Predictably, the Chinese government quickly answered the U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights by criticizing the U.S. record on human rights.
China's State Council issued it's own response to the State Department report. It said, 'For a long time, the life and security of the people of the United States has not been under efficient protection.'
The report criticized what it called rampant racism in the United States, especially against blacks, and pointed out the torture that has been going on at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.
'As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights situations in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but kept silent on the serious violations of human rights in the United States,' it said.
The report called the State Department's actions 'an act that fully exposes its hypocrisy and double standard on human rights issues.'
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang accused the State Department's report of overlooking China's progress in the area of human rights which he claims 'not only met with the satisfaction of the Chinese people but also has been widely affirmed by the international community.'
Qin added that, 'We express our strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition,' to the report and claimed that the U.S. should 'immediately end the erroneous practice of interfering in other country's internal politics.'
The Chinese report dealt with:
** Racism and how the death penalty was unfairly applied to African-Americans;
** Domestic wiretapping as introduced by the Bush administration;
** The 'mistreatment' and discrimination against Muslims since the September 11 attacks;
** the high rate of poverty and homelessness in the United States.
The report concluded, 'No country in the world can claim to have a perfect state of human rights...We urge the U.S. government to look squarely at its own human rights problems, reflect what it has done in the human rights field and take concrete measures to improve its own human rights status.'
