China Issues Report On Human Rights In The U.S.

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China on Friday published a report on the United States' human rights record, in response to U.S. criticism and "irresponsible remarks" about China.

Activists of the banned Pakistan charity organisation, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) shout anti-US slogans during a protest against US drone attacks in Pakistani tribal regions, in Islamabad on November 1, 2013 (AFP/File, Aamir Qureshi)

"The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013" was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, in response to "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013" made public by the U.S. State Department on Thursday.
In an annual survey of human rights, the U.S. noted some positive reforms in China, but said Beijing continued to tighten curbs on freedom and activists and step up repression in Tibet and Xinjiang.
China's response states that the U.S., posing as "the world judge of human rights", carefully concealed and avoided mentioning its own human rights problems.
According to the report, there were serious human rights problems in the U.S in 2013, including cyber-surveillance, unemployment, the alleged use of child laborers in farming, and the use of solitary confinement in U.S. jails.

The report, without a hint of irony in acknowledging China's sprawling domestic security and intelligence apparatus, slammed the U.S. surveillance program known as Prism as "a blatant violation of international law", saying it "seriously infringes on human rights".
The United States faces rampant gun violence too, it said.

"In 2013, 137 people died in 30 mass killings, which caused four or more deaths each, in the United States," it said.
The report also took aim at U.S. drone strikes in countries such as Pakistan, a close ally of China's.
"The U.S. has carried out 376 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, causing deaths of up to 926 civilians," it said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the United States was exercising double standards.

"The United States always wants to gossip and remark about other countries' situations, but ignores its own issues. This is a classic double standard," he told a daily news briefing.

Qin said China issued its own report on U.S. human rights to allow people to see whether the United States, which "wants to be the grand master of human rights", really has the right to make such judgments.