U.S. report: China abusing human rights - China: Adhere to high principles before preaching to others
Ronnie
China on Thursday, March 13 strongly reacted to the United States 2007
Human Rights Practices in which China was branded as one of the worst
offenders of human rights in releasing a report scrutinizing the
"dismal human rights practices in the United States."
The report says the United States reigns over other countries and
makes arrogant and malicious attacks on their human rights issues, but
mentions nothing about its own human rights problems.
It is high time for the U.S. government to face its own human rights
problems with courage, take actions to improve its own human rights
records and give up the unwise practices of applying double standards
on human rights issues and using it to suppress other countries,
according to the report.
Released by the Information Office of China's State Council, the
Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show the human rights
situation in the United States and its violation of human rights in
other countries.
The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in
2007 from seven perspectives: on life and personal security, on human
rights violations by law enforcement and judicial departments, on
civil and political rights, on economic, social and cultural rights,
on racial discrimination, on rights of women and children and on the
United States' violation of human rights in other countries.
Earlier on Tuesday, the United States charged China as an
authoritarian nation that denies its people basic human rights and
freedoms, harasses journalists and foreign aid workers and tortures
prisoners in its annual 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices.
China is still among the world's human rights abusers despite rapid
economic growth that has transformed large parts of Chinese society,
the State Department said in an annual accounting of human rights
practices around the world.
Torture in China includes the use of electric shocks, beatings,
shackles, and other forms of abuse, according to the report. It
includes an account of a prisoner strapped to a "tiger bench," as
device that forces the legs to bend sometimes until they break.
"The year 2007 saw increased efforts to control and censor the
Internet, and the government tightened restrictions on freedom of
speech and the domestic press," the report says of China. "The
government continued to monitor, harass, detain, arrest, and imprison
journalists, Internet writers, and bloggers."
China, strongly reacting to the U.S. assessment, was critical of human
rights practices in the United States.
Following account is based on the report released by the Chinese
government on Thursday:
By publishing the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007,
the Chinese report says it aims to "help the people have a better
understanding of the real situation in the United States and as a
reminder for the United States to reflect upon its own issues".
The report says the increase of violent crimes in the United States
poses a serious threat to its people's lives, liberty and personal
security.
According to a FBI report on crime statistics released in September
2007, 1.41 million violent crimes were reported nationwide in 2006, an
increase of 1.9 percent over 2005.
Of the violent crimes, the estimated number of murders and non
negligent manslaughters increased 1.8 percent, and that of robberies
increased 7.2 percent.
Throughout 2006, U.S. residents age 12 or above experienced an
estimated 25 million crimes of violence and theft, according to the
FBI report.
In the United States, about 30,000 people die from gun wounds every
year, according to a Reuter's story on December 19, 2007.
The USA Today reported on December 5, 2007 gun killings have climbed
13 percent overall since 2002.
On April 16, 2007, the Virginia Tech University witnessed the
deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history with 33 killed and
more than 30 others injured, according to AFP.
Two separate gun killings in the Salt Lake City and Philadelphia
claimed eight lives and injured several other people on February 12,
2007, according to the Associated Press.
The report points out that law enforcement and judicial departments in
the United States have abused their power and seriously violated the
freedom and rights of its citizens.
Cases in which U.S. law enforcement authorities allegedly violated
victims' civil rights increased by 25 percent from fiscal year 2001 to
2007 over the previous seven years, according to statistics from U.S.
Department of Justice.
However, the majority of law enforcement officers accused of brutality
was not prosecuted in the end.
From May 2001 to June 2006, 2,451 police officers in Chicago received
4 to 10 complaints each, 662 of them received more than 10 complaints
each, but only 22 were punished. Furthermore, there were officers who
had amassed more than 50 abuse complaints but were never disciplined
in any fashion, according to statistics released by University of
Chicago.
The United States of America is the world's largest prison and has the
highest inmates/population ratio in the world. A December 5, 2007
report by EFE news agency quoted statistics of U.S. Department of
Justice as saying that the number of inmates in U.S. prisons have
increased by 500 percent over the last 30 years.
The freedom and rights of individual citizens are being increasingly
marginalized in the United States, the report says.
Workers' right to unionize has been restricted in the United States.
It was reported that union membership fell by 326,000 in 2006,
bringing the percentage of employees in unions to 12 percent, down
from 20 percent in 1983.
Employer resistance stopped 53 percent of nonunion workers from
joining a union, The New York Times reported on January 26, 2007.
According to a report by the Human Rights Watch, when Wal-Mart stores
faced unionization drives, the company often broke the law by, for
example, eavesdropping on workers, training surveillance cameras on
them and firing those who favored unions.
In the United States, money is "mother's milk" for politics while
elections are "games" for the wealthy, highlighting the hypocrisy of
the U.S. democracy, which has been fully borne out by the 2008
presidential election.
The "financial threshold" for participating in the U.S. presidential
election is becoming higher and higher. At least 10 of the 20-strong
major party candidates who are seeking the U.S. presidency in general
elections in 2008 are millionaires, according to a report by Spanish
news agency EFE on May 18, 2007.
The French news agency AFP reported on January 15, 2007 that the 2008
presidential election will be the most expensive race in history. The
cost of the last presidential campaign in 2004, considered a peak for
its time, was 693 million U.S. dollars. Common estimates of this
year's total outlay have tended to come in at around 1 billion U.S
dollars, and Fortune magazine recently upped its overall cost
projection to 3 billion U.S. dollars.
The U.S. administration manipulated the press. On October 23, 2007,
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staged a news
conference on California wildfires.
Half-dozen questions were asked within 15 minutes at the event by FEMA
staff members posing as reporters.
The news was aired by U.S-based television stations. After the
Washington Post disclosed the farce, FEMA tried to defend itself for
staging the fake briefing.
The report says that the deserved economic, social and cultural rights
of U.S. citizens have not been properly protected.
Poor population in the United States is constantly increasing.
According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August
2007, the official poverty rate in 2006 was 12.3 percent.
There were 36.5 million people, or 7.7 million families living in
poverty in 2006. In another word, almost one out of eight U.S.
citizens lives in poverty.
The wealth of the richest group in the United States has rapidly
expanded in recent years, widening the earning gap between the rich
and poor. The earnings of the highest one percent of the population
accounted for 21.2 percent of U.S. total national income in 2005,
compared with 19 percent in 2004.
The earnings of the lowest 50 percent of the population accounted for
12.8 percent of the total national income in 2005, down from 13.4
percent in 2004, according to Reuters.
Hungry and homeless people have increased significantly in U.S.
cities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report released
on November 14, 2007 that at least 35.5 million people in the United
States, including 12.63 million children, went hungry in 2006, an
increase of 390,000 from 2005.
About 11 million people lived in "very low food security", according
to Reuters.
People without health insurance have been increasing in the United
States. A Reuters report on September 20, 2007 quoted the U.S. Census
Bureau as saying that 47 million people in the United States were not
covered by health insurance.
Racial discrimination is a deep-rooted social illness in the United
States, the report says.
Black people and other minor ethnic groups live in the bottom of the
U.S. society.
According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August
2007, median income of black households was 31,969 U.S. dollars in
2006, or 61 percent of that for non-Hispanic white households. Median
income for Hispanic households stood at 37,781 U.S. dollars, 72
percent of that for non-Hispanic white households.
The rates of blacks and Hispanics living in poverty and without health
insurance are much higher than non-Hispanic whites, according to
Washington Observer Weekly.
Ethnic minorities have been subject to racial discrimination in
employment and workplace. According to the U.S. Department of Labor,
in November 2007, the unemployment rate for Black Americans was 8.4
percent, twice that of non-Hispanic Whites (4.2 percent).
The unemployment rate for Hispanics was 5.7 percent. The jobless rates
among blacks and Hispanics were much higher than that for non-Hispanic
Whites.
Racial discrimination in the U.S. judicial system is shocking.
According to the 2007 annual report on the state of black Americans
issued by the National Urban League (NUL), African Americans
(especially males) are more likely than whites to be convicted and
sentenced to longer terms. Blacks are seven times more likely than
Whites to be incarcerated.
The report says the conditions of women and children in the United
States are worrisome.
Women account for 51 percent of the U.S. population, but there are
only 86 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress. Women hold 16, or
16.0 percent of the 100 seats in the Senate and 70, or 16.1percent of
the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
In December 2007, there were 76 women serving in statewide elective
executive offices, accounting for 24.1 percent of the total. The
proportion of women in state legislature is 23.5 percent.
Discrimination against women is pervasive in U.S. job market and
workplaces. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said it
received 23,247 charges on sex-based discrimination in 2006,
accounting for 30.7 percent of the total discrimination charges.
The living conditions of U.S. children are of great concern. Houston
Chronicle reported that a survey by the United Nations on 21 rich
countries showed that though the United States was among the world's
richest nations; it's ranked only the 20th in the overall well-being
of children.
U.S. juveniles often fall victims of abuses and crimes. According to a
report on school crimes in the United States released by the
Department of Justice in December 2007, 57 out of one thousand U.S.
students above the age of 12 were victims of violence and property
crimes in 2005.
Millions of underage girls become sex slaves in the United States.
Statistics from the Department of Justice show some 100,000 to three
million U.S. children under the age of 18 are involved in
prostitution. A FBI report says as high as 40 percent of forced
prostitutes are minors.
The report says the United States has a notorious record of trampling
on the sovereignty of and violating human rights in other countries.
The invasion of Iraq by U.S. troops has produced the biggest human
rights tragedy and the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern world.
It was reported that since the invasion in 2003, 660,000 Iraqis have
died, of which 99 percent were civilians. That translates into a daily
toll of 450.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of civilian deaths in
Iraq has exceeded one million. A report from the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) revealed that about one million Iraqis were
homeless, half of whom were children.
U.S. troops have killed many innocent civilians in the anti-terrorism
war in Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported on May 3, 2007 that
as many as 51 civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers in one week
(Karzai Says Civilian Toll is No Longer Acceptable, The Washington
Post, May 3, 2007).
An Afghan human rights group said in a report that U.S. marine unit
fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, people in cars, buses and taxis
along a 10-mile stretch of road in Nangahar province on March 4, 2007,
killing 12 civilians, including one infant and three elders (New York
Times, April 15, 2007).
U.S. human rights records can be best described as tattered and
shocking. The facts enlisted above are only a tip of an iceberg, the
report says.
It is high time for the U.S. government to face its own human rights
problems with courage, take actions to improve its own human rights
records and give up the unwise practices of applying double standards
on human rights issues and using it to suppress other countries,
according to the report.
Westprog
> Washington, D.C. 15 March (Asiantribune.com): The Peoples Republic of
> China on Thursday, March 13 strongly reacted to the United States 2007
> Human Rights Practices in which China was branded as one of the worst
> offenders of human rights in releasing a report scrutinizing the
> "dismal human rights practices in the United States."
> It is high time for the U.S. government to face its own human rights
> problems with courage, take actions to improve its own human rights
> records and give up the unwise practices of applying double standards
> on human rights issues and using it to suppress other countries,
> according to the report.
Nobody should fall for this. The Chinese are terrified that the Olympics
will involve the world looking at their appalling regime, which has managed
for the first time in human history to combine all the worst elements of
capitalism, imperialism and communism. The failings of the USA are neither
here nor there. Any objective standard puts China bottom of the human rights
league.
--
J/
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