US sets bad example on human rights: China Daily editorial

In a speech on Friday, United States President Joe Biden declared "the oppression and use of forced labor of the Uygurs in Xinjiang" was a human rights atrocity. Setting aside for the moment that those charges are baseless, what should be noted is the context in which he made the allegation. He was talking about Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal and the trial of the Nazi criminals. Actually he was putting "use of forced labor of the Uygurs in Xinjiang" on par with the crimes committed by the Nazis.

It is egregious that the US president should use a fabricated charge to point an accusing finger at China in such a disgusting manner.

"To deal with the past, you must face the truth — whether it was Dachau, or Buchenwald, Auschwitz, or other camps," Biden said in his speech.

But when it comes to Xinjiang, Biden does not want to face the truth. Instead he chooses to turn a blind eye to what the local people of different ethnic groups have suffered from the atrocities committed by terrorists. He has never condemned terrorist attacks that took place in Xinjiang several years ago. In the eyes of Biden and many US politicians, the terrorist attacks that caused hundreds of deaths in nearly a decade from 2007 to 2016 never happened.

He chooses to ignore what the Chinese government has achieved in cracking down on terrorism and extremism, and turning Xinjiang into a safe place for residents of all ethnic groups to live. He has never mentioned the fact that there has not been a single terrorist attack in the region in the past more than four years.

On taking office, Biden said that the US should lead by the power of its example instead of by the example of its power. What example has the US set for the world in defending human rights?

Look at the wars the US launched in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past two decades. How many innocent people have lost their lives in the two wars? How miserable has life become for the majority of people in the two countries as a result of the wars? By launching these wars the US has set examples of how the world's sole superpower has created human right disasters by wielding its military might.

Rather than believing itself to always be on the moral high ground and pointing accusing fingers at other countries when it comes to the question of human rights, what the US needs to do is to reflect on how its actions, both military and economic, have resulted in the worsening of global human right conditions.

Rather than learning from the bad example of US power, China will do whatever it can to promote the well-being of its own people and that of people around the world.