The visit to China by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, is the first visit by a Human Rights Commissioner to China in 17 years. But it is not Ms. Bachelet’s first visit to China or her first conversations with either President Xi Jinping or State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with whom she had cordial meetings on May 24 and 25. As Chile’s President from 2006-2016 and 2014-2018, she welcomed both men to Chile at different times and always stressed how important China is to Chile’s future development, economically, politically and strategically. In May of 2017, she traveled to Beijing for a state visit at Xi Jinping’s invitation and also attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
So, she is a stranger neither to China nor its leadership, and certainly not, as former Chilean President, to the needs of developing nations. This, indeed, may explain some of the cacophony coming from both sides of the Atlantic about her six-day trip. She met virtually with President Xi Jinping on May 25, which followed her meeting with Wang Yi, one day earlier in Guangzhou. There, she also gave a lecture to the Human Rights Institute of Guangzhou University. Today, Xi elaborated to her on the human rights position of the Communist Party of China in working to achieve the people’s happiness and accomplish the rejuvenation of the Chinese people. After decades of strenuous efforts, Xi said, China has successfully found a path of human rights development in keeping with the trend of the times and China’s national reality. “Human rights are a rich and all-encompassing concept,” he emphasized, “and must be advanced with integrated and systematic measures. For developing countries, the rights to subsistence and development are the primary human rights,” he underscored. (emphasis added)
