Experts: Better explain rights approach

China needs to better explain its practice of protecting human rights to clear up any doubts from the international community, the head of China’s top society for human rights studies said on Thursday.

“The country has made obvious progress in having more say on human rights issues. What we need to do now is to express our views more systematically, since China’s opinions are more valued than ever,” Qiangba Puncog, head of the China Society for Human Rights Studies said at a workshop on creation of human rights discourse in the new era held in Changsha, capital of Hunan province.

“We need to develop our own path in protecting human rights and expressing our views on related issues. Currently, we are still in a phase of coping with the attacks on China’s human rights issues from the West,” Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the Information Office of the State Council, said at the forum.

In recent years, the people’s standard of living and quality of life have improved. Their economic, social and cultural rights and interests have been enhanced. China attaches great importance to strengthening legal protection of human rights in all areas, according to a white paper released by the information office in December.

“China needs to establish a discourse system on human rights issues with Chinese characteristics so the world can know about China’s understanding of human right issues and achievements”, said Zhang Xiaoling, director of human rights research center of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Establishing such a system, which provides an alternative way to protect human rights, is not a simple coinage of concepts, but a discourse system gradually developed based on reviews and extracts from the practice of China’s human rights development, she said.

As the world’s largest developing country, people’s rights to subsistence and development remain the top human rights to be further protected in China, she said.

“We shouldn’t talk about human rights issues only based on our core values. We need to take the basic values of other countries into consideration so it won’t look like we are talking to ourselves,” said Zhang Yonghe, a professor of the School of Human Rights Studies at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law.