Beijing Asserts ‘Growing the Economy’ Is the Core Human Right, Sanctions Must End!

May 11, 2021 (EIRNS)—“The inherent mandate of the international human rights cause is to enable every human being, regardless of nationality, ethnicity and cultural background, to enjoy equal freedoms and rights as well as decent food, clothing, health, housing, employment and education,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated in her press briefing May 10.

“China always strives for greater progress in this field. Our objective is to ensure national security, ethnic harmony, social stability, equity, justice, economic and ecological well-being and to deliver tangible benefits to all the Chinese people. To leave no one behind in the pursuit of happiness for the 1.4 billion Chinese people and to make sure that no one is suffering from war, turmoil, poverty, hunger or epidemic, this is the achievement of China’s human rights endeavor and the CPC’s tremendous contribution to the global human rights cause.”

China has also been “supporting the developing world in growing the economy to benefit the people in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other places,” she said. Even the World Bank has estimated that projects associated with the Belt and Road Initiative put into motion by China “could help lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million people out of moderate poverty across the world by 2030.”

Hua asked the same question many countries around the world now ask: How can the U.S. government claim to be defending human rights while keeping unilateral sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Iran in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? These sanctions have “gravely threatened the basic human rights, including the right to life, health and development of the people in these countries,” she charged, demanding the “politicizing and weaponizing” of human rights stop and all illegal unilateral sanctions and embargoes on countries be removed.