Human rights forum in China marks UN Charter's 80th anniversary

A forum marking the 80th anniversary of the United Nations (UN) Charter was held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Wednesday, bringing together nearly 90 human rights experts and scholars from home and abroad.

Lu Guangjin, vice president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, said at the event that China's human rights endeavors have made continuous progress over the past decade, with their global influence increasing steadily.

China has been working to improve people's livelihoods, and to protect and promote human rights through development, enabling its people to share more of the fruits of development, Lu added.

The 2025 Li Buyun Law Prize ceremony was held alongside the forum, with Zhang Yonghe, executive dean of the Human Rights Institute at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, receiving this year's award for over 30 years of research, notably redefining the "Right to Development" as an "eternal right" for all humanity, a Chinese perspective gaining worldwide attention.

"Peace, development, and human rights are the three pillars of the UN Charter. Given today's global situation, I feel we must emphasize these rights even more. This also reflects China's view on human rights -- prioritizing the rights to subsistence and development as primary, indivisible human rights. Similarly, without development, achieving peace is very difficult," said Zhang.

The Li Buyun Law Prize recognizes individuals and organizations who have made eminent contributions to Chinese and international legal studies and legal education exchange. It was established in 2013 by the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law in honor of Li Buyun, a pioneer in human rights law research in China.

Attending the event, Djibril Diallo, former spokesperson of the UN secretary-general, also hailed China's efforts over the years as "impressive."

"China's view of human rights is really central to the issue, because it links to the most basic levels. I have observed how China has been over the years promoting human rights in order to introduce issues such as fighting hunger, providing education and also health issues, and especially providing issues as entry points to dealing with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. So that's the most impressive," he said.

Wednesday's event also saw the launch of the Chinese and English editions of "Women in China's New Era," a book featuring 30 real-life stories of Chinese women who have pursued their aspirations and realized personal value.

"I think personal stories and especially human stories, women stories are very important to see how human rights development is in action in the everyday life of normal and average people, how they understand the development and how they have the fruits of the development," said Krisztina Karsai, a law professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary.

Human rights forum in China marks UN Charter's 80th anniversary

Neil Bush, founder and chair of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, has hailed the warming of China-U.S. relations and highlighted the enduring resilience of China's economy.

Bush spoke on the sidelines of the 2025 International Symposium on the Peaceful Use of Space Technology – Health (IPSPACE 2025) in Boao, a coastal town in China's island province of Hainan. He pointed to the recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, as a key step toward improving bilateral ties, despite persistent trade tensions.

"I think it's improving. It's reached a kind of an all-time low recently. But the fact that the presidents met and there's been more exchanges, there's been, I think a better understanding established, and you can see signs from Washington that there's an easing of tensions, which I'm very, very happy to see. I still think that there are going to be challenges with our bilateral trade relationship. I'm concerned that our government believes that tariffs are going to help America create jobs and create wealth in America. And I think that's a false thesis for an economic policy. So I'm concerned there may not be much negotiating on the issue of tariffs. Otherwise, the bilateral relationship seems to be warming and improving, which I'm very happy about," said Bush.

Bush also praised China's economic progress and its leading role in shaping an AI-driven future.

"You can never count China out. There have been many, many projections over the past 20 to 30 years of China's demise. 'Experts' predicted that China is going to go down. The reality is China is very resilient, and there's so much activity going on here. We're at an IP space conference. There's a lot of discussion about innovation and finance and capital and all the new technologies that fall out of AI's development. There's a lot going on, not just in China, but clearly China is playing a critical role in building the new economy, the transition economy from kind of the old way to the AI-driven way," said Bush.

Bush also highlighted the benefits that China's economic development has brought to improving people's livelihoods.

"China's resilient. China's economy, hopefully, will continue to grow. I happen to believe that as economies grow, people benefit and the role of government should be to provide benefits to its people. So our American capitalist system has worked in America to make us a very strong country where people are enjoying all kinds of benefits from wealth. China, likewise, the people of China are benefiting from economics. So I applaud the economic development in China, which is helping to improve the life of more and more millions of people," he said.

Bush China Foundation chair hails improvement in China-US ties