China’s Perspective on the Relation of Sovereignty and Human Rights: The Practice and Reasons
- Introduction
Different from the western countries, Chinese perceive the contemporary world order in a sovereignty-bound thinking. As a result, Chinese government sees state sovereignty as the basis of human rights[1], which overweighs the human rights to some extent. This perspective has caused a veritable and arguable explosion of human rights discussion[2].
After the Second World War, the Unite Nations has made the protection of human rights one of the most important issues in modern international society. As a permanent member of UN, China has laid more and more emphasis on the promotion of human rights and has achieved a lot during the past decades. However, China is still criticized and doubted by both of the west and domestic dissidents for China’s unique thought on the relationship between sovereignty and human rights, and for facts of the diminishing but existing human rights violations.
In order to confront with pressures from outside and inside, we need to give a solid and impartial understanding of China’s opinion. In doing so, this presentation will concentrate on the practice of the promotion on human rights and reasons of having the unique thoughts on the relationship between sovereignty and human rights of the People’s Republic of China. Inevitably, it first will give a brief overview of conceptions of sovereignty and human rights, and contentions on the relationship between the two to give a background of the discourse.
[1] See: Speech by Liu Huaqiu, Head of the Chinese Delegation at the World Conference on Human Rights(Vienna: Permanent Mission of the PRC to the United Nations in Vienna, 15 June 1993).
[2] Michael C. Davis, Chinese Perspectives on the Bangkok Declaration and the Development of Human Rights in Asia, 89 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 157, 157 (1995).
M.Sun