America at Risk: Beijing’s Human Rights Betrayal Hits Home

Paul Riverbank, 12/11/2025China’s broken rights promises ripple globally; Europe weighs security versus dignity—who gets left out?

It’s not just a stack of policy papers; it’s page after page chronicling what happens after treaty signings and high-minded promises. There was the Vienna Convention in 1972, then the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention Against Torture—commitments that, on paper, read as blueprints for fairness. Yet on the ground, the picture is starkly different: forced labor camps, crackdowns on faith and culture, and credible accounts of torture.

Pull in the example of Zhang Zhan, a journalist who faced jail time after reporting on the early days of COVID-19. Or Ikram Nurmehmet, an Uyghur filmmaker—his case is one among many. The faces change, but the pattern is stubborn: writers, artists, dissenters of all backgrounds facing heavy-handed repression. For every treaty, a list of names grows longer.

None of this stops at China’s borders. Forced labor reaches into U.S. retailers’ shelves. American tech companies worry their data isn’t safe when China’s far-reaching security laws come into play. Travel, traditionally a mundane concern, has gotten complicated: Americans in China have found themselves trapped, not by closed doors, but by “exit bans” that can suddenly turn a business trip into an ordeal. Abroad, the reach continues—Hong Kong activists see their faces posted on wanted bulletins, while Chinese critics overseas recall harassing calls and threats that find them, even continents away. Recall the diplomatic stand-off at the San Francisco APEC summit just months ago—these tensions aren’t theoretical.

“Americans pay the price—in security, in prosperity, and in credibility.” That was how the commission’s chairs put it, tracing the cost from Washington all the way to ordinary households. Their recommendations are simple but weighty: don’t just talk, act. They advocate new, enforceable rules for supply chains, robust sanctions, and a concerted pushback against Beijing’s method of dividing its critics with promises of economic favor.

Switch focus to Europe, where the problem looks different but the stakes are oddly similar. Migrant arrivals have left leaders playing a delicate game: protect borders, but don’t betray the idea of who gets counted as deserving of rights. The UK, among others, is floating changes to the European Convention on Human Rights, aiming for faster deportations or Rwanda-style resettlements. If these changes go through, what happens to protections against being subjected to degrading treatment? It’s an open question drawing sharp rebuke from figures like Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, who warns that building rankings of who counts as fully human is a perilous road.

Politicians like Lord Alf Dubs warn about slippery slopes—a single exception cut into the law erodes it, bit by bit. Lord Hain, however, suggests there might still be room for reform if done with care. Outside the chamber, legal scholars raise red flags for unintended impact: Professor Veronika Fikfak, for example, predicts that it’s not only migrants who’d lose out, but also those in need of urgent medical care, even prisoners facing harsh conditions.

Meanwhile, human rights groups and UN officials try to ground these debates in daily reality. “Human rights are not something far-fetched,” Astrid Van Genderen Stort of the UN reminds us. She points out—these are the basics: family, clean water, the ability to speak one’s mind. They’re at stake in every rewritten rulebook.

Of course, it’s not all grim. If you want a little perspective, look to the progress on universal education since 1948. The numbers have moved. More children in more countries are learning than ever were imagined possible. But some victories remain fragile—just a glance at the fact that a quarter of the world’s children aren’t officially counted anywhere says plenty about work yet to be done.

Perhaps the larger lesson is just how quickly the conversation can change. With each new political tremor, leaders weigh security against liberty, border control against human dignity. The urge to trade away rights for short-term calm is not a new one, but with every “pragmatic” exception comes a question: who falls outside the newly drawn lines, and what does it mean for everyone else?

For the U.S., staying silent about abuses overseas isn’t just a moral question—it’s about what filters into daily life, from the goods at the grocery to the safety of Americans abroad. The warnings about China’s broken promises resonate. Across the Atlantic, Europe faces its own choices: defend its values, or redraw the boundaries of who those values protect.

In unsettled times, it’s worth returning to an unfashionable truth: rights aren’t the property of any one country. They’re promises everyone’s on the hook to keep. Because each time someone redraws the border, it’s never just others who are left outside. We all have to reckon with what’s lost.

For years, the Chinese Communist Party has drawn crisp lines on paper—ink signatures beneath global pledges for rights and freedoms. But the stories that have unfolded since suggest those lines scarcely survived the drying. Consider the warning from the heads of a U.S. Congressional commission this spring: “Broken promises are not an exception; they are a feature of how the CCP deals with the world and with its own people.” It’s a sharp statement. Their new report makes it sharper.It’s not just a stack of policy papers; it’s page after page chronicling what happens after treaty signings and high-minded promises. There was the Vienna Convention in 1972, then the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention Against Torture—commitments that, on paper, read as blueprints for fairness. Yet on the ground, the picture is starkly different: forced labor camps, crackdowns on faith and culture, and credible accounts of torture.Pull in the example of Zhang Zhan, a journalist who faced jail time after reporting on the early days of COVID-19. Or Ikram Nurmehmet, an Uyghur filmmaker—his case is one among many. The faces change, but the pattern is stubborn: writers, artists, dissenters of all backgrounds facing heavy-handed repression. For every treaty, a list of names grows longer.None of this stops at China’s borders. Forced labor reaches into U.S. retailers’ shelves. American tech companies worry their data isn’t safe when China’s far-reaching security laws come into play. Travel, traditionally a mundane concern, has gotten complicated: Americans in China have found themselves trapped, not by closed doors, but by “exit bans” that can suddenly turn a business trip into an ordeal. Abroad, the reach continues—Hong Kong activists see their faces posted on wanted bulletins, while Chinese critics overseas recall harassing calls and threats that find them, even continents away. Recall the diplomatic stand-off at the San Francisco APEC summit just months ago—these tensions aren’t theoretical.“Americans pay the price—in security, in prosperity, and in credibility.” That was how the commission’s chairs put it, tracing the cost from Washington all the way to ordinary households. Their recommendations are simple but weighty: don’t just talk, act. They advocate new, enforceable rules for supply chains, robust sanctions, and a concerted pushback against Beijing’s method of dividing its critics with promises of economic favor.Switch focus to Europe, where the problem looks different but the stakes are oddly similar. Migrant arrivals have left leaders playing a delicate game: protect borders, but don’t betray the idea of who gets counted as deserving of rights. The UK, among others, is floating changes to the European Convention on Human Rights, aiming for faster deportations or Rwanda-style resettlements. If these changes go through, what happens to protections against being subjected to degrading treatment? It’s an open question drawing sharp rebuke from figures like Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, who warns that building rankings of who counts as fully human is a perilous road.Politicians like Lord Alf Dubs warn about slippery slopes—a single exception cut into the law erodes it, bit by bit. Lord Hain, however, suggests there might still be room for reform if done with care. Outside the chamber, legal scholars raise red flags for unintended impact: Professor Veronika Fikfak, for example, predicts that it’s not only migrants who’d lose out, but also those in need of urgent medical care, even prisoners facing harsh conditions.Meanwhile, human rights groups and UN officials try to ground these debates in daily reality. “Human rights are not something far-fetched,” Astrid Van Genderen Stort of the UN reminds us. She points out—these are the basics: family, clean water, the ability to speak one’s mind. They’re at stake in every rewritten rulebook.Of course, it’s not all grim. If you want a little perspective, look to the progress on universal education since 1948. The numbers have moved. More children in more countries are learning than ever were imagined possible. But some victories remain fragile—just a glance at the fact that a quarter of the world’s children aren’t officially counted anywhere says plenty about work yet to be done.Perhaps the larger lesson is just how quickly the conversation can change. With each new political tremor, leaders weigh security against liberty, border control against human dignity. The urge to trade away rights for short-term calm is not a new one, but with every “pragmatic” exception comes a question: who falls outside the newly drawn lines, and what does it mean for everyone else?For the U.S., staying silent about abuses overseas isn’t just a moral question—it’s about what filters into daily life, from the goods at the grocery to the safety of Americans abroad. The warnings about China’s broken promises resonate. Across the Atlantic, Europe faces its own choices: defend its values, or redraw the boundaries of who those values protect.In unsettled times, it’s worth returning to an unfashionable truth: rights aren’t the property of any one country. They’re promises everyone’s on the hook to keep. Because each time someone redraws the border, it’s never just others who are left outside. We all have to reckon with what’s lost.