John Mearsheimer v brilijantni knjigi “The Great Delusion” (2019) trdi, da je v mednarodnih odnosih enopolarni sistem liberalne demokracije inherentno bolj nestabilen od multipolarnega sistema ravnotežja moči. Liberalni hegemon se bo namreč nenehno vpletal v druge države z namenom, da jim vsiljuje svoje liberalne vrednote, na čelu s človekovimi pravicami in demokracijo, kot univerzalne vrednote. In to bo počel z vsemi sredstvi, v končni instanci z orožjem, posledica česa so vedno novi inscenirani konflikti in vsiljene vojne namesto mirnega sožitja.

No, točno to počnejo ZDA po vsem svetu, pri čemer pa zlorabljajo institut človekovih pravic kot sredstvo za dosego svojih pravih ciljev (geopolitični vpliv, nadzor nad ključnimi resursi itd.). Glede Kitajske ZDA weaponizirajo institut človekovih pravic na primeru pokrajine Xinjiang, kjer kitajskemu vodstvu očitajo kršenje človekovih pravic ujgurske manjšine oziroma celo, da kitajska podjetja uporabljajo Ujgurje kot suženjsko delovno silo. V ta namen so ZDA uvedle trgovinske sankcije proti Kitajski, kjer je prepovedan uvoz izdelkov, ki je bil popolnoma ali deloma proizveden v pokrajine Xinjiang. Problem pri tem je, prvič, da se ZDA sploh niso potrudile dokazati kršenja človekovih pravic in prisilnega dela ujgurskega prebivalca. In drugič, da s tem, ko prepovedujejo uvoz izdelkov iz pokrajine Xinjiang, dejansko škodijo ujgurski manjšini, ki naj bi jo ščitile s svojimi sankcijami. Ta prepoved uvoza namreč vpliva na zmanjšane razvojne možnosti in povečano brezposelnost v pokrajini Xinjiang. Toda ujgurska manjšina tukaj za ZDA služi zgolj kot orožje proti Kitajski zaradi ameriške geopolitične agende, Ujgurji pa plačujejo ceno za to.

Spodaj je dober komentar Arnauda Bertranda na to temo.

This really speaks to the now overwhelming gap between the US and China’s diplomatic power.

At the latest meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the US delivered a joint statement with their usual narrative on Xinjiang. The statement was signed by just 9 countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.

Cuba replied with a joint statement of their own, this one signed by 80 countries (almost 10 times more!) defending China and lambasting the US for its “politicization of human rights and double standards, or interference in States’ internal affairs under the pretext of human rights”.

And by the way, as I’ve long said, it is 100% correct: the US’s shameless weaponization of human rights and their maddening double standards and biases have done immense harm. When you weaponize something you destroy it.

All organizations that ACTUALLY care about human rights should have long been up in arms about this instead of, all too often, agreeing to be useful idiots for the US government’s weaponization efforts. By behaving like this not only have they discredited themselves in the eyes of the very people they purport to help but they’ve contributed to human rights being seen very cynically in much of the world as just an American imperialistic tool of submission.

Xinjiang is actually a perfect example of this. It’s been used as an excuse by the US to enact scores of sanctions against China and against Uyghurs in particular. For instance with the very cynically named “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” which forbids all imports of anything produced “wholly or in part” in Xinjiang. What do you think Uyghurs think about “human rights” after this when very concretely the accusations make them poorer? 🤔 Which by the way is exactly the conclusion of a fantastic report by the  United Nations Human Rights Council on this very topic, studying “the impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights”. It concludes that the US sanctions on Xinjiang are particularly egregious because they “introduce the presumption of guilty (high risk) of existence of any nexus to Xinjiang at any stage of supply chain”, which “affects the overall economy of the region” and “consequently result in rising unemployment, particularly affecting the most vulnerable, […] undermines development [and] rises risks of poverty“.

QED: the weaponization of human rights very concretely undermines human rights.

Vir: Arnaud Bertrand via X