Mr. Chair,

Respecting and protecting human rights is the unremitting pursuit of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government and the Chinese people. We uphold a human rights philosophy that puts people front and center, and commit ourselves to realizing a happy life for all as the biggest human right. It took us mere decades to build China from a country suffering from weakness, poverty, invasion and bullying into an independent and self-reliant country with strength and prosperity. In particular, in the past decade, the human rights cause in China has achieved historic transformation and development, and made an active contribution to the progress of human rights worldwide.

In the past decade, China has lifted nearly 100 million rural poor out of absolute poverty and thus achieved the poverty reduction target laid out in the 2030 Agenda ten years ahead of schedule. We are now home to the world’s largest education system, social security system and healthcare system where people’s enjoyment of human rights has seen significant improvements. We have combined election democracy with consultative democracy, and combined procedural democracy with substantive democracy to advance the whole-process people’s democracy that is whole-heartedly supported by the Chinese people. While actively promoting global human rights governance, we have been elected a member of the Human Rights Council three times in past ten years, committed to promoting multilateralism and upholding fairness and justice. On the global stage, we oppose hegemonism and interference in internal affairs, and speak out for developing countries in defense of justice.

Our goal is to build China into a country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful. We will continue to purse well-being of the Chinese people and progress of the human society.

Mr. Chair,

The third committee of UNGA is a platform for dialogue and cooperation, rather than an arena for confrontation and division. What the vast number of UN member states needs is fairness and justice, rather than condescending lecturers on human rights. The UK, the EU, Czechia and a handful of other countries are abusing the platform at the third committee to insistently stoke confrontation and deliberately politicize and instrumentalize human rights issues in attempts to interfere other countries’ internal affairs. Such attempts will never succeed. They maliciously attack and smear China on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet to create chaos in China. Such manipulations are doomed to fail.

Their accusation of so called “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang is a flat-out lie of the century. In the past 60 plus years, the region’s Uyghur population expanded from 2.2 million to about 12 million, and the average life expectancy there increased from 30 to 74.7 years. Has anyone ever seen “crimes against humanity” of this kind? 

They hyped up the so-called “assessment” on Xinjiang by the OHCHR. Everyone has seen through such kind of coercive diplomacy. The so-called “assessment” does not have a legal mandate, does not have the consent of the country concerned, and does not have any facts to support its claims. It is totally illegal and invalid. The Human Rights Council has solemnly rejected the Xinjiang-related draft resolution tabled by the US and some other western countries, and refused to endorse the so-called “assessment” by the OHCHR. This is a victory for facts and truth, and a victory for all developing countries. 

The success of “one country, two systems” of Hong Kong, China has won recognition throughout the world. From disarray to good governance, Hong Kong is entering a new phase of becoming more prosperous. Tibet Autonomous Region of China has been following a path from backwardness to progress, from poverty to prosperity, and from autocracy to democracy. No matter how hard they try, their shoddy shows staged by a handful of countries can never stop China's confident progress.

Mr. Chair,

The UK, the EU, Czechia and a handful other countries, always with their tinted glasses on, keep harping on the human rights conditions in developing countries, and never reflect on the terrible human rights record of themselves and their allies. This is such a glaring example of hypocrisy and double standards.

Here is my word of advice to these countries: What you really should do is take concrete actions to seriously reflect upon your own issues of serious racial discrimination, xenophobia, violations of the rights of refugees and migrants, and abuses of indigenous children and pursue accountability and reparation. What you really should do is immediately stop abusing unilateral coercive measures and stop creating man-made humanitarian catastrophes. What you also really should do is condemn your allies for their serious violations of human rights, such as indiscriminate killing of civilians in overseas military operation, rampant gun violence and police brutality. 

Mr. Chair,

No one can claim to be perfect in human rights protection; there is always room for improvement. China stands ready to pursue human rights dialogues and cooperation with all parties on the basis of equality and mutual respect, so as to jointly promote the international human rights cause and build a community of shared future for mankind.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.