China | Chaguan

China goes on the offensive over human rights

Xi Jinping tells European critics that former colonisers may not judge China

|5 min read

THERE IS NOTHING magic about the year 1945 to China’s Communist Party. President Xi Jinping offered this history lesson at an online summit with the heads of European Union institutions on April 1st. It was prompted by efforts by EU leaders to explain why Europe’s dark past obliges them to raise rights abuses with China, and to urge Chinese rulers to use their influence to curb Russian crimes of aggression in Ukraine. In particular, Mr Xi challenged comments by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, that Europeans care greatly about human rights because of the extent of suffering on their soil, notably during the second world war and the Holocaust.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “China sees no universal values”

What China is getting wrong: It’s not just covid

From the April 16th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
A person pushing a shopping cart , held back by a giant ball and chain

Why so many Chinese are drowning in debt

Some contemplate suicide. Others vaunt their folly as influencers 

Lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung.

Leung Kwok-hung, Hong Kong’s shaggy agitator for democracy 

His League of Social Democrats, the territory’s last pro-democracy party, disbanded this week


An illustration of a China official underneath their desk reading a book. There's a China flag on the desk along with documents and stationery.

Beware tomes of Chinese political gossip!

Our new number-crunching on reading banned books


Hong Kong’s last functioning pro-democracy party disbands

A long campaign against dissent crushes a final few democrats

China’s growth targets cause headaches—even when met

Local officials wrestle with competing incentives

China’s giant new gamble with digital IDs

They could change its internet for good and turbocharge AI efforts