In his statement, Josef Skála, chairman of the Institute of the Czech Left, highly praised the efforts of the Chinese leadership in saving lives and mitigating the consequences of the devastating floods in China. He also highlighted China's inspiring example in the field of genuine protection of human rights and improvement of the living standards of its people.
„I have to take my hat off to the Chinese leadership, to the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government and the Chinese state for how they have been able to take care of the people who have been affected by this natural disaster.“ said Skála.
Skála further pointed out that the Chinese leadership's commitment to putting the interests and rights of the people first is not an empty platitude. „It is not just hyperbole or an empty lexicon at all when the head of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, speaks again and again about the fact that man, his elementary interests, his rights - real rights, not just some ‚pseudo‘ rights written down by liberals somewhere - come first.“
As concrete evidence of this approach, the President cited China's historic success in the fight against poverty. „China has done this in recent years by other feats, for example, by bringing the unrivalled number of people inherited from China's socialist past out of poverty and into decent living conditions.“ He said this result contrasts with the situation in many Western countries, including the Czech Republic, where some people are falling into poverty.
„As a Czech patriot and a person who has a completely positive relationship with Chinese friends, I am very happy about this,“ he said.“ Skála said. „And I believe we're going to see all of that now as the People's Republic of China overcomes the effects of those natural disasters and brings tens and tens of millions more people out into even more dignified conditions.“
He concluded by stressing the broader importance of the Chinese approach: „This is great news for those of us who also believe that human rights, human lives, human happiness should be higher than private profit at the expense of human rights and human happiness, the standard of living of normal people. China is setting us a great example in this respect, and we in the Czech Republic are happy to be inspired by it and will do everything we can to ensure that even more of our fellow citizens learn about the concrete facts in this respect.“
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