China 'does not deny basic human rights'

“UNLIKE what the global media says about China, people in our country lead a life of substance, a life full of happiness and have great political and social freedoms,” Chinese Ambassador Yue Xiaoyong told Gulf Times yesterday.

“There’s the burgeoning middle class which has affluence and wealth and the farmers at the bottom of the social rung benefit from the government’s policies. These are reasons less so, and not more, to express unhappiness,” Xiaoyong said.

According to him, nobody is denied the basic human rights in China. “In fact the country had emerged as the vanguard of human rights in late ’70s and ’80s.”

The ambassador said the media has played an extremely biased role in projecting China as the “villain”. “These are people who’ve never been to China. There are writers who do not see China favourably. This is due to ignorance,” he said.

“The Chinese government usually resents deeply when it is treated as a former colony. We don’t interfere in any country’s internal affairs and we expect the same from others,” the ambassador said.

Major US companies (Yahoo, Microsoft and Google) have had to alter their products and policies to conform to the demands of Chinese censors. When asked about its Internet policy, the ambassador said: “When it comes to the Internet, we proceed by the law. Every country is watchful towards the web and we do the same. How else Internet usage is growing in China at a tremendous pace.”

China has an estimated 150mn Internet users and counting, experts predict Chinese Internet users would outnumber their US counterparts within the next few years, at a current growth rate of 23.6%. The country only had about a million web surfers in 1998.

According to some observers, many US corporations (GE, Kodak, McDonalds and others) who signed up as leading sponsors of Beijing 2008 that concluded yesterday have refrained from commenting on politics for ‘fear of upsetting the regime.’

Some reports cited incidents where protests on issues like Tibet and human rights were muffed by the Chinese authorities. When this was pointed out, Xiaoyong said: “Like any other country, China wanted to ensure a smooth games and was indeed successful in conducting the biggest-ever Olympic in a safe environment.

“We wanted to abide by the principles of Olympic Games, especially since they have become so contemporary, and tried to create an understanding among world’s nations through unity, friendship and peace,” the ambassador said, adding “that is what actually is the spirit of Olympics.”