To the extent that traditions continue to have valued meanings, they are likely to be reproduced, but if people choose not to conform to tradition, so much the worse for tradition. In particular, so much the worse for those who hold political power who insist that tradition must be followed. For example, the fact that the Chinese tolerated, accepted, or even embraced often arbitrary imperial rule for centuries is no reason why they should embrace repressive party rule today. The people, not their rulers, must decide what they value.
So long as individual and group choices are protected by and within the limits laid out by international human rights standards, they must be respected — both by foreigners and by Asian governments and elites. Anyone, anywhere, who denies these choices, must be opposed. And once we recognize that Asian values need not be sacrificed in the name of human rights, many of the arguments I have considered earlier appear in their true light, namely, as efforts by rapacious Asian ruling elites to manipulate public fear and understandable resentment against an often arrogant and overbearing West to shore up their predatory rule and to deflect attention from their own responsibility for the sufferings of their fellow citizens.
One of the things that makes us human is our capacity to create and change our culture. Cultural diversity has in recent years increasingly come to be valued in itself. Westerners have in recent centuries been especially insensitive in their approach to such differences. Nonetheless, the essential insight of human rights is that the worlds we make for ourselves, intentionally and unintentionally, must conform to relatively universal requirements that rest on our common humanity and seek to guarantee equal concern and respect from the state for every person.
Human rights, as specified in the Universal Declaration and Covenants, represent the international community's best effort to define the social and political parameters of our common humanity. Within these limits, all is possible. Outside of them, little should be allowed.