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China derides US' rights record

A worker eats his lunch near a construction site in Beijing yesterday. The armies of migrant workers building Beijing's skyscrapers and Olympic venues are being bilked of wages and placed in dangerous conditions because laws designed to protect them are not enforced, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday. PHOTO: AP

China responded yesterday to a US report critical of its human rights record by releasing its own review attacking the US' rights record as "tattered and shocking."

The State Council, or Cabinet, released the report two days after the US State Department took China to task for widespread human rights violations.

China's report criticized violent crime in the US, its large prison population and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It is high time for the US government to face its own human rights problems with courage ... and give up the unwise practices of applying double standards on human rights issues and using it to suppress other countries," the report said.

Washington's report this week detailed increased attempts to control and censor the Internet, and tighten restrictions on freedom of speech and the domestic press. It said that "China's overall human rights record remains poor."

The US report gave a chilling account of alleged torture in China, including the use of electric shocks, beatings, shackles and other forms of abuse. The report also details claims by citizens forced from their homes to make way for Olympic projects in Beijing.

China has voiced strong opposition to the State Department report, saying China respects and safeguards human rights.

"The efforts and remarkable achievement China has made on the issue have already been widely recognized by the international community," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said in a statement on the ministry's Web site.

"We suggest the US government to stop depicting itself as a human rights watchdog and focus more on its own human rights problems," Qin said.

He said China was willing to have dialogue on human rights with the US and other countries.

The tit-for-tat charges came less than five months before Beijing hosts the Olympics Games, which have already put the spotlight on China's human rights record.

It also came as the economies of the countries become increasingly entwined and the two governments increasingly cooperate with each other on international problems, such as trying to strip North Korea of its nuclear program.

Beijing's report, gathered from a variety of US and international news sources, lambastes an increase in violent crime in the US, saying it poses a serious threat to its people's lives, liberty and personal security.

The report concludes by saying that the US human rights records is "best described as tattered and shocking."

It cites an FBI report on crime statistics released last fall that said violent crime had increased by 1.9 percent from 2005 to 2006, with 1.41 million cases reported nationwide.

Multiple cases are listed, including the April shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University, which left 33 dead and more than 30 injured.

The Chinese report cited news articles saying that 30,000 people die in the US from gunshot wounds every year and gun killings have climbed 13 percent since 2002.

It said the US has the largest prison system in the world, with the highest inmates-to-population ratio. The report cited police brutality and other instances where law enforcement officials violated civil rights.

The report also lambasted the US for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The invasion of Iraq by US troops has produced the biggest human rights tragedy and the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern world," the Chinese report said.
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