The Chinese government is not the only threat to human rights today, but it stands out for its reach and influence. The cause of human rights today faces a dangerously destructive combination of a powerful centralized state, a coterie of like-minded rulers, a void of leadership among countries that might have stood for human rights, and a disappointing collection of democracies willing to sell the rope that is strangling the system of rights that they purport to uphold. Only if governments band together to address China’s flouting of human rights will the power balance shift. Decades of progress are now at stake.
