Human rights?! Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Because of the Apple Daily issue and because most staffers in the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong have left the city after failing to renew their visas, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday said the US will "stand with the people of Hong Kong" and "stand by Taiwan." Saying such hollow words is now as casual and cheap as posting a tweet for Washington, with a sense of shamelessness.

Washington has almost used up its tools to show it "stands with the people of Hong Kong" and empty talk is all it has now. Yet, it still has many ways to show it "stands by Taiwan": making Taiwan use foreign exchange - a result of Taiwan people's hard work - to purchase US weapons; making Taiwan import US pork and beef containing ractopamine; donating 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to support Taiwan authorities consolidating the path of politicizing the epidemic; and rejecting the Chinese mainland's vaccine which is adequate and recommended by the World Health Organization.

Washington has never really cared about the welfare of the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan. All it wants is that Hong Kong will continue to be turbulent, Taiwan will continue to confront the mainland and the US can gain political benefits from it. The US most of the time hijacks the international community's right to define democracy, freedom, and human rights. It has affected some people's judgement. When addressing the opening of a Human Rights Council session on Monday, United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that she hopes for a "meaningful access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" this year to assess the human rights situation there.

The perception of this top UN human rights official seems to be American- and Western-style. It is a pity that her way of communicating with China over human rights is also deeply influenced by Washington. Some forces in the US and other Western countries have made false accusations that there is "genocide" in Xinjiang. Is Bachelet coming to Xinjiang to conduct an investigation based on the presumption of guilt? Is she going to find out some specious evidence for her vicious accusation? In this case, she will not be welcomed by the Chinese people, including the people of Xinjiang, let alone the Chinese government.

China was very cooperative during the origins tracing of the novel coronavirus conducted by WHO experts, who have already finished the investigation successfully and made their conclusion. But the US has ganged up with some allies and oppose the conclusion of the WHO expert team. They insist on conducting a so-called independent and real probe. This is a vicious presumption of guilt, and an insult to China's sovereignty, which the Chinese people will never accept. If the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights investigates China according to the logic of the US, and acts like Sherlock Holmes, instead of engaging in exchanges, they can abandon the trip. Xinjiang doesn't need the so-called investigation.

China does not accept the narrow definition of human rights made by the US and the West. China's improvement on human rights is advancing simultaneously with the construction of the country's economy and people's livelihood, and it overlaps with the well-being of the people. As the largest developing country in the world, China's vision on human rights stands on solid ground and echoes the people's wish for a better life. The Chinese are aware of what they want most, and they approve of the agenda such as human rights set by the government.

That is why the Chinese people are increasingly opposed to external criticism of China's human rights. Chinese people do not buy into the forces that are "fighting" for our human rights. The only thing we want to say is: please stay away from China and the Chinese people. There is no need for them to stand with the people in any part of China. The Chinese people will stand firmly with the Chinese government in this struggle.

In particular, the US has become the hardest-hit area with the over 600,000 deaths, while China brought the epidemic under control in the shortest time, protected the lives of its people. At this time, the US and the West have no right to talk about human rights with China. More than ever before, the Chinese people are disgusted by their intervention in China's human rights affairs. It is hoped that the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council will not be dominated by the US and the West this time. It should hold the US and the West to account for the tragedies that should have been prevented, but that have gone out of control. It should address the original meaning of human rights that have been distorted by Washington.