China’s state media said yesterday that the revelations in the Iraq war documents published by WikiLeaks has tarnished the credibility of the US as a protector of human rights.
The comments in the China Daily come after Beijing criticized a report by a commission of US lawmakers and government officials that condemned an “increasingly harsh” crackdown by Beijing on rights activists and lawyers.
The issue of human rights is always a sensitive one in Sino-US relations. Earlier this month, the US called for the immediate release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The documents published by the whistle-blowing Web site appear to show that the US military turned a blind eye to evidence of torture and abuse of civilians by the Iraqi authorities.
“The magnitude of the crimes should make every righteous person angry. It again puts a big question mark against the US’ self-proclaimed image as the world human rights champion,” the China Daily said in a commentary. “For years, the US has been wielding the banner of human rights to criticize others, especially developing countries.”
“However, the US refuses to either clarify or rectify its own human rights violations as recorded by the WikiLeaks documents,” it said, adding the documents let the world see through US “unilateralism and double standards.”
“The US will lose credibility if it cannot face its own human rights violations squarely,” the China Daily said.
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