Welcome to this course "Law, Human Rights and Governance in Today’s China".

The course is taught by Dr. QIAO Cong-rui and Prof. Tom ZWART from the Cross Cultural Human Rights Centre at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, through the 2021 Honours Programme for VU, UvA and AUC students.

Enjoy!

In this lecture, we will start with what Northern media tend to focus on (e.g. alleged abuses of human rights in China). China does consider human rights to be important. From a Marxist perspective, the right to subsistence and the right to development are regarded as being more important than civil and political rights. The Chinese approach to human rights will be discussed during this lecture.

Ever since the People's Republic occupied the Chinese seat in the UN, it has become part of the UN mechanisms which monitor the performance of states in the area of human rights and holds them to account. Initially, China was a reluctant and defensive player, but over the years it became more active and engaging. During the last ten years, it has even taken up a leading role within the UN Human Rights Council, while relying on the support of other countries from the Global South. Nowadays, China sometimes openly challenges the position of Northern countries, such as the U.S. and the member states of the EU. This development will be discussed during the lecture.