China facing the Global South, by Maria Luiza Franco Busse

On the same date that the Chinese government celebrated Teachers’ Day, a group of Chinese academic entities applied the pedagogy of enlightenment at the First China-Latin America and Caribbean Roundtable on Human Rights event held in Rio de Janeiro. The concept of Human Rights was presented by voices from 15 countries, both official and unofficial representatives, including Grenada, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Panama and Chile.

The meeting, which looked more like a Sino-CELAC or Sino-UNASUR meeting, although this was not the case, ended with the consensus that Human Rights are related to Development, where the D is written with a capital letter because the notion encompasses economy, society and culture in an inseparable interweaving. The possibility of implementing this concept will require state planning from a socialist perspective in which the market is a partner in ensuring the viability of excellent public services in education, health, housing, food security and cultural activities, which in fact allows for the human right to live a happy life. The rest is abstraction.

According to the participants, in the multipolar world of international win-win, the human rights ideology led by the United States of America is falling into disuse. They were unanimous about the role of material conditions as fundamental to the collective physical and emotional well-being within each country and global harmony. Furthermore, they affirmed their willingness to block any initiative of interference and intervention in the name of human rights and to respect the UN Charter of Human Rights with the commitment to strengthen it and propose changes when circumstances warrant it. Most of the speeches recalled the massacre in Gaza and the criminal sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela responsible for disrespecting the sovereign human rights of nations.

The consensus understood that the strong sense of equality lies in diversity. This apparent contradiction is diluted when it is verified that it is diversity that provides the recognition that humans are equal in their needs without denying differences. Thus, Asia and the Global South are aligning themselves in the construction of a new paradigm of global governance among different people who, paraphrasing the rap of Rio de Janeiro native MC Marcinho, just want to be happy and walk around peacefully in their countries without being bothered by imperialist coups and sabotage. And it was in the wake of this tune that Chinese speakers recalled Confucius and Xi Jinping. The former by saying that “the villain has uniformity; the noble has harmony,” and the president by declaring “we must respect each other, it’s that simple.”