Description
People's Republic of China’s approach to human rights has significantly evolved over the last few decades. While during the Mao era, human rights were largely rejected as part of the foreign policy agenda, in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square events a new strategy has gradually emerged. In order to face the increasingly pressing international human rights criticism, China has made rhetorical commitments to a state-centred understanding of human rights.
Since 1999, China is publishing the “Human Rights Record of the United States” in response to the “Annual Country Reports on Human Rights” that are prepared by the US State Department for each country in the world except the US. This paper examines the “Human Rights Record of the United States” to explore Chinese discourse on human rights rather than addressing the situation in the US. This paper argues that it serves as a counter-measurement of US dominance in the human rights discourse and more importantly to legitimise an alternative narrative that furthers China’s foreign policy through specifically its human rights agenda. This agenda diverges from established international standards and has very serious implications considering the increasing influence exercised by Beijing globally.
