Richard Low, a retired Chinese-American professor, wrote the following thoughtful piece which is worth reading and analysing as China goes through its 20th anniversary of June 4th Tiananmen, and the debate continues about "human rights" as seen through "Europeanized" lenses. Mr. Low has a different perspective worth noting:
"Sixty years ago, in the hopes of creating a better world, world thinkers came together to devise international standards for how we should live and governments committed to uphold and guarantee the rights and freedoms set out in these standards for the people of their nations.
Despite the fact that there has been progress in the area of human rights around when the world, there still exist many observable instances of human rights violations."
In China, it is just the opposite.
It was not the people nor the thinkers who had ever given any thought to human rights. It was the ruler who, in order to rule them, must first have accepted the so-called Mandate of Heaven which required him/her to serve the ruled with love (or human-heartedness) and justice. This scheme got started when Zhou Dynasty (1122-770 BCE) took power by defeating the brutal and repressive Shang Dynasty (?1766-?1122 BCE). So it was a ruler's duty or obligation to provide human care or service to the ruled. Why so? It was because during that period one of the very popular maxims circulating among the people says, "People are the foundation of a state. When the foundation is firm and solid, the state will enjoy peace and harmony."
But what would this foundation be like and how to build it? Then, there came Confucius (557-497 BCE) who proposed a Great Universal Society (Datong) or Utopia, as given below:
When the Great Way prevails, the world belongs to all. Men of great virtue and talent are selected (or elected) who will foster mutual trust and promote universal understanding. Thus, men do not regard as their parents only their own parents nor treat as their own children only their own children. Sufficient provision is secured for the aged till their death, employment assured for the able-bodied, and funds provided for the loving care of the young. The widowers, widows, orphans, the childless, and those who are disabled by diseases or mishaps are adequately cared for. Each man has his duty, and each woman her hearth. While they detest those who throw away things wastefully, they do not hoard things for their own self-gratification. Disliking idleness they labor, but not alone with a view to their own advantage. In this way, selfish acts of cheating and profiteering are discouraged. Hence, their front doors need not be locked.
Such is the State of Universal Peace and Harmony for All
- The Book of Rites (Li Ji)
Except for the few decades when Mao Zedong tried to replace Confucius,through his shameful Cultural Revolution, with Marx, Confucianism has guided China politically and ethically for over 2,000 years - even during the 300 some years of occupation by the Mongols and the Manchus. Now that Mao has passed away, the new regime has gradually brought Confucius back, and once again the Chinese become the only people on this planet who have enjoyed the same living civilization continuously for such a long time.
So, if the Chinese government ever violates any of the human rights, all that the UN or the so-called NGO has to do is to ask if it still respects the Mandate of Heaven and remembers Confucius's teachings. After all, a sense of shame is considered one of the most important virtues for being a virtuous gentleman (Junzi).
Unfortunately, Westerners do not seem to possess this kind of culture in their history. Thus, even when Jesus told them to love their enemies and bless them that curse them and so on, more Christians were killed by Christians than by the pagan Romans when the Roman emperor Constantine (306-337), tired of the unending heated debate over Trinitarianism, decided to take it as the Christian doctrine of the West, according to the great historian Edward Gibbon in his "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" and, then, the bloody fights betweeen so-called Christians during the period of Reformation resulting "in the death of 10-20 million," according to the "Bible Handbook" by Henry Halley (1951).
So, it is no wonder that "some governments have used the concepts of human rights and democracy to their own advantage and used it to advance their own political agendas."
How about some governments using the United Nations "to their own advantage" and "to advance their own political agenda?"
Well,it seems that perhaps the United Nations may need a total reform!
The above thoughtful posting by Mr. Low should be read in tandem with the following link:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/obstacles-to-the-progress-of-human-rights-in-the-world
