Dispute Between China And West (US) Over Human Rights

The quote highlights the dispute between China and West (U.S.) over Human Rights. Human rights, especially towards political liberties as explained under the principles of democracy propounded by the West, have been considered to be a mere subsidiary foreign policy concern for China. Nevertheless it has remained as one of the top priorities of the West. The difference in perspectives on the aforementioned topic has fueled so much passion and tension between the two countries to the extent that when care is not taken it may escalate into yet another undesirable event. The reason for this discourse is not far-fetched.

To Washington, there is a need to promote respect for individual human rights as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human

These rights include freedom from torture, freedom of expression, women’s and children’s rights (Bureau of Public Affairs, 2001). The West believes that the existence of individual human rights on this continent will help to secure peace, discourage aggression, and combat crime against humanity (Bureau of Public Affairs, 2001). As a result, Washington does not understand why Beijing indirectly supports repressive regimes by transacting business with ruthless and corrupt leaders of the continent. Unlike the West, Beijing has a different perspective of how human rights should be. To Beijing, human right is about survival, social stability and economic development of the state. These rights include the rights to food, shelter, clothing, security and socio-economic development. According to Madison Condon, Beijing believes

An accusation being leveled against China is that its policies of non-interference in the affairs of African states and putting its economic and trading interests ahead of concern for individual human rights have given rise to some of the continent’s worst human rights abusers (Taylor, 2013). According to Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Western governments attempt use economic pressure as a weapon to secure human rights improvements in Africa, however China's no-strings rule gives African dictators the cause to resist human rights protection (Ofodile, 2009). This according to Roth weakens the leverage of Western countries who seek to promote respect for human rights. By insisting to transact business with the continents’ most ruthless and corrupt leaders, Beijing is critiqued to be supporting repressive regimes on the continent to gain access to resources that they would not have gained on a silver platter. To the West, this attitude of China is undemocratic hence a root cause of most of the human right issues on the continent. It is against this background that China’s increased involvement in Africa has assumed a serious dimension especially from Western donor