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Human Rights

Hens, Ducks, & Human Rights In China

Vittorio Bufacchi & Xiao Ouyang discuss some philosophical & linguistic difficulties.

China has long been a soft target for Western human rights activists. Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, between 1966 and 1976, was attacked at the time and is still demonized today for the innumerable violations of fundamental human rights that then occurred. In 1989 the Western media reported how the pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square was allegedly crushed by tanks of the Chinese army, with great but unknown human costs. And Western political leaders rarely miss an opportunity to raise human right concerns with Chinese counterparts during rounds of diplomatic talks. But as illustrated by the 2016 meeting between President Obama and President Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Hangzhou, these talks continually fail to generate consensus on the question of human rights, despite productive agreements being reached on many other issues.

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