Human rights cannot be used to “whitewash hegemony”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a UN meeting, warning against any single country acting as a “ human rights teacher”.
“No country is qualified to act as the self-appointed ‘teacher of human rights’. No model of human rights should be proclaimed as ‘the sole prescription’,” he said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry read-out.
Human rights should not be “exploited to adorn democracy” or to “whitewash hegemony”, Wang added, arguing that the principles of the UN Charter and international laws were the fundamental safeguard for promoting human rights.
China’s top diplomat further called for “jointly upholding the golden rule of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs and [saying] no to any act of double standards under the pretext of human rights”.
Wang also advocated for sovereign equality and an inclusive governance system that works for all while stressing the importance of heeding the calls of the Global South to ensure all nations have equal participation, decision-making power and benefits.