With their presence ever increasing globally, Chinese companies have a role to play in advancing the global endeavor to promote human rights in the business sector, said an expert.

An encouraging example is the Global Solar Sustainable Alliance, launched jointly by 24 Chinese photovoltaic companies in Jakarta, Indonesia, in May, said Liang Xiaohui, chief researcher of the Office for Social Responsibility of China National Textile and Apparel Council.

Aligned with the United Nations Global Compact's 10 principles and sustainable development goals, the alliance outlines nine actionable pathways across three pillars to advance environmental, social and governance progress across the solar value chain and promote its positive impact on the international market.

More Chinese business heavyweights are working for this purpose, Liang said at a forum on human rights protection in Chinese modernization held at Guangzhou University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Saturday.

Participants at the forum also spoke on the construction of China's own human rights knowledge system, criminal law issues, and human rights challenges in the digital age, as well as human rights in the industry and commerce sector.

Human rights protection and the rule of law together act as an important support to the Chinese modernization, said Hu Zongping, vice-president of Guangzhou Law Society.

Liu Zhiqiang, professor of the Guangzhou University Human Rights Institute, stressed the role of the State as a cooperator in achieving individual and collective win-win in constructing China's own human rights knowledge system.

He pointed to the rights to subsistence and development as the main pillar and the need to enrich the concept of human rights in Chinese modernization.

The people-centered human rights view needs to be continuously developed in an innovative way to promote the comprehensive development of China's human rights cause, said Liu Hongzhen, deputy director of Jilin University Human Rights Institute.