Rights Gone Wrong

Review of 'The Debasement of Human Rights' By Aaron Rhodes

James Kirchick  Aug. 15, 2018

On a visit to Canada in 2016, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, was questioned about his country’s human-rights record. Wang was ready with a response. “Do you know that China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty?” he snapped back.

Defenders of Cuba’s one-party state reliably employ a similar deflection tactic whenever discussion about the island prison turns to human rights. “But,” they invariably retort, “Cuba boasts universal health care and 100 percent literacy!”

Such earnest recitations of societal achievements are the Communist version of that apocryphal line about Mussolini making the trains run on time.

That most European countries provide government-run health-care and refrain from throwing people into prison for criticizing the government proves that a generous social-welfare state and individual liberty are not mutually exclusive. (Some of these countries even have punctual train arrival and departure times, too)..........The attempt to ward off criticism of a nation's abysmal human-rights record by touting its provision of material benefits is, according to Aaron Rhodes, more than mere "whataboutery," the obnoxious Soviet rhetorical trick that answered every criticism of Communist repression by highlighting the West's own iniquities......To Read More