Xie Feng: all countries should respect each other's human rights philosophy

Respecting human rights means respecting other countries' human rights philosophy, and China advocates safeguarding human rights through security, promoting them through development, and advancing them through cooperation, Beijing's top envoy in Washington said.

China is committed to a human rights development path that meets the trend of the times and suits its national conditions, China's Ambassador to the US Xie Feng told the 53rd Regular Session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, a three-day event that ended in Washington on Friday.

"The Americas have Latin dance, while we have Chinese folk dance. Likewise, there is just no one-size-fits-all development model," Xie said. "True democracy is about respecting other countries' choice of democracy models in line with their national realities."

The envoy said China has been constantly developing whole-process people's democracy, which is in both process and outcome, procedure and substance.

A combination of direct and indirect democracy, it is people's democracy in nature, and also represents the will of the state, and therefore, it is the most extensive, genuine and effective socialist democracy, Xie said.

He noted that democracy is not a slogan; it should be used to resolve real problems.

Citing a decade-long Harvard poll and surveys by Edelman, Xie said the Chinese people's satisfaction with its government has stayed above 90 percent for years in a row.

"China never exports its model, nor does it ask others to copy its practice. Instead, we welcome exchange and mutual learning, and stand ready to jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind," he said.

As China advances modernization, it has been strengthening human rights protection to promote free and well-rounded development of the people, Xie said.

The ambassador said that China has built the world's largest education, social security, and healthcare systems, and that today, 56 ethnic groups are living in harmony, and the people are leading a happy life.

"Over the past four decades of reform and opening-up, China's per capita income has grown over 25 times. With 850 million lifted out of extreme poverty, we have ended absolute poverty once and for all, contributing over 70 percent to global poverty reduction," he said.