US 'Human Right' Standard Seen From Incident of Crash of Chinese Airplane

For many years, the US government has repeatedly praised itself as a government which is most particular about human rights, advertising that the United States is "a lighthouse defending international human rights"; the US government has, on various occasions, made use of various opportunities to censure other countries on the issue of human rights.

In the "2000 country human rights report" published by the US State Department on February 27 this year, the US government, assuming the posture of an overlord, once again criticized over 190 countries and regions around the world on by one for their behavior on the issue of human rights in the past year, hurling abuses at other countries.

More than one month afterwards, following the occurrence of the incident of US reconnaissance planes intruding into the airspace over the exclusive economic zone of China's coastal areas and bumping a Chinese military aircraft, the series of performances put on by the US government have enabled people to understand more clearly the meaning of and standard for the the human right of the US government.

The irrefutable facts have proved that the responsibility for the collision of Chinese and American military airplanes rests completely with the United States. It is US military reconnaissance aircraft that violated flying stipulations and took dangerous action that crashed the Chinese airplane, with the result that the whereabouts of the Chinese pilot remains unknown to this date. If one has a slight intuitive knowledge, not to say "human right", he should feel compunction, criticize himself, bear responsibility on his own initiative and actively help the Chinese government properly handle this incident, but on the part of the US government, it has not only shirked its responsibility, but has also made unfounded countercharges. Is this the "human right" of the US government?

After the occurrence of the incident of bumping and damaging Chinese aircraft, the Chinese government has shown great concern for the missing pilot Wang Wei. President Jiang Zemin said with feeling that man is most valuable, he has repeatedly instructed that the army and concerned departments should search and rescue the pilot fallen into water by all means and at all costs. In less than one hour after the occurrence of the incident, the Navy had sent out five naval ships and five airplanes to hurry to the southeast sea areas of Hainan Island to carry out search. By the morning of April 4, 48 sorties of various types of airplanes and 29 naval vessels had been sent out for the purpose. After learning about the news, Party and government leaders in Wang Wei's hometown immediately rushed to Wang Wei's home to extended cordial regards to Wang Wei's parents. With regard to the US personnel in the aircrew which created disturbances by intruding into China's territorial airspace and landing in a Chinese airport without permission, China, proceeding from a humanitarian stand, has made proper arrangements for them and permitted US embassy officials to China to meet them. But what about the US government? It only expressed "regret" over the fact that so far the parachuted Chinese pilot has not been found. Is that the "human right" of the US government?

However, the sharp contrast here is that after the occurrence of the incident, the US government has expressed utmost concern for its flight crew and promptly published the names of all personnel of the aircrew on the Internet and repeatedly demanded that the Chinese side release them. It seems that in the eye of the US government, only Americans are humans, people of other countries are not worth mentioning. The "Declaration of Independence", a document on the founding of the United States, published more than 200 years ago, makes it clear at the outset: "Every one is born equal". Is the "every one" here referring only to Americans, or is it also applicable to all nations in the world? Is it that US government officials have forgotten their forefathers' teachings, or that they simply do not prepare to implement these teachings?

People naturally associate this with the US submarine that butted down a Japanese fishing boat, the American pilot who rammed down an Italian cable car, the Iraqi and Yugoslav innocent people killed by US missiles. Do these "human right guards" and "human right judges" safeguard human rights in this way"? The US government has always adopted a dual standard for human rights! To put it bluntly, the so-called human right in the foreign relations of the US government is nothing more than a fig leaf it uses to conceal its practice of power politics and hegemonism.

Kindhearted people have further realized that it is impossible for those, who play the bully under the cloak of "human right", to bestow genuine human right to anyone. The justice-upholding and peace-loving Chinese people have further understood that the Chinese human right, sovereignty and other rights in international affairs can only be won by relying on their own efforts.



This article, written by Wang Yitang, is published on Page 4 of People's Daily, April 6.


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