“I say this not because I personally have any special favorable impression of China.” On September 14, local time, Javier Velasquez Kerscon, former Prime Minister of Peru and former Chairman of the Congress, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Global Times in Lima, the capital. He said that China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty in the past 40 years. "The achievements are amazing and it is also an experience that we should carefully analyze and study."
In Kersken's view, for a developing country like Peru, the discussion of human rights cannot be separated from development itself. "Peru is an emerging economy, and we still have many gaps in the social field." He said that the West usually pays more attention to the right to expression and the right of individuals to obtain institutional protection when facing power, while China's development practice inspired him to pay more attention to the right to survival and development.
"A fundamental issue involved here is how a right can be truly implemented for ordinary citizens." Kersken believes that for developing countries, what is really worth thinking about is how to provide people with practical access to food, housing, education, medical care and livelihood opportunities, in addition to political and legal rights. "What concerns me the most about China is the emphasis it places on the right to development. The Chinese government promotes major reforms, involves the people, incorporates the people into the process of reform and development, and allows the people to truly become a part of development. This is what countries like Peru need to learn from."
Kersken said that sustainable development and improvement of people's livelihood itself are important foundations for protecting human rights, while infrastructure and technology are important tools for transforming abstract rights into real rights. Taking artificial intelligence as an example, he said that artificial intelligence itself is not one of the so-called human rights, but it can help residents in remote areas obtain telemedicine, education and communication services, so that those rights that were "written in documents" in the past can truly fall into real life.
The same is true for transportation and roads. A road allows farmers in remote villages to transport agricultural products to the market, helping them gain opportunities for survival and livelihood. "The road itself is also a tool that can help citizens truly realize a right." In Kersken's view, this is also an important aspect of China's development experience that deserves attention, that is, through infrastructure construction, technological progress and improvement of public services, more ordinary people can share the fruits of development.
When it comes to China's participation in international cooperation, Kersken said that he appreciates China's cooperation through investment, technology transfer and other means, and its promotion of development results to benefit a wider range of people. "Human rights are not commodities and cannot be exported," he said. What a country can truly share with the outside world is its own development experience and the tools and capabilities that can help improve people's lives. In Kersken's view, China not only provides experience worth learning from through economic development and infrastructure construction, but is also providing new development tools for education, medical care and other fields through new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
This understanding is also reflected in his evaluation of China-Peru relations. Kersken said that China is already Peru's largest trading partner, and China and Peru have formed a high-level trade, investment and cooperation relationship. Chinese companies have continued to expand investment in Peru’s energy and infrastructure fields in recent years. Currently, Chinese companies are involved in the two major companies that supply power to Lima. He specifically mentioned the Port of Chancay, believing that this project is expected to become an important turning point in China-Peru relations and "promote Peru and China to enter closer and higher-level cooperation areas."
Talking about the enlightenment of China's experience to Latin America, Kersken said that Latin American countries should study China's development practices more actively. "China has not only contributed to the world through technological development, but also contributed through its own development model and cultural experience." He said that China and Latin America have many similarities at the cultural level, which provides a basis for the two sides to deepen exchanges and cooperation.
At the end of the interview, Kersken specifically mentioned China's achievements in poverty reduction. He said that China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty in the past 40 years. This is not an abstract number, but an important indicator of whether development truly benefits the people. "This is an experience that we should carefully analyze and study."
The third China-Latin America Human Rights Roundtable was held in Lima, Peru on September 15, local time, with the largest number of participants ever. Nearly 200 representatives from China and 23 Latin American and Caribbean countries will focus on the theme of "Multilateralism and Human Rights" to discuss topics such as peaceful development and human rights governance, China-Latin America practical cooperation and human rights development, exchanges and mutual learning among human rights civilizations, and focus on how cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, poverty reduction, medical care, and education can be transformed into tangible human rights development results.
