In Western society, there is a longstanding stereotype: China is a country that does not protect human rights. The Pew Research Center released a poll on the American public’s impression of China on March 4, 2021. It showed that more than 20 percent of the respondents first mentioned the perceived negative human rights situation when they were asked about their impressions of China, accounting for the largest proportion.
In the Western concept, human rights are more a political right, a right of a political group or individual to be free from persecution, which is determined by the West’s unique historical experience and popular belief.
Since the 16th century, in the historical process of religious reform, industrial revolution and the rise of nationalism, there have been many forms of political persecution and group struggles to avoid it. Centuries of historical forces such as the persecution of Puritans by the Church of England, the radical actions of the Jacobins in the French Revolution, and the genocide and massacre of Jews and dissidents in Nazi Germany, have shaped Western people’s special concern for political rights.
Additionally, in economically developed Western countries, survival and
