Universal Declaration Of Human Rights Still Ignored By Beijing, China Soft After Cultural Revolution 50th Anniversary Tears Leak In International News

Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the original UN Charter were signed by China back when they were first crafted. Mainland China again agreed to the UDHR in 1971, right during the time China was in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. Despite agreeing to the document, the Communist Party has fought against it every time the country was criticized for not actually following it. Even 50 years after the start of the Cultural Revolution, China allowed no great memorials or acknowledgement of wrongdoing, but smaller news of the remorseful actions of the populace is starting to spread.

The policy within China and the policy China has used with the world is to not openly talk about the things the Chinese government does in violation of civil or human rights. Whether it’s the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s or current day events involving citizens of other countries in China, all criticism is off the table. As the New York Times reports, that’s why a Canadian reporter was angrily lectured in a public conference by the Chinese foreign minister for a question on recent China human rights issues that he posed to the Canadian foreign minister. The Canadian foreign minister didn’t even get the chance to address the question before China’s representative went on a tirade that seems to suggest China is beyond criticism and nobody has the authority to speak about such things.

China’s foreign minister lost it on a Canadian reporter for asking about human rights https://t.co/PJ44KSYTzR pic.twitter.com/m2Xhkpsmb7

— BuzzFeed Canada (@BuzzFeedCanada) June 2, 2016

Few officials have uttered a peep in response over in Beijing. China feels that to admit wrongdoing openly, either of current events or of the past, would undermine the Chinese Communist Party’s legacy and threaten the legitimacy of the current power structure. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped Chinese individuals with heavy hearts from apologizing to each other for atrocities committed during the Cultural Revolution on an individual level. And some of those apologies are starting to get media attention, and encourage others to do the same.

No matter if the country actually investigates the wrongdoing or not, people are still bleeding inside while the Chinese government takes the issue lightly. The country is not gaining trust by suppressing memories of the event. Many of the people who suffered and who didn’t die still live in China. Facts are being revealed as factions within the Communist Party wrangle for power in today’s China. An official apology could indicate the direction of larger changes and begin a healing process.

Despite China agreeing to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights during its most intense period of human rights violations back in 1971, U.S. News and World Report talks about how China still ignores the document even in ways that lead to human rights violations illegal to China’s own constitution.

“Free elections and voting rights, likewise enshrined in the UDHR and guaranteed in the Chinese constitution, are non-existent in China. Religious freedom, also enshrined in both documents, is limited to state-sanctioned religious organizations. Just as the Chinese government ignores the UDHR, so it also ignores its own constitution.”

The United Nations has always been lenient with the People’s Republic of China, despite China blocking almost every sensible human rights action that the UN has put forth, as well as denouncing and blocking investigations of its own record. As China fights any criticism of government actions from the outside, it also fights itself from the inside. This is why the infamous anti-corruption campaigns of Chinese president Xi Jinping have still not dealt with some of the most pressing human rights concerns, though many formally in high positions have been handed jail sentences.

Lack of media freedom contributing to human rights #violations in #China https://t.co/xfhz9v4sMu pic.twitter.com/KybwoWPymg

— UNPO (@UNPOintl) May 3, 2016

But the Chinese Communist Party was already out of control before Xi took the reigns. No matter how many anti-corruption campaigns he initiates, cleaning up the mess will be akin to changing what the entire system was built upon. To truly get rid of the layers of corruption that run the communist-ruled nation would require opening up the government and the country to greater freedoms, including allowing the fortress of communism to topple and break into multiple political parties with varying ideas and lessened power structures, and one that not only acknowledges but actually follows the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

[Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images]