III
Evaluation
My overall response to the Greenwald interview is one of deep appreciation. It brought together two very articulate, well-prepared, and authoritative proponents of comprehensive arguments most often advanced about the nature of China's participation in the global community.
At the same time, I found myself disappointed that both Greenwald and Madhubani accepted right wing framing of the position that China is a violator of human rights in contrast to westerners' valuing free speech along with freedom of religion, press, assembly and the right to vote.
Certainly, there is no question about China's repression in the areas of speech, religion, and press. But that does not deprive it of any possibility of claiming to be a champion of human rights.
The fact is that the UN Declaration of Human Rights as well as its other official statements present the world with a long list of such entitlements ranging from the ones just mentioned to the rights to jobs, food, shelter, clothing, health care, to children's rights.
Another fact is that no country in the world honors all human rights. Instead, all of them (according to whether they fancy themselves "capitalist" or "socialist") prioritize human rights.
Capitalists accord first place to the right to have commercial and legal contracts honored.
They then list freedoms of speech, religion, press and the right to vote as their other preferences. However, if trade contracts are under threat, capitalists quickly dispense with all those other rights - as is demonstrated by their support of repressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Brazil and the Philippines.
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