Equality plays vital role in human rights talks

• Source: Global Times
• [03:55 May 14 2010]
• Comments

China and the US should learn from each other as equals, instead of giving each other lec-tures or criticizing one another. This is the only way the upcoming China-US Human Rights Dialogue will bear fruit.

For the US, the simple approach of mutual learning seems too hard to grasp. As the talks gear up, some Western media outlets are once again playing the carrot-and-stick game by groundlessly blaming China for human rights abuses.

True, the human rights issue is a thorny one riddled with deep-seated historical, ideological and social differences. Yet to address the differences and navigate the bumpy road ahead, a "spirit of equality and mutual respect" is key.

That spirit, expressed in the China- US Joint Statement issued last November, spells out an old principle fundamental to human relationships.

In a world order long tilted toward the West, developing countries like China used to succumb to the impact-response model when talking with developed nations. As Palestinian-American philosopher Edward Said (1935-2003) put in his famous book Orientalism, "They cannot represent themselves. They must be represented." He suggested that the West-centered mentality needs to be discarded before any East-West talks can yield results.