Steadfastly Following the Chinese Path to Promote Further Progress in Human Rights by Xi Jinping

[ltlee1]

http://en.qstheory.cn/2022-09/14/c_811811.htm

"Today, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee is holding its 37th group study session, the focus of which is the Chinese path of advancing human rights. The goals of this session are to review our country's human rights achievements, both theoretical and practical, in the new era, assess the international struggle in the sphere of human rights, and maintain steadfast commitment to the Chinese path to promote further progress in human rights.

It is the pursuit of all societies to protect the life, value, and dignity of every person and ensure their entitlement to human rights. Chinese culture has always stressed the importance of respecting and caring for others. From Confucius who declared that "benevolence has been the greatest priority of governance since ancient times" to Mencius who said, "Finding talents for the country is what benevolence is all about," to Xunzi who believed that people were "most valuable" and Mozi who called on us to "love others as we do ourselves regardless of social status or wealth"—each of these great thinkers stressed the intrinsic value of the person. Our forebears also put forward other similar axioms: "Of all things in the world, people are most precious"; "To accomplish great feats, one must put the people first"; "In the matters of governance, the people should come first." During the Western bourgeois revolution, the thinkers of the Enlightenment put forward the concept of "natural rights," which holds that all men are created equal and possess inalienable rights, a concept that helped propel forward revolutions in Britain, America, France and other countries.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels endorsed the historical value of the bourgeois theory of human rights, meanwhile they firmly refuted the theory's denial of the social, historical, and class-based nature of human rights. "The individual," Marx pointed out, "is a social being." He also argued that "Right can never be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural development conditioned thereby." Marx and Engels made the point that in a capitalist society "man has ceased to be the slave of men and has become the slave of things." They envisioned that "In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all."

For China's Communists, ensuring respect and protection for human rights has been a relentless pursuit. On the day of its founding, the Communist Party of China (CPC) began its struggle for democracy and human rights, taking the clear stance that it would strive to save the nation and the people and wage a fight for human rights. Throughout its century-long history, the Party has united the people and led them in a tireless effort to fight for and to respect, protect, and advance human rights. Throughout the periods of the new-democratic revolution, socialist revolution and construction, and reform, opening up and socialist modernization, the CPC pursued its founding mission of seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation with steadfast commitment, and led the people to great victories in revolution, construction, and reform. The Chinese people became the masters of our country, our society and our future, and protection for their rights to subsistence and development, along with other basic rights, was continuously strengthened.
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[stoney]

Karl Marx argued that "Right can never be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural development conditioned thereby.". He was right. But West does not want communist in him to say like that. Do you agree?