Athens Journal of Philosophy 2024, 3: 1-22
https://doi.org/10.30958/ajphil.X-Y-Z
Abstract
Introduction. Genesis, amputation, and manipulation of UDRH…and ampliation
From
a recent article, researching the historical condition of the genesis of The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights_ UDHR,
two propositions not falsifiable could
be established: People´s around the
world don’t now the substance and the original text, and the historical
conditions where was drafted.[2] Remember:
The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights_ UDHR was adopted by the UN on 10
December 1948 (A/RES/217). Drafted by J. P. Humphrey of
Canada and Dr. P.C. Chang,
representative of China and mediator of Asian countries, the main negotiator of
the consensus established in its 30 articles. Eleanor Roosevelt
enthusiastically supported her..
Labor
rights, economic democracy, the right of nations to dispose of themselves.
Self-determination and independence. Refusal of hegemonism and a new era, of peaceful and justice …they have
been elevated to the condition of fundamental human rights and, are
incompatible with the political nature and evolution of liberal democracies.
The propaganda of Cold War need to subvert and distort the principles of the original UDHR. In the U.S. (and the West), human rights are seen and reduced as formal civil and political rights. But it ends there. ( Roth, 2021).[3]
“Preamble
Whereas
recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of
all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace
in the world,
Whereas
disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which
have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which
human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and
want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas
it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last
resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should
be protected by the rule of law
Whereas
it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between
nations…
…/…
The General Assembly,
However, USA, United Kingdom, France, don’t respected the initial articles of UDHR_ see the articles 1 and 2, because was colonialist countries and social and racial discrimination was institutionalized and practiced in the metropolis and in the colonies (the fascist regimes of Deutschland, Italy, or Japan, obvious could not be the promotors of UDHR).
“Article
1
All
human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.
Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
The
collage of Cold War propaganda linking political Human Rights with the model of
liberal democracy, it is a fallacy. What Article 21 of UDHR prescribes is the
way to citizenship and the diversity of democratic regimes.
“Article
21
(1)
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly
or through freely chosen representatives.
(2)
Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”
Article 21 of UDHR open the gate of new democracies and History can walk again to realize all the dreams and Human Utopias. That is the Chinese Dream and the Beautiful China. And the Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
“Article 28
Everyone
is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29
Everyone
has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his
personality is possible.
In
the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such
limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due
recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting
the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a
democratic society.
These
rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations.
Article
30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.”
The principles of Universal Declaration of Human Rights _UDHR, freedom, justice and peace in the world, the development of friendly relations between nations, was quickly abandoned, but the memory of the tragedy of II War and the desire of democracy and peace was very strong around the word, so propaganda would be indispensable to justify new military confrontations.
“Article
22
Everyone,
as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to
realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in
accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic,
social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free
development of his personality.
Article
23
Everyone
has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
Everyone,
without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
Everyone
who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself
and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if
necessary, by other means of social protection.
Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
Fukuyama
fundamental thesis, in the book The End of History and the Last Man, is not
about the end of ideologies, but a celebration of the triumph of liberal
democracy doctrines (and the US-UK model of democracy) over socialist ideology
and socialists’ regimens from the East of Europe, in the context of the fall of
USSR and European Popular Republics, celebrated by Milton Freedman as the
triumph of political and economic neoliberalism.
The
master idea of Fukuyama was the same of Churchill, the conservative first
minister of UK that win the war against Nazism but not understand the changes
of the post-war world and inside your own country: The national movements
pushing to decolonization, against racism and social discriminations, and
fighting for a new international order, peaceful and democratic. It was defeat
in the first elections after the end of war in Europe.
Churchill
proclaims in the House of Commons (11 November 1947):”…liberal democracy is the
worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried
from time to time. (Churchill by Himself, 574) At the same time, he declared:
“From
Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended
across the continent…that he call the
Soviet sphere.” (Churchill, 1946)
Another
hand, Churchill’s doctor Lord Moran reveals, in her book, Churchill: The Struggle for Survival
1945-60, that Churchill suggesting in
1946 that the United States make a pre-emptive atomic bomb attack on Moscow
while the Soviet Union did not yet possess nuclear weapons and in 1947, he put
the idea in a memo to President Truman.
In
the Korean War (1950-1953) a conflict of Cold War, Douglas MacArthur the
general commandant in chief of USA and allied troops, wants to develop a global
strategy to extend the struggle directly to China and USSR and gain military
supremacy with the utilization of tactical atomic weapons. It was dismissed,
accused of insubordination and the menace was deferred.
In the end of II World War, the thought and ideas of more powerful Western liberal leaders reserve full democracy to the old (UK) and new (USA) imperial countries, the white supremacy and racism is preserved inside those national and international communities and justify that democracy was not for all countries and nations. The fair of communism would be the following great idea.
The omission of History, the first fallacy of the single thought
In
1962, Friedman criticized Social Security in his book Capitalism and Freedom
arguing that it had created welfare dependency and propose private charity as
one recourse for alleviating poverty.
Friedman doctrine clashes with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights_ UDHR: Article 22, 23, 24, 25… the right to social security livelihood supported by each State, Friedman's became the main opposite of Keynesian government policies.
“Article
22
Everyone,
as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to
realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in
accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic,
social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free
development of his personality.
Article
23
Everyone
has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
Everyone,
without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
Everyone
who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for
himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented,
if necessary, by other means of social protection.
Everyone
has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his
interests.
Article
24
Everyone
has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article
25
Everyone
has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of
himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care
and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”
He
theorized that there existed a "natural" rate of unemployment and
argued that unemployment below this rate would cause inflation to accelerate.
Friedman economic doctrine promote macroeconomic "monetarism",
negative taxation, privatization, and deregulation.
In
1975, as adviser of the dictator Pinochet, Friedman could apply its neoliberal
program: He said: "There is only one way to end inflation :..cutting
government to reduce the fiscal deficit”.. ” …to... strengthens the private
sector” "promising a brief period of higher unemployment
The
actual crises of emigration, assuming the dimension of continental waves of
emigrants, with the refugee refusal by repressive means in the border of USA
and Europe, represents the fall of that
theory and clash again with the UDHR:
A recipe that is extended to all America Central, America Latina and Europa. Friedman was an advisor of Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His political philosophy celebrated the virtues of “free market”, what means deregulation of economic and financial systems with minimal intervention of state, extended to all domains, such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax and school vouchers, what means adding publicly operated schools with private management but publicly funded schools through a system of school vouchers.
“Article
13
Everyone
has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each
state.
Everyone
has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.
Article
14
Everyone
has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
This
right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from
non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of
the United Nations.
Article
15
Everyone
has the right to a nationality.
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.”
Friedman
favored immigration, because take jobs that most residents of this country are
unwilling to take, however suggesting that immigrants should not have access to
the welfare system.
The
deregulation of economic and financial market, with an innumerable tax havens
which provide cover for money laundering, the creation of hidden financial
products, vulture financial funds, the end of separation between investment
banks and commercial banks, represent the triumph of Friedman doctrine, not
only in the range of conservative parties but involving socialist like UK
Labour, from The Third Way of Tony Blair or American Democrats with President
Bill Clinton government. The financial crises of 2007-2008 was the consequence.
A
brutal clash against the UDHR too: In the US, despite the nominal GDP growth,
the wealth of American citizens increasingly concentrated in a few scant 1% of
the American population _ in 2006, this group of top received 53% of the
income, and in 2010 came to 93%.(
Bell,
2015).
That means the concentration of capital and property, the loss of public propriety and the expropriation of middle class_ entrepreneurs, farmers, workers, houses, cars, pensions, savings…
“Article
17
Everyone
has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.”
The
US Census Bureau reported that 16% of the U.S. population lived in poverty.
And, concerning extreme poverty _ of those who live on less than 2 dollars a
day, was twice of 1966, growing from 1.5 million to 2.8 million children and
families! The theory of Friedman of
tendencies to reducing poverty is not confirmed in its own country!
In alternative, agrarian reform of PRCh gives the land to 350 million of peasants and 850 million left behind the extreme poverty.
We needs a new conceptual framework, to understand the Chinese way
The
cold war never end and the renaissance of China and the fall of USSR, create
two negative waves:
Most
of the Communist Parties do not understood why socialism was defeat in the East
Europe. And for most of the parties that remain communist, socialist regimens
needs to follow the model of USSR.
On
the other hand, to neoliberal parties_ with the acronyms of democratic parties,
liberal parties, socialist parties…liberal democracies was the end of history,
the peak of political progress. Socialism with Chinese Characteristics emerged
to put into question the two dogmatic views.
A
long-time dogmatic propaganda from the right and the left, create a big
political misunderstanding and alienation in the awareness of citizen of EU. That is the reason because
it is necessary a negative heuristic to dismount the fake prepositions_
fallacies and fake news.
Living
in a new world where mass media and social media are monopolized, it is not
easy to build a critical thought. After fifty years studying China, I always
return to the critical issues: What represents the concepts the “Socialism With
Chinese Characteristics”? And their evolution to “Ecological Socialism” and the
pilot zones towards “Ecocivilization”? Wat are the propositions of The Global Security Initiative for Peace or
The Global Development Initiative? West media and social networks don’t publish
the original documents and when make a brief note it is to criticize those
initiatives as the soft power of China to achieve hegemony.
Time
revue calls PRCh a “hybrid model of quasi-state capitalism and semi democratic
authoritarianism”. Around the world, different research postulates a common
idea: “China's successful reform has produced a system that is neither Soviet,
nor Anglo-American, nor East Asian-developmental state. It has elements of all
three” (Wei, 2019, 31).
That last vision was adopted by the American Senate, after a long debate for two years, from 2016 to 2017, that decide: the Federal Government must increase the Economic and Diplomatic engagement with China.
DHS Strategic Action Plan to Counter the Threat Posed by People’s Republic of China'
But
in 2021, a critical turning point
happened: the Department of Homeland
Security’s (DHS), lanced the so-called “DHS Strategic Action Plan to Counter
the Threat Posed by People’s Republic of China''. This document is practically
unknown by the public in the west but
must be taken seriously by the government of China. It is the key to
understanding the intensification of
hostile campaigns about Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan, and incidents like the suspicion around the
5G technology.
But
returning to China political Philosophy. The standpoint of my research is: If
the People’s Republic of China represents a new historical experience of democracy
and socialism, the Western conceptual framework of political hermeneutics is
not adequate to understand PRCh.
And,
by this way, I find successive
propositions not falsifiable, that must be better studied, like socialist market, one country, two systems,
that represent distinct faces of a new
historical regime, different from liberal democracy, and Soviet Union
socialism. Those regimes did not
represent the end of history and the unique way to socialism.
And yes, we need a new conceptual framework, to understand the Chinese way into a new era. That is the mission of political philosophy.
USA plan against Chinese Threat and China Global Development Initiative
In
the beginning of December 2021, two documents established two opposite strategies
to the world.
The
Global Development Initiative (GDI), proposed by China on the United Nations
Assembly in 2021, aims catch up and accomplish the UN’s 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, on risk by pandemic and regional conflicts, with a
strong contribution of China in all critical domains, from health to the green
transition.
The
American plan accuses China of rampant intellectual property theft,
counterfeiting and piracy, and deflated commodity prices using forced labor,
costing American jobs, and decimating entire industries and towns throughout
the United States. China is accusing of using immigration system and exploits
U.S. businesses and academic institutions to obtain access to cutting-edge
American technology and information. And too, of illicitly acquiring
proprietary and critical information, which undermines American safety of armed
forces …And to be responsible for the tragic balance of COVID 19 in US!? More
than one million of causalities’…
The
plan announces the restriction and police surveillance of all activities and citizens of China in the
US and a global partnership around all continents, including the Arctic but
also the sidereal space, with the same negative intention.
The “EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment'' was the last victim of that aggressive plan”. And the document named EU New Strategy, face to China, adopted those American line hostile against China.
The Global Security Initiative for Peace and the Principle of Indivisible Security
President
Xi Jinping propose the Global Initiative
for Peace on the Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, April 2022 “The
principle of indivisible security”, rejects the path of building one’s own
security at the expense of the security of others, the opposite strategic
concept that led to the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and the
escalation of Cold War.
This
principle is in line with the principles of the UN, is committed to respect for
the sovereignty and integrity of all
countries, advocates non-interference in their internal affairs and respects
the different political and social regimes chosen by the history of their
peoples
This new architecture, for perpetual peace, can be built from the United Nations and accompanied by the progressive dismantling of military pacts and the progressive reduction of mass destruction weapons_ nuclear, chemical, biological, digital…The last pollical declaration of the representative of China in UN, reinforce this position, PRCh wants that all mass destruction weapons be banish.
The Belt and Road Iniciative and National Strategy and the economic war against China
From
China's standpoint, all the conflicts that the United States promotes directly
or indirectly, using interference, aggression, and civil war, are part of a strategic plan to retake American hegemonism. The fusion of
the complex military-industrial with the oligarchy of finance, oil, real estate, and the media business, created a deep social gap
where 1% control 93% of the GDP _ Gross Domestic Product , and the budget of
the two hegemonic parties are dependent
on their funding.
From
China's standpoint is truth, a world divided by confrontations of blocs,
with military tactical conflicts, the
supremacy of the business over the sustainable environment, are the core of
the US political economy.
The difference between the BRICS, New Silk Road and RCEP agreements, which herald a New Era, lies first and foremost in access to free trade on an equal footing as well as to affordable low-interest credit from all partners; second, the respect for the sovereign decision of each one on the choice of their strategic economic projects and the model of governance regime (with various types of democracy); third, in China's position as a partner that does not seek hegemony, because it abdicates from creating mechanisms that could guarantee it this hegemony.
A new generation of human rights
A
new project of democracy is imperative.
Can capitalist model reform themself to an ecological economy? And
socialist economy?
28
JULY 2022
UN,
reaffirming its resolutions, namely the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development”, and its recognition that
eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty,
is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for
sustainable development, in its three dimensions – economic, social and
environmental, approved in 2022 a
Resolution Recognizing Clean, Healthy,
Sustainable Environment as Human Right.
Also
recognizing that, conversely, the impact of climate change, the unsustainable
management and use of natural resources, the pollution of air, land and water,
the unsound management of chemicals and waste, the resulting loss of biodiversity
and the decline in services provided by ecosystems interfere with the enjoyment
of a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and that environmental damage
has negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the effective
enjoyment of all human rights,
Reaffirming further its resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015, entitled:
“Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, in which it adopted a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative Sustainable Development Goals and targets, its commitment to working tirelessly for the full implementation of the Agenda by 2030 ensuring that no one is left behind, its recognition that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, and its commitment to achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – in a balanced and integrated manner.” …
Empathize:
…recognition that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions,
including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an
indispensable requirement for sustainable development!
Since
their proclamation in 1949 to the year
2020, PRCh eradicated from the extreme
poverty 850 million people, departing from a higher standard of Power
Purchasing Parity. In response to the UN Vienna Declaration and Program of
Action, the Chinese government has made and carried out the National Human
Rights Action Plans and National Human Rights Action Plan (2016-2020).
Poverty
is defined by China as anyone in rural areas who earns less than $2.30 a day
(adjusted for inflation). The national benchmark used by China is higher than
the $1.90 per day poverty line used by the World Bank.
Deliver
the Two Assurances and Three Guarantees was achieved in the year of 2020, for
all people. The "Two Assurances" refer to the necessary food and
clothing. And the "three guarantees" refer to compulsory education,
basic medical treatment, and housing security. On the liberal democracies standard
about poverty do not exist the Two Assurances and Three Guarantees.
In the Special Autonomous Regions and among the national minorities scattered throughout the Chinese Provinces, extreme poverty has been eradicated. (Guizhou, Xinjiang...). The per capita disposable income of the rural poor/extreme poverty, which was 30 $USD in 1949, increased from RMB 6,079 in 2013 to RMB 12,588 (1,928 $USA) in 2020. China leads the world ranking of PPP Comparative Purchasing Power since 2011 (IMF/WB), surpassing the US. (Roach, 2016)
Free conscience, political and social liberties
This
essay, as a comparative-study, could not forget the principles of free
conscience and social liberties, from UDHR:
UDHR.
Article 18… the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
UDHR.
Article 19… the right to freedom of opinion and expression
UDHR.
Article 20 …the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
What
offer peoples Republic of Chine in this matter:
Those
rights are record in the Article 35 of the Constitution of PRCh: “Citizens of
the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of
assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.”
But what is the reality of the state of social liberties and the exercise of the freedom of conscience?
National People’s Congress
The
National People’s Congress_ NPC is framed by the Constitution of the People’s
Republic of China_ PRC as the organ of the supreme national power. The basic functions of the NPC include the legislative production, the election of the upper organs of the State and the supervision, highlighting the five-year plan. The Constitution stipulates:
“All citizens of the People’s Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 shall have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic status, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status and length of residence. Persons who have been deprived of political rights in accordance with the law shall not have the right to vote and stand for election.”
The
representatives of the NPC of the village and district level are elected
directly.
The
representatives for the higher levels are elected indirectly, from those
assemblies. It has enacted electoral laws for the National People’s Congress
and local people’s congresses, and organization laws for local people’s
congresses and governments. Estimating around 45.000 townships and towns, 1.700
counties, 400 county-level municipalities, 900 urban districts, 300 prefecture-level
municipalities and 31 provincial-level units, is the largest electoral process.
The
eight democratic parties that founded the People's Republic of China with the
Communist Party of China (1949), have the constitutional right to be
represented in the NPC and on their Standing
Committee. The actual composition of NPC sustain that large alliance, with 384
elected deputies from the 8 democratic parties, 470 independents, 2.090
communists and 36 places waiting for elections.
Chairmen of Central Committees of eight Democratic parties are regularly elected vice-chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and the Standing Committee of National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference _ CPPCC
Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Structure and composition In
September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative
Conference, working as a constituent assembly, announced, on behalf of all the Chinese
people, the founding of the PRC. Following the election of the first China
National People’s Assembly in 1954, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative
Conference evolved as a supreme organ for the supervision of popular democracy,
assessing the conformity of national laws and regulations with the application
of principles of the Constitution and intervening to improve and refine them.
According to the principles of “long-term coexistence, mutual supervision,
sincere treatment with each other and the share of weal or woe’’ between the
CPC and the democratic parties and democrats with no party affiliations.
Poorly
compared, is a kind of administrative organ hybrid between the Senate State
Council and Constitutional Court, but without a last-instance character, functioning as a negotiating forum, elected from the base and representing all the living forces of the Chinese nation (34 sectors), where the communists are minority (1/3 was the golden rule of United Front committees _communists, democratic parties and local people). The primary functions of the CPPCC are to conduct political consultations and democratic supervision, and organize its member parties, organizations and personages from various ethnic groups and walks of life to discuss and manage state affairs. All activities of the CPPCC are guided by the Constitution of the PRCh.
The right to know. Increase the Right to Participate
Consultative
democracy is applied extensively as a mechanism at multiple levels: The right
to know. Increase the right to participate. Platforms are being improved to
make government more open. In 2004, the State Council released the Outline of
Comprehensively Advancing Administration in Accordance with the Law, which
promotes government transparency and requires administrative organs to disclose
government information.
A
mechanism through which public opinion is consulted in drafting laws has been
set up and improved. Since 2008, the state legislatures have solicited public
opinion on 139 draft laws, receiving 2.46 million comments from 590.000 people.
Since 2013, the government has released announcements inviting responses from
the public and expanded channels and multiplied means for soliciting opinions
in drawing up plans for the legislation work of the State Council.
China is a democratic State based on the rule of law, with a hierarchical system of popular courts and an independent prosecutor’s office.
Free Religion
No religion is given preferential treatment over other religions to enjoy special legal privileges. The major religions practiced in China are Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, and Catholic and Protestant Christianity, involving a total of nearly 200 million believers and more than 380.000 clerical personnel. At present, there are about 144.000 places of worship registered for religious activities and 91 religious’ schools in China. Social security for religious clerical personnel has been enhanced. By the end of 2017, 96,5 percent of clerical personnel had been covered by medical insurance, and 89,6 percent by old-age insurance, and all eligible personnel had been covered by subsistence allowance welfare almost all clerical personnel had been covered by the social security system in China.
Ethnic
minority groups’ right to freedom of religious belief has been fully protected.
Religious
beliefs and normal religious activities are protected by law. At the moment
Tibet Autonomous Region has 1.778 venues for practicing Tibetan Buddhism, and
some 46.000resident monks and nuns. The Living Buddha reincarnation is a
succession system unique to Tibetan Buddhism and is respected by the state and
governments at different levels of the autonomous region, the state having
issued the Measures on the Management of the
Reincarnation
of Living Buddha’s of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet now has 358 Living Buddha’s, more
than 60 of whom have been confirmed through historical conventions and
traditional religious rituals. The system whereby Tibetan Buddhist monks study
sutras has been improved. Monks from Tibet had received senior academic titles
in Lhasa and in Beijing.
China
has published translations of the religious classics of Islam, Buddhism,
Christianity, and other religions in multiple languages to satisfy normal
religious needs. More than 1.76 million copies of the Quran and Selections from
Al-Sahih Muhammad Ibn-Ismail al-Bukhari have been distributed. The Tibetan
Buddhist canons have been revised and published, and 1.490 copies of the canon
Kangyur have been given to monasteries for monks, nuns, and religious persons. to
study. To improve the self-management capacity of religious groups, the state
offers training sessions to clerics on interpreting scriptures, and to persons
who manage venues for religious activities.
Since 2011 the National Religious Affairs Administration has organized over a dozen training sessions on interpreting Islamic scripture and trained several hundred clerics from Xinjiang. The central government supports the Xinjiang Islamic Institute in expanding its campus, improving teaching conditions, and enrolling more students.
Democratic Tibet
“UDHR. Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life,
liberty and security of person.
UDHR. Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or
servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited
in all their forms.
UDHR. Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture
or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
China New Democracy finished
with the servitude along all provinces and regions and ended the slavery that
resist in the Tibet feudal regime under the government of the last Dalai Lama.
On 23 May 1951, in Beijing, the
central and local government delegates signed the agreement of 17 Articles,
recognizing the unity of China and the Government’s authority over the entire
national territory, pledging that keep the rulers and the institutions of Tibet
until it was negotiated the peaceful democratic reform in the region, an
agreement supported by the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama.
In 1954, the Dalai Lama took
part in the first National Assembly of the People’s Republic of China, which
drew up the Constitution of the Republic, having been elected as one of the
Vice-Chairmen of the Standing Committee of this Assembly. In 1956, became
President of the Organizing Committee of the autonomous region of Tibet.
Since that time that Tibet saw
enshrined in the Chinese Constitution the respect for your language, culture,
customs and beliefs, including Tibetan Buddhism.
The conflict arose when the
democratic reform of Tibet, with the separation of religion and the secular
State, the abolition of serfdom and slavery and, especially, the distribution
of land and herds to Tibetan peasants until then subject to an anachronistic
feudalism dominated by aristocrats and the upper layer of the monks. [4]
Characterize
Tibet briefly, far way novels and Western filmography[5]:
According to the Census of 1959
(and read the biography of the current Dalai Lama to confirm this picture
“between the lines”, nevertheless the flagrant omissions oh historical events),
the monks of the upper layer and the nobility represented 5% of the population;
400 families shared each other almost all the arable land and herds: local
government held 38.9%; the monasteries, 36.8%; the aristocracy, 24%. The small
peasants fit the remaining 0.3%.
The servants, 90% of the
population, were forced to pay the nobles and monasteries a corvée (unfree
labor), an income on products and sometimes in money, in addition to heavy
taxes and fees in cash and services. Without enough resources, borrowed the
nobles and monasteries, paying high interest. If they died without paying off
the debt, she passed to the descendants or the neighbors.
For the slaves, 5% of the
population, household and public services were heavier, like cleaning, the
dumping of feces, the freight transport and the transport of nobles and
officials, in palanquins or own back.
Servants and slaves could be exchanged, donated, loaned or even sold. For the poor, there were no hospitals, no schools. The monks of the upper layer and the most influential nobles shared political positions. The Yellow Sect of the Dalai Lama was privileged in relation to other sects and Tibetan Buddhism in relation to other religions.
Press and Media. Social Networks
The history of the two mains independent groups of Chinese press can be systematized by the biography of the journalist Hu Shuli, , quoted from World Economic Forum:
“Hu Shuli is the founder and publisher of Caixin Media, professor of the School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University, adjunct professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China. Internationally recognized for her achievements in journalism, Ms Hu was named one of the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune in 2017. She was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2014 and Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism in 2012. She was listed among Top 100 Influential People of 2011 by Time magazine. She was twice named one of Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine in 2009 and 2010. The Caixin editorial team under her leadership won the 2011 Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University. In 2007, she received the Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. In 2006, Ms Hu was called China’s most powerful commentator by the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal cited her as one of Asia’s Ten Women to Watch. Ms Hu was named International Editor of the Year by the World Press Review in 2003 and one of BusinessWeek magazine’s Fifty Stars of Asia in 2001. Ms Hu serves as a global board member of United Way Worldwide. She was awarded the honorary doctorate degree from Princeton University on May, 2016.”
Caixin is a private media group
dedicated to providing financial and business news through periodicals, online
content, mobile apps, conferences, books and TV/video programs. As an industry
leader in China, Caixin takes the lead to explore overseas markets and is well
positioned to serve global users with the insight, information and news report
about China. Caixin offers the English news via a 24/7 website and runs a
weekly digital magazine and a bi-monthly print magazine that is distributed in
financial centers in the U.S, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Zurich. Caixin also
produces top grade summits, roundtables and dialogues thy of bring together
political, business, and academic leaders from across China and around the
world.
In 2009 Zhang Xianghui, Caijing
Magazine's director of public relations, announces that 70 employees, or more
than two-thirds of the business department, have resigned. "The key is
that SEEC wants to step in and censor all of our financial stories......
especially cover stories and investigative reports. This is unbearable (for
us)." SEEE was the financial group of
Hong Kong that was the proprietary of the magazine, and Hu Shuli the
principal journalist. She lost Caijing and founded Caixin.
Caijing Magazine continues be
published (since 1998) mainly focuses its coverage on finance and the economy,
business and industry, politics, law, and society, including civil rights
issues.
Over one billion people had access to internet in the country, resulting a fast-growing mobile app market. In the last years, 83.4% of Chinese users access the web from their mobile devices (compared to 63% in the U.S.), and many of the most popular services, like WeChat, exist only as a mobile application. Chinese users are also more engaged than Americans are. Already in 2011 the Chinese spent more time on the Internet than watching TV, while in the U.S. this crossover happened last year. More than 75% of them regularly contribute content online, but only less than a quarter of Americans do. And users in China spend more money on e-commerce than Americans. The literacy of hundred millions of Chinese users can overcame the most sophisticate’s firewall.
The environmental Crises and the China and West Responsibilities
In the first phase of reform and openness, the West transferred to China some of its most polluting industries and all kinds of modern waste for recycling. Yellow phosphorus production transferred to China reduced Japan production to zero, on the US to a half and in Europe to two-thirds. Between 1999 and 2009, exports of recycled paper shipped by the UK to India, Indonesia and China increased from 470,000 T to 4.7 million T. "If these emissions were accounted for, the reductions announced by Europe in recent years would be reversed. The UK Government's staggering 18% reduction in CO2 emissions since 1990 would be a 20% increase". [6]
Is true that China is the first responsible by the atmospheric pollution? If we considers the historical process and the per capita ratio, the answer is no. If we consider CO2 emissions along the period 1850-2016, USA is the first responsible, the doble of China and EU countries represent much more of PRCh. If we consider the per capita measure, in the top are the Arabian countries, USA and Deutschland, and countries as India gives a reduced contribution to global warming. The data source is EU data (Global Watch).
Toward a New Era of Cooperation
South-South cooperation: A New Era in Africa
The South-South cooperation promoted by China can be defined by its fundamental policy measures: exemption from customs duties and “debt forgiveness” granted to the least developed countries (PMDs) and, following the 2018 China-Africa summit, the agreements with 37 countries for the construction and modernization of the economy, far from the neocolonial model of the raw materials. The 2018 summit was also an event of enormous importance for the European Union, which, with the help of China for the sustained development of the African economy and its support for the UN action on that continent, will see diminished pressure from refugees and migrants Africans fleeing from war and misery.
EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment Could Sustained the Fall of Europe
When
the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CAI), after seven years of
negotiations, was finally signed in December 2020, Ursula Von der Leyen,
president of the European Commission-EC, signaled its strategic importance for
the European Union, already living in a new economic crisis accelerated by the
pandemic, because the CAI would allow "unprecedented access to the Chinese
market".
Chinese
and Europeans wanted facilitate market access and reduce investment barriers,
helping to recover European industry and economy in sectors such as transport,
health equipment, telecommunications etc...
US
leaders used again their influence over the dominant parties in the European
Parliament to suspend ratification of the agreement. The EU Parliament decreed
sanctions against Xinjiang's rulers and China has responded with sanctions
against some EU officials.
China is supported by Muslim countries and a large majority of countries on the Xinjiang issue. 22 ambassadors sent letters to the UN Human Rights Council in 2019 criticizing China's policy in Xinjiang towards Uighur Muslims. The letters were signed by 19 European countries, in addition to Japan, Canada and Australia. 37 states, and later 50, (and after 65 countries) supported Chinese policy in Xinjiang through the response letter addressed to the same Council, praising what they call China's remarkable achievements in the field of human rights. And they emphasise:
"Faced with the grave challenge of
terrorism and extremism, China has undertaken a number of counterterrorism and
deradicalization measures in Xinjiang, including the creation of vocational
training and education centers," the letter says.
(Yellinek. and
Chen. 2019)
The
letter also states that security has returned to Xinjiang and the fundamental
human rights of people of all ethnic groups have been safeguarded. adding that
there has been no terrorist attack for already three years
The letter is signed by major Muslim
countries, including allies from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Oman,
Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria, several African
countries and others from Africa, Asia, America, and the Europa. Around 65 countries support now the position of PRCh,
the promotors of fallacy stay in large minority.
Global governance of human rights
China is actively engaged in
global governance of human rights. China proposes at the United Nations General
Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Council the view that “The rights
to subsistence and development are the primary, basic human rights.”
In response to the UN Vienna
Declaration and Program of Action, the Chinese government has made and carried
out the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010), National Human Rights
Action Plan (2012-2015), and National Human Rights Action Plan (2016-2020),
setting phased goals and tasks for respecting and safeguarding human rights. It
has fulfilled the targets set in the first two action plans and is working on
the third. ~
The Chinese government has also
formulated special action plans relating to the economy, culture, society, the
environment and other fields, as well as special plans to protect the rights of
specific groups such as ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly, and
people with disabilities.
Over the past 40 years,
adhering to the principle of interdependence and inalienability of all human
rights, China has coordinated the planning and promotion of all rights and
endeavored to strike a balance between economic, social and cultural rights and
civil and political rights, and between individual rights and collective
rights.
Moving toward
the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation set out by the 18th CPC National
Congress, the CPC has advanced the overall plan of seeking economic, political,
cultural, social, and ecological progress, and made comprehensive moves to
complete a moderately prosperous society in all respects, to extend reform, to
advance the rule of law, and to strengthen Party discipline.
Conclusions. PRCh is co-founder and turn up toward of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights _ UDHR
The propaganda of Cold War need to subvert
and distort the principles of the original UDHR. In the U.S. (and the West),
human rights are seen and reduced as formal civil and political rights.
However, UDHR open the gate of new democracies and History can
walk again to realize all the dreams and Human Utopias.
The Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable
Environment, is the new universal Human Right. Resolutions from the Human
Rights Council in 2021 (A/HRC/RES/48/13) and the General Assembly in 2022
(A/RES/76/300) add this fundamental human right to the library of
internationally recognized rights.
Peoples Republic of China, incorporate the thirty (30) articles of UDHR in the Constitution and progressively, they turn them real to common people and design the international policy of China, since the 5 principles of peaceful coexistence to The Global Security Initiative for Peace guided by the Principle of Indivisible Security or The Global Development Initiative.
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[1] Communication presented at the 18th Annual International Conference
on Philosophy, 22-25 May 2023, Athens, Greece
[2] Communication presented at the 16th Annual International Conference
on Mediterranean Studies, 3-6 April 2023, Athens, Greece.
[3] Kenneth Roat was director
of Human Rights Watch’s, an organization
hostile to the socialist regimes, that was born in the Cold War with the name
of Watch, by initiative of the USA government to follow the Helsinki Agreements, the treaty that
recognized the new European political architecture that outcome from the II
World War. Installed in Moscow, she does an intensive propaganda against
socialist countries, using the theme of Human Rights. After the down of USSR,
was transformed on the HRW, over the control of Democratic Party and the
financial support of Ford Foundation, acting as a political lobby to pressing
the UN Human Rights Council and the governments around the world that do not
follow the diktat of the USA state. Kenneth Roat, to postulate an independent
image, must recognize that, in the west, human rights are reduced to formal
political liberties. See, the World Report 2020,
[4] The Potala Palace in Lhasa,
comprising the White and Red Palaces with their ancillary buildings, is built
on Red Mountain in the center of Lhasa Valley, at an altitude of 3.700m. It was
the winter residence of the Dalai Lama (seat of government and fortress) since
the 7th century, rebuilt in the 17h century, comprising thirteen stores of
buildings, containing over 1.000 rooms, 698 murals, almost 10,000 painted
scrolls, numerous sculptures, carpets, canopies, curtains, porcelain, jade, and
fine objects of gold and silver, as well as a large collection of sutras and
important historical documents. It is now a museum and World Heritage.
[5] The Autobiography of Tashi
Tsering, an old monk that escape to USA, developed a strong dislike
of
his country’s theocratic ruling. Return to Tibet, during Mao’s Cultural
Revolution, he was arrested in 1967 and officially exonerated in 1978, becoming
a professor of English at Tibet University in Lhasa. Their
testimony
can be useful to demystify the regime of Dalai Lama and understand the
political meaning of the
process
of reform and opening up.
Norbulingka,
the Dalai Lama’s former summer palace constructed in the 18th century, with 374
rooms, is located on the bank of the Lhasa River about 2km west of the Potala
Palace in a lush green environment. It comprises a large garden with four
palace complexes and a monastery as well as other halls, and pavilions all
integrated into the garden layout to create an exceptional work of art covering
36 ha. The property is closely linked with religious and political issues,
having been a place for contemplation, cultural festivities
and
for signing political agreements.
[6]
Jonathan Watts, “When a Billion pf Chinese Jump, how China will Save
Mankind”, page 146.
Watts
is a defender or liberal democracy and do not sympathize with Chinese
socialism. But, to quote people like them, a journalist well documented in the
matter of environment, can be useful to open the mind of occidental public
opinion, that have a prejudge about Chinese sources.
Researcher
Center of Philosophy, University of Lisbon, Portugal
T. 00351910506370
adsqueiros@gmail.com
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