China vows to continue protecting human rights

BEIJING - China will continue to make positive efforts in promoting and protecting human rights as always, in line with its national situation, a spokesman said on Friday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the remarks when responding to a question about the United Nations Human Rights Council's endorsement of a China report during its 25th session.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, established when the Human Rights Council was created in 2006, regularly assesses the human rights performance of all UN Members States.

China is ready to participate further in international human rights cooperation and make new contributions in this regard, Hong said.

The Council spoke highly of China's efforts in promoting human rights and appreciated China's open, confident and sincere attitude during the review. It also praised China's feedback on other countries and accepted most of it, the spokesman said.

China will accept 204 of the 252 recommendations in the final report, covering more than 20 areas, said Wu Hailong, Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

China went through the first UPR review in 2009, when the government accepted 42 recommendations made by other countries.

During its ongoing 25th session, the Human Rights Council has adopted UPR reports on China, Jordan, Malaysia, the Central African Republic, and Chad.