China's Foreign Ministry lashed out at what it called "arrogance and prejudices" in a US government report that criticized Bei-jing's human-rights record and urged a visit by a UN investigator.
The annual report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China "distorted facts and attacked China by using the issues of human rights," ministry spokesman Kong Quan (孔泉) was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
"This only shows the arrogance and prejudices of the drafter of the report," Kong said, according to the Xinhua report issued late Saturday.
The commission criticized Beijing's restrictions on political and religious expression, but hailed recent developments in legal reform that it said could foster greater freedoms in future.
It also called on Beijing to honor what it called "significant and far-reaching commitments on human rights matters" made during a US-China dialogue last December. It said those commitments included the release of some detainees and unconditional invitations to the UN Special Rap-porteur on Torture and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
The report cited official Chinese statistics as saying that between 1998 and 2000, more than 300,000 Chinese were detained for periods longer than permitted by law.
Kong's statement didn't address specific demands or accusations. But he accused the US of using its own human-rights standards to repress China, while ignoring its economic and social achievements.
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