BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- For a long time, some U.S. media outlets have been accusing the Chinese government of human rights violations, turning a blind eye to Beijing's continued efforts in respecting, protecting and developing human rights over the past decades.
The latest Xinhua data analysis of approximately 300 U.S. media outlets' reportage concerning China's human rights over the past months has found that they are generally negative. Also, they are partial in terms of the definition of human rights, totally ignoring the fact that human rights are a multi-dimensional concept.
The analysis showed that American media's reporting over China's human rights are frequently related to politics and localities of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet, smearing China with politically-driven distortion and disinformation. They, however, rarely mention the all-round development of the country's human rights, including rights of ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly and the disabled.
According to the United Nations' definition, human rights range from the most fundamental -- the right to life -- to those that make life worth living.
In China, overall progress in all rights is a major principle of the human rights development. China endeavors to achieve a balanced development of economic, social and cultural rights, including eliminating absolute poverty, protecting the environment, safeguarding workers' rights and guaranteeing equal access to education for all.
For instance, China's reduction of poverty, the biggest obstacle to human rights, has rarely been reported by the U.S. media as a human rights story with a positive narrative. In fact, China realized its poverty reduction goal from the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. Since the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, 770 million of the rural population living below China's poverty line have been lifted out of poverty.
As the world's largest developing country, China always believes that people's sense of gain, happiness and security is an important criterion for evaluating human rights.
In the latest case of fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic, China has regarded protecting people's lives, which it believes is a fundamental human right, as its top priority. While the United States was witnessing a persistently high level of infections and deaths, some U.S. media outlets purposely attacked China's anti-epidemic strategy.
Science-based and proven highly effective in practice, China's epidemic prevention and control measures have helped curb the virus from further spreading on a large scale.
But the measures it has taken, such as lockdowns, massive screening, contact tracing are frequently headlined as human rights violations by some U.S. media outlets, who accuse China of being a "surveillance" state that abuse personal data.
Smearing China cannot discredit the country's remarkable achievements in its human rights development. Since 2009, China has formulated and implemented several action plans on human rights.
In September, China released the Human Rights Action Plan of China (2021-2025). This document includes nearly 200 objectives and tasks, ranging from rights to basic standard of living, public participation in environmental decision-making, to rights of ethnic minority groups.
Every country has room for improvement in terms of protecting human rights. There is no universally applicable model, and human rights can only advance in the context of national conditions and people's needs. China will hold fast to its people-centered approach, and exert itself to meet the people's growing expectations for human rights protection. Enditem
