<div></div><div>China’s human rights record has deteriorated under the rule of President Xi Jinping. The persecution of religious minorities and human rights activists has worsened. The ability of Chinese to speak and associate freely has been further restricted. China has even more aggressively rejected international concerns about such problems, with official sources denying the existence of universal human rights values and claiming a special Chinese approach to human rights. 中国人权记录自习近平上台以来更加恶化： 少数民族和人权活动人士受到更严厉打压， 中国普通百姓言论和结社自由更是雪上加霜。与此同时，中国政府更加肆无忌惮地反驳国际社会对此表达关注， 乃至官方拒绝承认普世人权的存在， 并以所谓的中国特殊国情来抵制。</div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div>At the same time, Xi has frequently invoked ancient Chinese philosophical traditions, in particular traditional Confucianism, as legitimating the restriction of individual rights and freedoms, suggesting that the idea of human rights is “Western,” incompatible with Chinese culture. Xi told President Obama that due to differences in history and culture, “it is only natural that we have some differences on the issue of human rights.” 况且，习近平经常引经据典， 尤其是儒学传统，来支持中国政府限制个人基本权利和自由的政策。习近平曾经告诉奥巴马总统，鉴于历史和文化差异， 中美两国在“人权方面存在差异是很自然的。”</div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>No one would deny that such differences exist. But while Chinese culture may emphasize the importance of obligations to groups, as opposed to individual freedom, that does not justify the denial of individual human rights. Xi is fashioning himself as a new kind of Chinese premier—modern, pragmatic, and humane. Yet this is essentially the same, threadbare “cultural relativism” argument that his predecessors have trotted out to justify repression. It is the self-serving argument of dictators around the world who hide behind selective interpretations of cultural legacies while denying their citizens political freedom. 习主席所说的文化差异是存在的， 对此无人否定。我们知道中国文化强调集体观念， 而非个人自由。虽如此，我们也不能接受完全否认每个人的基本人权。习近平把自己包装成一个新型中国领导人 － 具有现代感、富于人情和魅力。这种拿文化差异来强制个人服从只不过是历代中国皇帝实施独裁统治的幌子， 全世界独裁政府均假借自己文化传统来剥夺本国公民政治自由。</div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>Chinese have both embraced and rejected Confucianism over centuries. Many Chinese intellectuals have challenged an interpretation of Confucianism used to justify autocracy and human rights violations. They have found other strands in the vast wisdom of Confucius that are consistent with the principles of human rights. Others have condemned traditional Confucianism as authoritarian and sexist. In fact, traditional Chinese culture is far from monolithic; like all great cultures, its main sources are multi-dimensional and dynamic. 其实在中国儒家思想千百年来被统治阶级利用，或被嗤之以鼻。中国知识分子反对那些假借儒家传统思想 来支持独裁专制、践踏人权的做法， 并指出儒家传统思想智慧里面拥有大量与人权原则一致的源泉，尽管也有人批评儒学完全是服务于专制的老一套。事实上中国文化从来就不是“大一统”， 而是包涵多元思想， 正如世界上其他伟大传统文化一样。</div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>Regardless of its approaches toward the individual and obligations to groups and national authorities, Xi is correct that the idea of human rights cannot be found in traditional Confucianism. Indeed, neither can the idea of human rights be found in Judaism, Christianity or Islam, or probably in any other religious tradition, despite fashionable efforts to claim otherwise. Here is where the confusion lies: Religions have given mankind an appreciation of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the person. They have been the source of values by which humans have tried to overcome the cruelties of the natural world. . 无论个人如何以不同的方式履行对集体和国家的义务，习近平认为无法从儒学传统中找到人权的感念， 当然在犹太教、基督教或伊斯兰教义中也无法找到人权观念－尽管有人声称可以找到。但是，宗教启迪人类接受生命的神圣和人的尊严。宗教的价值在于鼓励人类勇敢面对残酷无情的大自然 。</div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>But human rights are something else. Human rights, as conceived by Enlightenment philosophers, are legal mechanisms to protect individuals of any cultural background from tyrannical governments. They place a protective canopy around the individual by limiting the degree to which states can infringe on freedoms that are essential to our common human nature. Indeed, derived from the tradition of natural law, they originated as a “Western” idea, the result of a rational analysis of how governments can protect human dignity. But human rights have been recognized as a universally valid principle, embraced by leaders from every world culture and enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 但是人权的确属于另一种价值，起源于人类启蒙时期的哲学家——－这套法律体系保护生活在各种文化传统中的个人免受独裁政府侵害。 人权法律机制是限制国家对于个人自由的侵害，确保人人享受天赋人权。当然，由于人权源于自然法则， 而具有“西方”观念的特点， 即通过理性分析促使政府保护人的尊严。 这种人权观念已经广为传播而被各个主流文化的领导人所接受， 并被纳入《世界人权宣言》。</div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>We may stipulate that Chinese culture emphasizes group identifies, duties, relationships, and integration, but it is false to claim that those are incompatible with international human rights standards. The system of human rights protections built around the Universal Declaration is designed to accommodate different cultural values. The international human rights system does not impose cultural homogeneity on the world, but rather accommodates diversity. In the vast majority of cases, human rights do not conflict with cultures; but human rights are incompatible with political regimes that abuse basic rights and freedoms. While the powerful Chinese president says he want to build pride in Chinese culture, he is in fact degrading that culture by ostentatiously exploiting it to justify crude political repression. 我们认识到中国文化强调集体、义务、关系和融合， 但这些与国际人权标准并不矛盾， 事实上，《人权宣言》包容了各种文化差异， 而非独尊某一种主导文化。我们看到人权与文化并不冲突， 只有当权者滥用其权力才会导致人权灾难。如果说中国领导人借助于传统文化提升中国形象，倒不如说他滥用这些文化幌子来美化名副其实的政治迫害。</div><div></div><div> </div><div>It is a virtual certainty that Chinese citizens will increasingly demand respect for their rights, demands not driven by political or ideological ambitions as much as by dreams of living in a society free of coercion. Those who resist state oppression are not a political opposition interested in imposing some form of imported Western liberalism on Chinese society, but citizens with diverse political views who want respect for their human rights. 毋庸置疑，中国人民一定会越来越多的要求他们的权利得到尊重， 而这样的要求不一定是政治和思想领域的， 而是要求他们生活的社会不再出现违背个人意志的强迫行为。就是那些反抗政府压迫的人也不仅是要求所谓西方的自由主义思想， 其实持各种政治观念的人都要求自己的基本人权能够得到尊重。</div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>If President Xi would recognize this, he could save China from increasing and tragic conflicts caused by needless violations of basic freedoms. He could differentiate himself from exhausted Marxist-Leninist rhetoric and the pitiful misunderstandings of the nature of human rights that Chinese officials have so often revealed. And if China used its immense economic and political power, and the authority of its ancient culture to promote human rights around the world instead of subverting human rights as its government now does, our common future would look much brighter. 如果习近平主席认识到这一点，他会使中国免于遭受各种悲剧性的冲突， 而这些冲突源自那些庸人自扰的限制个人自由的做法。如果习主席有智慧有别于那些穷途末路的马列教条，他当然会展示出自己独特的风采， 而不愿等同于那些对人权知之甚少的官僚阶层的熊样。如果中国积极恰当地发挥其经济实力和政治影响力来促进全人类的人权事业， 而不是反其道而行之，相信我们这个世界前景会更加光明。</div><div></div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div><em>Aaron Rhodes is president of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe and a founder of the Freedom Rights Project, a human rights think-tank. He also serves on the board of the China Reporters Foundation. He was executive director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights 1993-2007. His articles have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He is based in Hamburg, Germany.</em></div><div><em>_________________________________________</em>______________________________________</div><div></div>