significance to both countries and to the international community. Furthermore, the USA should re-embrace the globalization it has led and promoted, bear its due international responsibilities as a great power, abide by the UN institutional framework jointly established by the international community after the Second World War, earnestly fulfill its international obligations, abide by the international order, and abandon the false idea of "America First" or its superiority, stop going further down the road of unilateralism, hegemonism and protectionism, stop exercising power politics and interfering in other countries' internal affairs, strengthen cooperation with other countries in addressing climate change, economy and trade, counter-terrorism, refugees and international law enforcement, expand common interests with other countries, and win the respect of the international community with its own actions.

(II) As far as China is concerned, it needs to continue to enrich and improve the discourse system of human rights based on its own actual conditions, carry forward the concept of basic human rights with the rights to survival and development as the core in practice, constantly improve the well-being of the people, coordinate the two fields of domestic and international communication, and combine the key livelihood topics such as poverty alleviation, anti-epidemic fight and common prosperity in the new era, continue to tell true stories about human rights in contemporary China and expand the influence of its views on human rights. At home, with the pursuit of Chinese-style modernization as the main task, China will adhere to relevant arrangements, work toward its goals, earnestly handle its own affairs properly, comprehensively promote and protect all types of human rights, enhance the practical results of following China's path of human rights development, and constantly push forward the development of China's human rights cause. In the international arena, on the one hand, China will adhere to international fairness, justice, dialogue and cooperation, focus on telling China's stories on human rights in various forms of state speeches, joint speeches and side meetings on international occasions, fully disseminate China's concept of human rights, refute slanderings and attacks by a few western countries, and firmly safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests. On the other hand, China should practice genuine multilateralism, take an active part in UN human rights affairs, carry out extensive international human rights exchanges and cooperation with other countries, especially developing countries, develop cooperation and exchanges with other countries in the fields of economy, trade, culture, education, technology research and development, seek more in-depth cooperation on common interests between countries and expand its "circle of friends", and play a constructive role in international human rights governance. China always stands for upholding the UN-centered international system and the international order based on international law, which is a fairer and more reasonable institutional arrangement that truly serves the interests of most countries. Therefore, China will continue to build consensus among all countries, promote the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, lead the international community in building a community with a shared future for mankind, and make joint response to the crisis. On this basis, China will work with the United States on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, pay attention to managing differences with the United States, ensure that bilateral relations stay on the right course without deviation or out-of-control, constantly seek common ground while shelving differences, strengthen communication and cooperation, seek to expand common interests between the two countries, so as to realize win-win cooperation on a larger scale and jointly advance the noble cause of peace and development of mankind.

(III) At the international level, human rights governance is calling for the establishment of new mechanisms and new ethics of mutual respect. Public mechanisms for equal consultation and collective decision-making shall be promoted, rather than joining a small circle of allies established by a superpower, to deal with and resolve human rights issues. In the post-COVID-19 era, the global economy is in a downturn, people's lives are in difficulties and some regions are even in turmoil, which is no longer an empty political ideal, but a realistic arrangement that must be realized. At present, countries need to recognize and accept a people-centered development concept, give priority to promoting development and ensuring people's well-being in their macro policies, expand cooperation, resolve differences, build a global partnership for development that is united, equal, balanced and beneficial to all, jointly promote high-quality development, and create a favorable environment for human rights governance. In addition, countries need to abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, jointly uphold the international order, oppose politicization and use of human rights issues as a weapon or tool against other countries, advance citizens' economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights in a balanced manner, and work together to make global human rights governance more just, impartial and inclusive. We need to respect the diversity of civilizations, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning, abandon the Cold War mentality featuring zero-sum game and bloc confrontation, respect the right of people of all countries to choose their own social system and development path, and truly seek common ground while shelving differences.

The realization of global human rights governance calls for a new ethic and new mechanism where all countries respect each other more. Sticking to the right side of history, China is ready to optimize and deepen the global governance system in the new era, patiently waits for the small circle of the USA and the UK to raise awareness of international laws and regulations on human rights, treat other countries with respect and equality, and reshape its political ethics in domestic and foreign affairs. The only way to strengthen human rights in the era of globalization is to get rid of the political thinking of its wayward hegemony, and engage in rational discussion and cooperation with other peer countries on an equal footing to solve various human rights problems. However, if the US still insists on distinguishing friends and foes based on ideology, shows no respect for other countries' human rights and security interests and concerns, fails to understand the importance of respect and compromise, practices hegemonism, unilateralism and interventionism in the name of human rights, continues to wave the stick of "sanctions", forcibly "builds barriers" and "decouples", and artificially creates confrontation between camps, then the shadow of global conflicts and wars will be difficult to dissipate, and disasters and evils will inevitably fall onto the world and the prospect of international laws on human rights will not be optimistic for the time being!

(The author is professor of School of Law at Beijing Institute of Technology)