China has no excuse for its poor human rights record

This article discusses China's poor records regarding human rights and the way they are violated. China has given every reason imaginable to respond to these types of accusations. They're main excuses include that the claims against them are stated from a Western perspective and that China differs from the Western countries so the claims are unfairly applied to them, a second is that some of the claims, if changed, would interfere with China's internal affairs, third, China argues that the Western countries who are making these claims against them have human rights issues of their own therefore they have no right to make these claims against China. The newest argument given by China is that they are still a developing country. This claim is interesting because Chine itself presumes great power status that they feel is equal to the power of the United States according to the article. All of these excuses given by China are not acceptable and Western countries want to see some changes. This new excuse of being a developing country may be the worst excuse because there are certain rights that have been agreed upon as being fundamental rights that every human has and having "developing country" status does not negate the responsibility of a country to ensure these rights to it's people. These rights which should be held by all humans include freedom from slavery or involuntary servitude, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom from cruel treatment, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and many others. It is important to realize every country has some issues when it comes to human rights, and also to promote everyone's human rights around the world. China has some major issues with this and it is important to not ignore this problem because they are a large country and many people are affected. Everyone should be able to enjoy their rights and this article calls for action to promote this to become the norm around the world.

By: Josh Moorman

Article:  http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2014/01/17/china-has-no-excuse-for-its-poor-human-rights-record