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China: World’s Leading Defender of Human Rights?

by Kevin Kennedy, May 20, 2016, CanadianPatriot.org

“Your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance … I don’t know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable,” Was part of the translated response of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at a recent press conference with Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion, when an iPolitics reporter audaciously asked why Canada is pursuing ties with a China which is ‘mistreating human rights advocates.’
CBC later released a scathing ‘analysis’ comparing President Xi to Chairman Mao, and citing Soros hit-squad Human Rights Watch saying, the regime “has unleashed an extraordinary assault on basic human rights and their defenders with a ferocity unseen in recent years …Senior Chinese leaders, perceiving a threat to their power, now explicitly reject the universality of human rights, characterizing these ideas as ‘foreign infiltration,’ and penalizing those who promote them.“

In response to a media attack on President Xi Jinping’s policies, Foreign Minister Wang Yi responded: “Do you know that China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty? And do you know [that] China is now the second-largest economy in the world from a very low foundation? …Do you think development is possible for China without protection of human rights? And do you know China has written protection and promotion of human rights into our constitution?”


Many people complain about the ‘human rights record’ in China, and ask how someone can align with such an ‘undemocratic,’ ‘cruel and corrupt regime.’ Many of these people seem to have a prejudice and an unmalleable memory, which is either frozen, or stuck in a feedback loop from past eras. These same people can’t seem to figure out the difference between Stalin’s USSR and Putin’s Russia. These same people often also identify with the position of the imperial west, who are seen to them as great liberators, and purveyors of freedom and democracy around the globe. These views may be as naive as believing that Obama and Putin mean the same thing when they talk about fighting ISIS, or that Obama and Xi mean the same thing when they talk about ‘cleaning up the environment.’
What’s more important is not the snapshot, but the dynamic. China is moving in the right direction on human rights, especially in four areas that affect human rights the most. China is leading the world on human rights in the following four ways:

1) Poverty Reduction

According to the The Guardian, 

China has lifted more people out of poverty than anywhere else in the world: its per capita income in increased fivefold between 1990 and 2000, from $200 to $1,000. Between 2000 and 2010, per capita income also rose by the same rate, from $1,000 to $5,000, moving China into the ranks of middle-income countries. Between 1990 and 2005, China’s progress accounted for more than three-quarters of global poverty reduction and is the reason why the world reached the UN millennium development goal of halving extreme poverty. This incredible success was delivered by a combination of a rapidly expanding labour market, driven by a protracted period of economic growth, and a series of government transfers such as the above urban subsidy, and the introduction of a rural pension.”

They will double their middle class to 600 million by 2020, and they will directly affect over two billion more with the One Belt One Road, also known as the New Silk Road, which is the number one national economic policy of China, as well as the BRICS development paradigm.

Perhaps the last great purveyor of economic freedom in the west, Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that, “true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. – People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”


So how can a China which is doing more towards these ends than any other nation, be at the same time, ‘crushing and suppressing’ it’s people?
China is even massively fighting pollution and corruption.  According to the Wall Street Journal:

In 2013, after Jinping’s rise to leadership, there were more than 182,000 corruption investigations on party members. The previous year had 20,000.”

Meanwhile, we in the west are moving in the wrong direction – look at the United States, which had the most prosperity to lose, and is in many ways being used as the model for other free market/monetarist countries, as they are increasingly subjugated by London/Wall Street/Troika money interests. Especially since the anti-American, singly continuous presidency of Bush/Cheney/Obama, the United States has torn up the constitution and the Bill of Rights.
As part of the “controlled disintegration” of the US economy and middle class, we see skyrocketing drug addiction(1), Overdoses(2), homelessness, joblessness, poverty, shortening life spans etc… We’re basically heading into a dark age full of doped up idiots who can’t seem think to save their lives, and won’t act in spite of a perilous threat exploding right in their drooling zombie faces (see appendix).  So where are we headed, and where are they(3) headed, and which ship would you want to be on if even half the above is true.

2) Infrastructure

China, through urbanization, has created a middle class(4) bigger  than the entire US population. The rural areas are still poor, but that can change with infrastructure like rail corridors. The New Silk Road as well as domestic projects have 100 km wide corridors that bring along the world’s best power plants, electricity & data transmission, oil, water, high speed rail, sub-networks to link in towns and villages, industrial agriculture, new cities including universities (5), hospitals, roads etc.. It will massively increase the living standards and connectivity of the underdeveloped regions and their peoples domestically and internationally, as well as many of the more remote and inland regions that had been ignored for a long time because they were inconvenient or lacking resources to loot.
The Chinese are building 330+ dams in 70+ countries, alleviating drought, flood, and hunger while only asking for fair repayment, and without imposing IMF-type ‘conditionalities’ such as; privatization, austerity, cancellation of food subsidies, mono-cropping, cash-cropping, cut-throat interest rates etc..
Also, China has universalized electrification in their country, and plans to eliminate poverty in their country by 2020.

3) Peace

What is more important than the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? What is more jeopardizing to those things than war? While NATO encircles Russia and China, intent on what Putin calls a “disarming instantaneous global strike”  with ABMs, Ohio Class subs, Bombers, and THAAD Missiles, each capable of delivering nuclear warheads to Russian and Chinese soil, China has reached out in cooperation to anyone willing to collaborate in win/win development deals, including the New Silk Road.
China is NOT threatening, or impeding anyone, they have only one foreign military base(6). They have no plans for imperial hegemony, despite being the quickly rising #2 economy in the world. In fact, Xi Jinping says:

China does not accept the logic that a strong country is bound to become hegemonic, and neither hegemony nor militarism is in the Chinese DNA … The notion of dominating international affairs belongs to a different age, and such attempts are doomed to failure,”

Here are a couple more telling quotes from the Chinese President:

The Chinese Nation has always held such beliefs as “Peace is most precious”, “Harmony without uniformity [and] universal love and non-aggression”

Six decades ago, in the course of decolonization that started at the end of the Second World War, the struggle for independence and liberation in Asia, Africa and Latin America surged. The newly independent countries longed for equality in international relations. Echoing this historical trend, China, India and Myanmar jointly initiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, namely, mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.” Xi

Of course, it is only sane to want a peaceful co-existence in a world where any war between the super powers would almost assuredly escalate to a nuclear shootout, but China is actually leading the way out, by 3 times offering for the US, and ‘relevant countries’ to join the New Silk Road via the Bering Strait, as part of a new paradigm where development is put first, where instead of the “Clash of Civilizations” where it is ‘each against all’ fighting over control of a dwindling resource base, you can instead have a community of sovereign nations, voluntarily engaging in win/win agreements building “towards the common aims of mankind” and in the Westphalian spirit of “the benefit of the other”

The global implications of the New Silk Road is shown above. This concept for a World Landbridge has been at the heart of the Schiller Institute’s organizating for over 30 years.

4) Technology

China will graduate 2000 fusion engineers by 2020.  They are currently preparing to mine the moon for Helium-3 (fusion fuel) of which there is enough on the moon to power the entire earth for 10,000 years at current usages. China is investing heavily in unlocking the keys of fusion, and recently made a huge breakthrough, achieving a plasma temperature of 90 million degrees for 102 seconds. Previous records were measured in the millionths or billionths of a second. Their goal is 180 million degrees for 10 minutes.
ChinaSchool-300x233.png
China wishes to share their discoveries in fusion research with the world. One example of this spirit is that they are participating in ITER, an international fusion research reactor.
There is a concrete pathway to commercial fusion energy. Scientists will tell you it is 100% possible if we commit to it. Please watch this 5 minute video on how we will get there, and why we haven’t yet.
Imagine if instead of fighting over artificially ‘scarce’ resources, we could desalinate all the ocean water we could ever need, we could give virtually free electricity to even the most remote peoples of the world, we could recycle every atom from every landfill and every kind of pollution in a fusion torch. we could explore the solar system and beyond. what about our ‘human rights’ to live as fully human, being capable, and free to explore our own creativity, and make a lasting contribution to the posterity of mankind? The forthcoming fusion economy makes this an attainable dream.
China is already heavily engaging their youth in their exploration of scientific frontiers like exploring (and detecting new cosmic rays) from the far side of the moon, and classical music. THAT is our future! Not fat brats on Ritalin and rock. If THEY inherit the world, there IS no future worth speaking of.
Far less important than the kind of rights that allow people to trample other peoples’ rights(7) and waste their lives on hedonistic indulgences, is the freedom to do good, and to contribute to the good, and to the future of mankind. This can lead to a future with abundance, which is a future without empire, and where war is unnecessary.
Do you think China would be better off if an Anglo-American color revolution accomplished it’s intended regime change, like most recently happened in Ukraine, Libya, and almost in Syria? How do those countries look as a result of “freedom and democracy”?
UkraineSyriaLibya-249x300
That might not be YOUR idea for China, but what you should realize is that one-sided rants against them are only helping to destroy the beautiful future they, and the BRICS are leading the world towards, and would lead to the same disastrous, yet intended ‘democratic’ regimes as are emerging under the names of Libya, Brazil, Ukraine and the “Islamic State”.
Can you hold an anti-Mao sign in Tienanmen square or on Social Media? I honestly don’t know. Let’s say you can’t. If that’s true today, I’ll bet it won’t be true in 5-10 years- as poverty lessens, and the empire collapses, and there is less chance of an uprising from the people who haven’t been reached yet by development, but have been reached by Soros’ twitter machine, or the CIA’s Facebook machine, or Google – who was caught helping Hillary Clinton to overthrow Assad. Google THAT!
However, on the other hand, if it’s true that you can speak freely in the US(8), UK or EU (you can’t) -or have honesty or integrity in our media (we don’t) or ‘human rights’ or economic justice- the fact is that we’re collapsing on all four fronts listed above, and China is improving greatly in all(9) fields. Are they perfect? Not at all. Are they moving in the right direction? I think I’ve proved that they are. Towards a ‘more perfect union.’
I think we need to follow the Chinese and Russian leadership, and accept their offer of mutual respect, trust, and prosperity and reject the false paradigm of scarcity, and conflict of the empire. I mean, in a nuclear armed world, that’s just common sense, isn’t it?

Footnotes

  1. Heroine addiction is increasing by 50% per year
  2. Now the leading cause of accidental death
  3. China
  4. Middle class- 1/3 of income or more is disposable
  5. BRICS citizens can go to BRICS universities for free
  6. For peacekeeping and dealing with pirates in Djibouti, near Somalia and the gulf of Aden, the
  7. Like Americans mistakenly think their nation was founded on. “I can do whatever I want, I’m an American!” -was the battle cry of a disgruntled visitor, while tearing up our political sign IN CANADA!
  8. Remember how Occupy Wall St. was broken up
  9. The above

Appendix
USDarkAgeEconomic-768x652


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Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 27, 2017 2:56 AM

Reblogged this on Taking Sides.

Arrby
Arrby
Jul 26, 2017 10:45 PM

Building dams is damn problematic.

BigB
BigB
Jul 26, 2017 1:53 PM

Quite frankly, I am concerned by some of the views expressed here: basically endorsing China’s debt fuelled expansionist extractivist exploitative resource draining business model. OK, it’s better than the American Imperium expansionist model: but that is little endorsement. It still beggars the question: what planet are you living on??? Why are people rushing to sign their own eco-suicidal note? For instance, those dam projects – Kevin doesn’t even consider the environmental impact – such as the functional extinction of the Irrawaddy River dolphin. The hydrology, clean water, and fishing rights of those downstream don’t tend to fair as well as those of the client nation. Hydrocarbons??? Anyone who thinks that the continued and accelerated extractivism and burning of hydrocarbons is not a problem: is part of the problem, IMO. We need life-commons – fresh water and clean air – not artificially cheap planned obsolescent goods that get returned as E-waste… Read more »

thenewhumanistparadigm
thenewhumanistparadigm
Jul 26, 2017 10:33 PM
Reply to  BigB

Thank you for providing the neo-malthusian, British Imperial point of view for contrast. This is very helpful. To the Citizens of Off Guardian: I put it to you: Should we move towards a collective soft-kill suicide, (as) slowly (as possible) running down our resources unto extinction? Or should we cast off the shackles of small-minded myopia and cynicism in favor of transcending these self-enforced boundaries, breaking through into a new paradigm where we don’t have to fight over scarce resources, but instead, use our creative abilities to create abundant resources, living in peace and harmony in a world of plenty? For those who understand the economic principles that make this possible, the contrary opinion is absurd. JFK said, “Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the… Read more »

thenewhumanistparadigm
thenewhumanistparadigm
Jul 26, 2017 10:38 PM

Here’s a great video about why infrastructure is way more important than making profits directly from infrastructure (and PPPs)

20 min.

BigB
BigB
Jul 27, 2017 10:13 AM

“China’s model is anything but ‘expansionist, extractivist, exploitative…’” @nhp: let’s walk through my basic assumptions for the hard of thinking: Expansionist: To stave off its own internal debt problem (explained in comment below): China’s economy is required to grow. The current rate of expansion is 8% nominal PA. Let’s look at the effect of compounding on that. At 8% PA: China’s economy will have to double in 12.5 years; quadrupling in 25 years. This I call expansionist. Extractivist: China, already the world’s largest hydrocarbon importer, will have to double its imports in 12.5 years, and quadruple in 25 years. Along with all the other raw materials. This I call extractivist. [We might as well deal with fusion now. The perennial fusion joke: fusion was 30 years away… 30 years ago. Norm’s dealt with the scalability of conventional nuclear below.] Exploitative; (resource draining): So, even if China enters into mutually beneficial… Read more »

Manda
Manda
Jul 27, 2017 1:34 PM

I have problems with this speech, not least the views expressed at the beginning. I do not believe we have become a new species, we have become more able to use our huge brains to invent new technologies that have advanced our living standards. My main point of agreement is the need for dense energy sources. I still have no idea why money is flowing into wind and solar when new, safer nuclear and other tech should have been and be the focus. Whatever happened to Fleischmann and Pons’ work and other such work? Thrown in the public bin but I bet the work has been continued somewhere. We have the brains, why is this so difficult we can only come up with an old tech (windmills) and a high input and maintenance tech such as solar which both require huge swathes of land or expensive, difficult to install and… Read more »

BigB
BigB
Jul 27, 2017 3:06 PM
Reply to  Manda

@Manda: The driver of resource depletion is the theo-classical economic growth cycle – driven by debt (aka neoliberalism.) The way money is created (debt+ interest); forces the economy to increase by at least the rate of interest-inflation each year. Contrary to popular opinion (TINA, BAU mantras) this is NOT the only way it could be. I tried to highlight the problem of compounding in the current system above. It literally forces us to squander whatever finite resources we have at an accelerating pace. It is the most insane principle: especially when you figure in the multi-trillion dollar global military resource acquisition and protection racket. The US military alone is the biggest polluter on the planet – fighting wars, sponsoring terrorist proxies, etc – wasting resources to acquire more resources??? With more enlightened thinking; policy making; and forward planning – we could use what resources we have to transition smoothly into… Read more »

Manda
Manda
Jul 27, 2017 4:45 PM
Reply to  BigB

” Time to treat what we have as precious… Not as an expendable resource that only has utility as short term profit…” I obviously gave the wrong impression with my comment. My main point is we have the brains and ability to move to a new sustainable and respectful paradigm and we have the brains to discover, research and implement new technologies that provide all we need in a sustainable and environmentally sensitive way and for me new safe, effective, sustainable and cheap power sources are a major key. China is using mainly AIIB to fund much of this infrastructure at low interest rates, as far as I am aware it is wanting governments to also commit and is not expecting private interest Rentiers to be much involved due to poor rate of return and length of investment term. Of course debt is involved but at low interest around 2.5%… Read more »

BigB
BigB
Jul 27, 2017 6:58 PM
Reply to  Manda

I posted a link below on the financing of OBOR. China can’t afford it unilaterally, and is trying to bring in European banks. As we know from Greece, these banks lending patterns can be predatory. China’s problem is not future debt, but the debt it has already accumulated, which makes it a modern debt-Zombie-to-be, according to Steve Keen. I would like to think we could move to a sustainable and respectful paradigm without precipitating another financial crisis. Given that China is already overburdened with debt, a $5tn (for the first five years) project seems speculative to me.

Manda
Manda
Jul 27, 2017 8:56 PM
Reply to  BigB

If China is to be a Zombie there wont be a substantial belt and road network then…
Hudson says we are already in a slow crash but of course if China goes under it will likely become a major crash and fast/sudden.
China aside, I doubt we can avoid a crash sooner or later without a new approach and debt write offs but neoliberals are extreme ideologues and they are the ones in power.
Sorry, I missed your latest post when I posted my one below.

CF
CF
Jul 28, 2017 10:09 AM
Reply to  BigB

Many have stated that China’s debt will overwhelm its economy and the whole edifice will come crashing down.
I’d like to remind you that PRC is the worlds largest creditor and it has more US debt than anyone outside the FED.
All PCR debt can be reclaimed by slowly selling US bonds. Alternatively they could sell off some of their gold, after all they own more than anyone on the planet.

BigB
BigB
Jul 28, 2017 3:39 PM
Reply to  CF

I posted a link in an earlier comment (below). The PBOC could sell US Bonds, but it would be left holding USD – which as I understand it is why they bought the Bonds in the first place (to soak up ForEx reserves)? The problem is not Government debt though, but that PRIVATE debt is running at 182% GDP. The money is in a giant property bubble: that can’t be recycled int the productive economy. Hence, debt-Zombie-to-be.

Manda
Manda
Jul 27, 2017 7:34 PM
Reply to  Manda

Andre Vltchek in an interview on UK Column News with poor connection. “China, the kindest nation on earth”. First interview on the show talking about Philippines.
http://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-27th-july-2017
We all have our own perspectives and I respect Vltchek very much. He spends his life travelling the world documenting struggles against Empire.

thenewhumanistparadigm
thenewhumanistparadigm
Jul 28, 2017 7:32 AM
Reply to  Manda

This is a good speech straight from the horse’s mouth about the ‘Project of the Century’ from the Chinese President – Xi – Delivered at the most important Conference of Our Time – the Belt and Road Forum- This year in Beijing

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 27, 2017 3:41 PM
Reply to  Manda

Nuclear energy is anything but safe, powerful, and cheap as a fuel for generating electricity. A resource where readers can find information on the issue: FAIRWINDS ENERGY EDUCATION Just as a sample of the quality of the information you will find at the FAIRWINDS website, you can read or listen to this “Tritium Exposé,” here. About Dr. Ian Fairlie, who in that podcast is being interviewed by FAIRWINDS: Dr. Fairlie is an independent consultant on radioactivity in the environment. He has a degree in radiation biology from Bart’s Hospital in London and did his doctoral studies at Imperial College in London and Princeton University, concerning the radiological hazards of nuclear fuel reprocessing. Ian was formerly with the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs specializing in radiation risks from nuclear power stations. From 2000 to 2004, he was head of the Secretariat to the UK Government’s CERRIE Committee… Read more »

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 27, 2017 2:27 AM

Infrastructure, yes. Raising productivity, yes — to ensure reliability and redundancy for essentials, and ultimately to lessen the burden of work so as eventually to reduce the length of the workday or necessary labour-time . . . For profit production, no — because technological innovation in the service of profits renders “incomes” or “a predictable and adequate share in the goods and services produced by collective labour.” Consumerism, no, on account of the unnecessary spoliation of material resources and the environment.
Now to view the video . . .

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 27, 2017 2:30 AM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

Correction: “For profit production, no — because technological innovation in the service of profits renders “incomes” (or “a predictable and adequate share in the goods and services produced by collective labour”) precarious . . .

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 27, 2017 5:09 AM

“We need to go towards nuclear energy . . .” Why nuclear power will never supply the world’s energy needs May 11, 2011 by Lisa Zyga To quote: Quote begins: The 440 commercial nuclear reactors in use worldwide are currently helping to minimize our consumption of fossil fuels, but how much bigger can nuclear power get? In an analysis to be published in a future issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE, Derek Abbott, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Adelaide in Australia, has concluded that nuclear power cannot be globally scaled to supply the world’s energy needs for numerous reasons. The results suggest that we’re likely better off investing in other energy solutions that are truly scalable. As Abbott notes in his study, global power consumption today is about 15 terawatts (TW). Currently, the global nuclear power supply capacity is only 375 gigawatts (GW). In… Read more »

thenewhumanistparadigm
thenewhumanistparadigm
Jul 28, 2017 7:27 AM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

much like the Malthusians and environmentalists that predicted we would run out of resources ages ago, you are failing to account for the ever-changing technological and scientific environment that is always changing our relationship to our environment. not long ago, Uranium was just a rock in the ground, and we were close to running out of trees to burn for fuel. not long from now, tress will mostly just be used for furniture, and oil will mostly be used for plastics. Uranium will be used at virtually 100% efficiency, and we will use it to kick start the last leap towards fusion energy. If you want to see just one example of how all of the above problems are solved, many of which aren’t problems of technology to begin with, but problems of management and intentional mismanagement- please check out this concept – which could be built any day –… Read more »

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 28, 2017 2:27 PM

I guess you missed the purport of Derek Abbott’s critique of the sociability of both nuclear fission and fusion. No matter. Question: what to do about tritium? Hydrogen, which is the chemical form of tritium, is something that is impossible to “contain.” Furthermore, it binds to oxygen, to form tritiated water, which then can become (and does become) organically bound, incorporated even in DNA, where this short range Beta emitter can and does wreak havoc. But I guess you were too busy or blinkered to follow up the link (above) to the FAIRWINDS interview with Dr. Ian Fairlie. So you see, TNHP, there are “limits” to what can be done in a world where “structure” dictates “imperatives.” To address your fixation on Malthus: of course, human population is nowhere near in its numbers to what the carrying capacity of the earth is. Mechanized agricultural yields are currently some 2000 times… Read more »

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 28, 2017 2:29 PM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

Of course, that’s:
I guess you missed the purport of Derek Abbott’s critique of the scalability of both nuclear fission and fusion. No matter.

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 28, 2017 8:08 PM

All that follows is a quote: Quote begins: [. . .] thorium-232 is very long lived (half-life: 14 billion years) and its decay products will build up over time in the spent fuel. This will make the spent fuel quite radiotoxic, in addition to all the fission products in it. It should also be noted that inhalation of a unit of radioactivity of thorium-232 or thorium-228 (which is also present as a decay product of thorium-232) produces a far higher dose, especially to certain organs, than the inhalation of uranium containing the same amount of radioactivity. For instance, the bone surface dose from breathing an amount (mass) of insoluble thorium is about 200 times that of breathing the same mass of uranium. 1 [. . .] On the question of safety, here is how the Union of Concerned Scientists in its Statement on Thorium Fueled Reactors, answers: Some people believe… Read more »

Alan
Alan
Jul 26, 2017 10:12 AM

The parameters of what defines human rights seem rather familiar? Adherents of the ‘five year plan’ mentality seldom understand what it is we actually need. No doubt scores of Chinese children will be taught to revere such and denounce those that question….rather like the rest of those nations espousing what they term, human rights.

Michael Tanner
Michael Tanner
Jul 26, 2017 7:31 AM

excellent work by kevin kennedy indeed … chinas human rights endeavour is in the macro scale, its about the wellbeing overall human race; energy, infrastructure, macro-economics, peace, progress, prosperity for the masses etc etc … western human rights is essentially about individuals; free speech, free choice, political freedom, sexual freedom etc etc … when was the last time anyone heard the developed countries like the us, the eu, japan or anyone else talk about lifting the living standard of the african nations and actually do something about it ??? make no mistake, the west in general has genuine concern about true human rights and are often violating the very rights they claimed to advocate – who the hell sponsored saudi arabia to the seats on unhrc and unwrc ??? the us and the eu … and all the destruction and killings around the world inflicted by the west while screaming… Read more »

Eric Blair
Eric Blair
Jul 26, 2017 4:58 AM

Great piece, thank you. Belief in “human rights” is a kind of secular religion in the West and it is heretical to suggest that Western countries are not bastions of enlightenment and freedom. Wars and economic sanctions that have killed over a million people since the 1990s are justified using human rights rhetoric. It has become a cliche for Westen leaders to condescendingly lecture their non-Western counterparts on the importance of respecting “human rights” as defined by the West of course. It is compulsory for journalists reporting from “enemy'” states like Syria or when interviewing their leaders to rudely interrupt and inject accusatory, and often idiotic, questions cobbled together from Foreign Office and DoS talking points. Channel 4 recently did a segment from Aleppo and their hack kept interrupting the local MP he was interviewing and made a fool of himself with “yes but what about people who say Assad… Read more »

Arrby
Arrby
Jul 26, 2017 11:05 PM
Reply to  Eric Blair

You make a lot of good points. I have been learning in recent months, perhaps years (I lose my sense of time), that even as someone who pays attention and has sensitive bullcrap sensors, I’m still amazed by how much crap I probably have floating around in my brain, put there by our ‘benefactors’ in power and their tools. There’s a few things I would point out though. I’m turned off by counter arguments from the real Left that are completely one-sided. True, there’s often the obligatory (for people like me who make arguments like this) ‘China’ (or your US-targetted country of choice) ‘is not perfect, but…’ Instead of a ‘but’, I’d like to see an actual, factual, balanced report. And bravado, which wasn’t terribly in evidence in your post, but often is in articles and commentary like this, is a bad idea. Never, never mislead the people. It isn’t… Read more »

Dead World Walking
Dead World Walking
Jul 25, 2017 11:47 PM

600 million middle class?
That is frightening.
While it is the right of every human being to have enough good food to eat, a warm house to live in, a good education and a fulfilling occupation, none of us have the right to be rabid consumers.
The Earth has limits.
We have exceeded those limits.
The children of the Chinese and Indian middle classes are doomed, like the rest of us, to inherit a wasteland

thenewhumanistparadigm
thenewhumanistparadigm
Jul 26, 2017 10:37 PM

Why there really are no limits to growth
http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/Spring02/NoLimits.html
5 min. Vid. about the same thing, explained from the scientific perspective of Energy Flux Density

Manda
Manda
Jul 27, 2017 1:55 PM

The message is above my head. I cannot understand it or relate it to my world.

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 27, 2017 4:06 PM
Reply to  Manda

In a word, Manda, it’s bullshit. It’s not above your head, it’s simply beyond comprehension.
W.C. Fields put it exactly right: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” You have to give it to America: it is unsurpassed in the art,
Hard to tell, though, whether TNHP has been taken in or whether he/she is merely on a mission, so to speak . . .

BigB
BigB
Jul 27, 2017 6:26 PM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

It’s not for mere mortals to understand, Norm. It means we’re going to harness fusion and colonize the stars. You have to drink a particular brand of Larouche Fool Aid to get it. See PsyBorg’s comment below.

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 27, 2017 7:36 PM
Reply to  BigB

Never really paid any attention to the “Larouchies” for their religious espousal of what they call “American Political Economy.” And I agree with PsyBorg, the article does have some interest . . . “BUT . ..” China’s misfortune, like Russia’s, is that it seems to have taken a capitalist turn . . . That may be strategic, however, with the “CCP” remaining both politically ascendant and very much still committed to socialism (and communism) in the longer term . . . Political revolution may happen quickly, wherein the machinery of state power is wrested from a ruling class by a subordinate class; but ‘social revolution’ — real alterations in a society’s ‘social relations,’ that is to say, in the customary relations between as yet existing social classes or persistent ideological factions — is the work of generations. In the meantime, life must go on. You must work with what and… Read more »

Manda
Manda
Jul 27, 2017 11:17 PM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

“China’s misfortune, like Russia’s, is that it seems to have taken a capitalist turn . . . That may be strategic, however, with the “CCP” remaining both politically ascendant and very much still committed to socialism (and communism) in the longer term . .. ” I think industrial capitalism isn’t the most pressing problem. it’s the modern virulent form of financial capitalism and wealth (land/assets) accumulation that extract rent that is the deadly disease. I do fear that China and Russia may not have the know how to combat (assuming they wish to) the Anglo/American/western system of financialization of the real economy and banking system with long experience of how to engineer it. I have heard Hudson describe Putin as a neoliberal, . I just found this transcript of Hudson’s speech at a conference in China 2015. “The Paradox of Financialized Industrialization”. http://michael-hudson.com/2015/10/the-paradox-of-financialized-industrialization/ I note at the time Hudson took… Read more »

BigB
BigB
Jul 28, 2017 2:14 PM
Reply to  Manda

@Manda; @Norman: mine might be a singular contrarian view… But the bottom line is: can capitalism raise 7.5 billion people (or 11.2 bn by 2100) into middle class wealth – without first destroying the biosphere??? Is that even a desirable outcome??? Does humanity even want a Western Liberal Democratic Middle Class future??? Call me a Luddite, but if the answer to any of these questions is no, we need a different way: and can’t be content to wait and see. In citing Hudson, Manda has hit the nail on the head. We are being conned, by an international monopolistic rentier oligopoly of power – the real ‘Invisible Hand’ behind the ‘free’ market. Financialized Industrialized Capitalism makes money out of money (M-M’): essentially taxing and diminishing the sovereign wealth of nations. The people and the environment are externalities. Can such a system ever enrich us??? The question being posed here is:… Read more »

Manda
Manda
Jul 28, 2017 5:43 PM
Reply to  BigB

“Call me a Luddite, but if the answer to any of these questions is no, we need a different way: and can’t be content to wait and see.” I admire Luddites… they saw how the capitalists took all the benefits from technology for themselves and cast the employed wealth producers aside to benefit only themselves. I don’t believe capitalism is capable of raising any of us as it has panned out and the stage we are now at. Capitalism was always going to pollute and even destroy earth without strict and strictly enforced controls. I am completely on board we need a new system. I see a major, even nuclear, war as the most imminent possible danger especially as the financial system is so fragile built on a pile of sewage that cannot support anything more than a feather and many in charge of the war machine are out of… Read more »

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 28, 2017 6:25 PM
Reply to  BigB

BigB, I agree that the consumerism of the West is suicidal, both ecologically and culturally. That isn’t the way to go. On that point, you won’t get a counter-argument from me. And while I have read and think that I understand Micheal Hudson, he remains for my taste too much within the purview of for-profit production, just as does Steve Keen and Richard Werner. There is no question that what these economists propose by way of de-financializing the capitalist economy would work to revive and keep the “productive” economy ticking and, what seems to run somewhat counter to your economic ethos, growing(!). Therefore, what I note about these economists is that what they seek to fine tune is fundamentally a capitalist economy, albeit mitigated in its functional incoherence by public finance whose function is basically to make up the shortfall between the sum of all wages as the aggregate purchasing… Read more »

BigB
BigB
Jul 29, 2017 7:53 AM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

Thanks for the response: I agree with the increased threat of war (see above.) I also agree about Hudson and Keen: I guess they only see that their responsibility ends with “fixing” the economy? A debt jubilee would be a reset: how we continue from there would be for policy makers: I think we know what they will do. Maybe Keen will go further now he is crowdfunded??? I presume they are constrained in part by their professorships??? The way I conceive that global society should look: it follows that if we can’t grow the economy indefinitely and employ the trickle down lie – what wealth is created needs to be distributed equitably (according to need.) Here, John Rawls’ Principles of Justice apply. The way I would express this: we need to look after the least of us, first. Wealth should “diffuse up.” Any inequality the system could sustain should… Read more »

Manda
Manda
Jul 29, 2017 12:13 PM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

I agree Hudson, Keen and Werner concentrate on critique of where we are now and suggestion of ways to improve the current situation. The critique is useful though in my opinion to spread understanding to wider and wider audiences. Werner is currently trying to get a local non profit bank off the ground to service the local community and SMEs on a German model.
I also agree Socialism is the route to other/another more equitable system/s not least because it ameliorates the current hardships being imposed via austerity.
I am unable to reply to BigB but waned to say that for me the idea of constant economic growth is a false and dangerous belief. We have to move to a balanced system. To me that doesn’t mean stagnation but vibrant and ever changing.

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 29, 2017 6:10 PM
Reply to  Manda

Excellent essay by Hudson. Nothing at all to quibble with, there. And so I do concur with you, Manda, that in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, the industrial or wage labour dynamic may not be the most pressing issue. Thank you for that link. Re-reading Hudson, after having set his work aside for far too long, and reading that particular piece for the first time, is giving me pause . . .

PsyBorg
PsyBorg
Jul 25, 2017 10:55 PM
Kevin Morris
Kevin Morris
Jul 25, 2017 8:12 PM

I am no fan of the US, but see no reason in whitewashing the actions of the People’s Republic of China. China has one of the highest execution rates in the world and it is only relatively recently that it has stopped dislocating the jaw of prisoners awaiting execution in order that they don’t call out at the execution ground. Nowadays, prisoners awaiting execution are frequently tissue typed in order that their organs might be sold on the open market. At executions ambulances stand by in order that the deceased organs might be harvested. It is almost impossible for Tibetans to receive a secondary education in their own language. Some years ago, the International Commission of Jurists accused China of genocide in Tibet. With Han Chinese receiving generous financial inducements to settle in what the Chinese refer to as ‘the western treasure land’, Tibetans are now a minority in their… Read more »

Anna Zimmerman
Anna Zimmerman
Jul 26, 2017 9:39 AM
Reply to  Kevin Morris

Well said. It is simplistic to think that because the US and its Western allies have (undoubtedly) done so much evil, we should automatically whitewash the crimes of the other side. Human rights violations have always been the inevitable corollary of concentrated power, where retaining this power becomes the overwhelming priority of the elite. It is concentrated power that we should fight against, regardless of skin colour, gender, creed, ethnicity or political ideology.

BigB
BigB
Jul 26, 2017 2:21 PM
Reply to  Anna Zimmerman

Agreed. The “we’re just as bad” argument can only go so far. Instead of trying to polarize opinion into black or white – how about two blacks make a very big black outlook?

Arrby
Arrby
Jul 27, 2017 9:27 PM
Reply to  Anna Zimmerman

*When I post this (again on a different computer and isp) I get a msg saying that it’s a duplicate. Therefore, it may show up again. I almost think that that’s the only way to have the disappeared post appear. Forgive me if that happens. Not only that, I don’t see how states that want to go their own way, and not be under the global dictatorship of the United States, can do so when the entire world is caught in the global capitalist system designed by the US and dominated by it. It is important to note the way the US dominates. It’s by rule-breaking. We should know this by now. But not only do those leaders (Saddam, Gaddaffi, Moddadegh, Assad, Chavez and Maduro for example) who want independence from uncle Sam’s “leadership” still want to play by his rules, by employing ‘his’ money system, but they act as… Read more »

thenewhumanistparadigm
thenewhumanistparadigm
Jul 26, 2017 9:52 PM
Reply to  Kevin Morris

You’ve been reading too much CIA Atlanticist lies spread through Epoch Times and Falun Gong cult agitators. Occupy your mind!

Manda
Manda
Jul 27, 2017 2:12 PM
Reply to  Kevin Morris

“I am no fan of the US, but see no reason in whitewashing the actions of the People’s Republic of China.” A fair point but where does it get us? Has US/west got a vision of ending destructive wars and promoting global co operation and respectful collaboration with the aim of ending poverty and raising us all so we can all enjoy better, more fulfilled lives and be freer to create? I don’t buy the argument that China is expansionist but am aware projects such as the one proposed can be co opted by Rentier and ideological interests. My argument has always been if we cannot control our own governments/elites how can we hope to modify others? Besides that, what gives us the right to judge other countries and cultures based on our ‘values’ looking through our cultural eyes? ‘We’ kill and repress foreigners by the million, destroy millions of… Read more »

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 28, 2017 4:59 AM
Reply to  Manda

I’d go just a tad further and say that the so-called foreigners “we” murder are very much “our own.” It all depends upon the way in which you construct and privilege the various dimensions of your identity: if you privilege your “tribe” over an imagined “other,” then there are foreigners “we” murder and “our own” that “we” don’t, “us” and “them;” but if you privilege your humanness above all else, you see yourself in everyone else while also being able to recognize humankind’s universal susceptibility to narrow and parochial interests, and thus see people mostly in terms of class divisions, as being actively either oppressed or oppressing, and this, rather than nationality or ethnicity or color or gender or whatever, becomes the primary basis of how you define “us” and “them.” The whole world is now capitalist. It divides between ruling minorities and an overwhelming majority ruled by those expert… Read more »

Manda
Manda
Jul 28, 2017 12:54 PM
Reply to  Norman Pilon

Great comment/rebuttal with which I entirely agree. I feel exposed for falling into the trap of using the terms used to oppress us. We in the west and other wealthy countries only avoid the most egregious aspects of violent repression because we are currently the source of funding and insurance for actions everywhere to repress and exploit for the benefit of the oppressors and maintenance of the system..
I see/saw identity politics as a major current stumbling block to keeping class as the main focus but perhaps the us/them home/foreign is the biggest block of all to keeping class as the focus? I have certainly been prompted to do more thinking, observing and soul searching so thank you.

Manda
Manda
Jul 28, 2017 2:08 PM
Reply to  Manda

I have been reminded of points I was originally going to make in reply but decided to take the lesson as the point. https://off-guardian.org/2017/07/28/force-and-fraud/comment-page-1/#comment-75684 This article highlights the repression I believe we at the heart of the capitalist empire are increasingly experiencing… quote: ” As Thucydides noted, when the crisis deepens, the methods of controlling empire will come home and be used to control the domestic population at the centre of empire. Force will play an increasing role vis-à-vis fraud.” I do believe there is a marked difference between the extent of decay (elite panic/inability to manage the system) in our sphere in comparison to the powerful countries that adopted capitalism more recently. I believe decay is far, far more advanced at home. I point to one obvious indicator, the quality of politicians now in office. I do believe there are two separate and different capitalist spheres despite how elites… Read more »

Norman Pilon
Norman Pilon
Jul 28, 2017 3:27 PM
Reply to  Manda

I agree with you: there are qualitative differences between “capitalist regimes.” And there are elements within existing capitalist societies that are genuinely progressive. Those progressive aspects are what need to be preserved and elaborated, as for example: generalizing the “collectively organized (or socialized) mode of production” of the firm to the whole of society, so as to eliminate destructive competition between variously productive segments; preserving the spirit of innovation so as to reduce labor-time, not to necessarily produce more or, as is now done, to increase profit margins, but to reduce the length of the workday for all, to lessen the toil to which men and women must be subjected to keep our bodies and souls together; preserving and enhancing all existing institutions providing services essential to human welfare, i.e., public health initiatives, like hospitals and clinics and food inspection, and sewage and water treatment facilities, and so on; keeping… Read more »

Frank
Frank
Jul 25, 2017 5:55 PM

I really don’t know how the US and its vassals have the nerve to accuse anyone of a violation of human rights. At the present time the Anglo-American armed and funded ally, Saudi Arabia, is conducting an unrestricted bombing campaign against Yemen, the poorest country in the middle-east. Apart from the thousands of deaths and injuries caused directly by the bombing, there is now a large-scale cholera epidemic taking place due to the destruction of vital infrastructures such as sewage and clean water. This amounts to what can only be described as bacteriological warfare. What sort of people are these exactly? Cannibals might be apposite as a description.

Manda
Manda
Jul 25, 2017 5:45 PM

““Harmony without uniformity [and] universal love and non-aggression”
I love this part of that quote…. “Harmony without uniformity” Says it all for me.
I think it is time for many more articles about the future we humans can have rather than endlessly chewing over all the horrors our ’empire’ has been and still is wreaking around the world and now on us in the west as well as judging countries/societies/cultures most know nothing about beyond MSM propaganda.
It’s time to look to a real global future of harmony, collaboration and respect.
This article really lifted me, thanks.

Lou
Lou
Jul 25, 2017 5:32 PM

Just found out this week that the US was part of a war crimes tribunal. (Wait till I stop laughing). If the USA can be part of a war crimes tribunal, China is the best Human Rights defender on the planet.

BigB
BigB
Jul 25, 2017 5:21 PM

Just how did the Chinese raise all those people out of poverty? By creating an “unbelievable” debt bubble. I must admit, when I read such information coming from Forbes and Bloomberg analysts; I was less than convinced. When Prof Steve Keen says that China is a modern “Debt-Zombie-To-Be”: I have to take it onboard. All that infrastructure (‘Ghost Cities’) – created to offset the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) – actually represents the mother of all real estate bubbles. According to Keen: China faces the modern “Debt Junkies Dilemma” – create more debt or go “Cold Turkey” now – to offset a more devastating crash later. So China’s obsession with building and expansion is as much about existential angst as benevolence. If it can’t expand its market share at 6.9% PQ (8% nominal) – it would face a “sudden readjustment”. With China projected to account for 18% of world GDP this… Read more »

Anna Zimmerman
Anna Zimmerman
Jul 25, 2017 5:14 PM

I am not a China or Russia basher, but my heart sinks when I contemplate all this infrastructure development which will expand the Western idea of ‘development’ ie more waste, more resource depletion, more pollution and more destruction of wildlife. We don’t need more Western ‘development’ – we need a different conception of development which focuses on sustainability, autonomy and localism, and re-orientation away from the consumerism that has polluted the entire world. I fail to see that Chinese people aping the destructiveness and greed of the West constitutes genuine progress. This does not mean a rejection of infrastructure projects per se, but a more judicious approach, rather than merely assuming that more is better, which this article is definitely guilty of.

BigB
BigB
Jul 26, 2017 2:30 PM
Reply to  Anna Zimmerman

Anna: your comment is a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t see things as you and I: but is ordered by the minority to facilitate the unbridled and unconscionable “pursuit of happiness”. Nothing is inevitable, but let’s hope the survivors find a better way! 🙂

Anna Zimmerman
Anna Zimmerman
Jul 26, 2017 8:41 PM
Reply to  BigB

Thank you for your support BigB – I second all your comments too.
Whilst I can understand the desire to overlook the shortcomings of one’s enemy’s enemy (and I certainly do regard the US establishment as an enemy), we will need to do better than that if we want to be a viable species.

BigB
BigB
Jul 26, 2017 11:35 PM
Reply to  Anna Zimmerman

I’ve always favoured the First Nations-Ghandi ethos of Trusteeship and Custodianship: particularly of the land, water, sea, and air (as opposed to Private Property Rights.) We should leave ecosphere in a healthier condition for each successive generation… The land and its resources are not ours: they were loaned to us by the Children… Oh well, it was a quaint notion… Pity it never caught on… 🙁
“If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?” Chief Seattle.

Jen
Jen
Jul 26, 2017 11:44 PM
Reply to  Anna Zimmerman

While Kevin Kennedy’s article is certainly very selective and biased, you do have to consider that a long-distance high-speed rail network from London to Madrid to Beijing and maybe even Singapore could be cheaper and perhaps more environmentally friendly than flying from those two European cities to the Asian cities. While those 330+ dams being built by China in 70+ countries might not all be needed and some would certainly be wasteful and in the long term environmentally harmful even, some of those dams, if managed properly, could turn out to be long-term assets: the artificial lakes they create could be used to preserve endangered riverine species and ecosystems that help clean the water. Communities whose livelihoods might otherwise be ruined by dam construction could help to maintain those ecosystems. What happens after the Chinese build the dams is up to the governments and agencies that are responsible for the… Read more »

summitflyer
summitflyer
Jul 25, 2017 2:56 PM

What a great and enlightening article .Thank you so much.I will save this link and use the next time I come across a China basher .

rehmat1
rehmat1
Jul 25, 2017 2:46 PM

China has developed friendly relations with several Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, and Iran – but historically China is a colonial power like Russia, Britain, France, and United states. China is still occupying Muslim Uyghur land known as Eastern Turkistan. American Jewish author and poet Gershon W. Hepner describes Uyghurs’ plight in the following poem: In China, Moslems called the Uyghurs are fighting to be free of rule by Han Chinese. It figures that they want liberty, just like the other captive nations the Han now rule, Tibet the largest, but their expectations aren’t likely to be met. The Han call freedom fighters in both places terrorists, and almost certainly will win by force of arms and fists, but no one cares about these Asians here in the West, because we fear our vital trade relations might suffer, with a loss of our prosperity, and let the Chinese… Read more »

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 25, 2017 2:37 PM

Reblogged this on Worldtruth.