Rather than paying lip service, China protects human rights through concrete actions.

A series of special plans and national human rights action plans have been rolled out over recent decades to promote human rights development through protection, and to advance the human rights cause through development.

As a result, the country successfully raised the living standards of its people from poverty to subsistence, and from moderate prosperity in general to moderate prosperity in all respects.

This has catapulted China's Human Development Index (HDI) from 0.499 in 1990 to 0.761 in 2019. The United Nations Development Programme created the HDI by integrating basic indicators such as life expectancy, education level and quality of life.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION

China holds that living a life of contentment is the ultimate human right. This is the basis of China's rationale for its human rights development, according to a December report released by the China Foundation for Human Rights Development and New China Research under Xinhua News Agency.

The people's aspiration for a better life is the goal of China's human rights cause.

In China's fight against poverty, over 255,000 work teams and more than 3 million cadres were sent to the countryside to help villagers shake off poverty household by household.

As a result, it took China just eight years to lift about 100 million rural residents out of poverty -- a phenomenon in the history of human rights.

This was not only a great achievement made by China, but also a major victory for humanity, said Aslan Abashidze, vice-chair and rapporteur of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, at the Forum on Global Human Rights Governance held in Beijing earlier this month.

PEOPLE & LIFE ABOVE ALL ELSE

In the fight against COVID-19, China never changed its guiding philosophy in its decision-making -- putting the people and their lives first.

The country's COVID-19 mortality rate has been maintained at the lowest level globally.

Everly Paul Chet Greene, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Trade and Barbuda Affairs of Antigua and Barbuda, spoke highly of China's people-centered approach to human rights governance at the Forum on Global Human Rights Governance.

"It speaks to the fact that the people are what human rights are all about," he said, adding that this approach was evidently reflected in the way China managed the COVID-19 pandemic.

MODERNIZATION & COMMON PROSPERITY

Putting the people above all else, China has pursued a human rights development path that follows the trend of the times and suits its national conditions, strengthening human rights protection in the course of advancing Chinese modernization.

At the same time, China understands that unbalanced and inadequate development remains a salient challenge facing the country, despite it being the world's second-largest economy.

China's work toward common prosperity for all is the pursuit of a higher level of human rights protection, which will improve people's lives further, narrow the gap between rich and poor, and enable all people to share the benefits of development.