China: America’s human-rights hypocrisy

Wen XianPeople’s Daily

Another spring, another U.S. human-rights report denouncing China, said Wen Xian. The annual U.S. State Department report, which documents alleged human-rights violations country by country, has never been an impartial analysis. First published during the Cold War, it has always been “a tool that the United States has used to assert its right to interfere with other countries’ internal affairs.” Notably absent is any evaluation of human rights in the U.S. itself.

Now China has remedied that oversight, with a detailed report on the egregious violations America perpetrates on its own people and other peoples. The U.S., for example, operates prison camps in Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere, where people are being held for years, tortured and humiliated, with no hope of release. America has a high rate of violent crimes, rape, domestic violence against women, and the world’s largest prison population. The proportion of Americans living in poverty is rising, and many people die for lack of access to the basic right of health care. And of course, U.S. troops and drones in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians. With such a horrific record, when will the U.S. “stop acting like a preacher of human rights”?