The following opinion column appeared on Townhall.com on 9/22/11.

Author: ADF President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears

In China, human rights are not recognized as fixed or unalienable. Rather, they are a benevolence to be given or taken away in response to the mindset and behavior of individual Chinese citizens. Those who are “loyal to the Communist Party” are allowed rights and citizens who aren’t loyal to the party are denied rights.

To put it another way, instead of a fundamental right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, China has a fluctuating rewards system that favors those who seek the government’s ends over individual liberty. This is a “human rights theory with Chinese characteristics.”

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