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Pravo: Many Czech critics of China’s human rights unconvincing

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Prague, Dec 1 (CTK) – Some Czech politicians who criticise the human rights violation by China seem to use the issue merely as an empty word within the domestic political struggle, regardless of humanist ideals, which is undignified, Antonin Rasek writes in daily Pravo on Thursday.

He reacts to the Senate resolution from Wednesday, in which the upper house dissociated itself from a pro-China statement that PM Bohuslav Sobotka, the heads of the two houses of parliament (all Social Democrats, CSSD) and President Milos Zeman made in October after Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) officially met the Tibetan Dalai Lama in Prague.

The senators’ support for the resolution could be expected. Human rights remain largely unobserved in China. The death penalty has been applied there, political prisoners have been jailed and freedoms of speech and assembly restricted, as has been ethnic equality, and labour conditions are often cruel. In addition, China claims parts of its neighbours’ territory, Rasek writes.

On the other hand, insiders say people in China have found ways to fight the human rights violation, to an extent at least, Rasek writes.

Furthermore, the political and social situation in China is incomparable with the past, mainly with the cultural revolution period that killed millions of people, Rasek writes.

He says the Chinese government has been successful in its struggle against the population’s poverty and in building modern infrastructure.

The extent of the reconstruction of towns and communication networks by China is amazing. The state has succeeded in cumulating money for investments in both economy and science, though often at a cost Europeans would find unacceptable, due to disrespect of environment protection, for example, Rasek writes.

China developed in an unbelievable way in the past century, but it needs more time to reach certain levels. In England, too, the industrialisation was no kid-gloves process. The USA, too, did not eliminate slavery without bloodshed, let alone the fall of colonialism and current neo-colonialism, Rasek writes.

Certain phases of development cannot simply be skipped, and to manage a country with a 10-million population, like the Czech Republic, is undoubtedly not the same as to manage a country with more than billion inhabitants, Rasek writes.

In the Czech Republic, the situation in China and the approach to China are topics used within the domestic political struggle, and there is nothing bad about it. However, why the same criticism never targets the violation of human rights in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many other Arab, African, Latin American and Asian countries, or the death penalty applied in the USA? Rasek asks.

Many Czech politicians and other people undoubtedly view the promotion of human rights observance in China as an effort to follow humanist ideals. Nevertheless, many others seem to be uninterested in human rights and to mention them merely as an empty word within their domestic political campaign, Rasek writes, calling the latter approach undignified.

There are enough reasons for the Czech Republic to maintain good relations with China, he continues.

Out of the current prognostic visions, the least challengeable one is that of the 21st century as an Asian century. Otherwise the USA would not be switching their strategic attention to Asia, Rasek concludes.

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