China Perspective
China: US should improve its own rights record
By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-13 08:05
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American report turns blind eye to violations at home
BEIJING - China on Friday said the United States was a bigger culprit with a terrible record in response to Washington's charges on violation of human rights, "Like the previous years, the (US) report is full of accusations about the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. As in the past, the report released on Thursday has conveniently ignored and even covered up rampant human rights violations on their own territory," said the Information Office of the State Council in its report.
The US is "also responsible for many human rights disasters worldwide," it said, citing the problems caused by the financial crisis, which in turn was sparked by the American sub-prime crisis.
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It urged Washington to focus on "improving its own human rights record" and stop using the issue to defame other nations for their own strategic interests.
The US State Department had in its report criticized China, Cuba, Myanmar, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Russia for violation of human rights.
Not surprisingly it was the second charge leveled against the country on Thursday after US President Barack Obama said that "China was manipulating its currency".
"The attacks signal that the (US) administration is showing an increasing willingness to confront, or even antagonize China," AP commented on Friday.
The US approach is being spurred, in part, by lawmakers' complaints that Obama's efforts to win Chinese cooperation have failed, said the AP report.
"The lawmakers are facing important November elections and are increasingly attacking China as a way to win votes from Americans worried about jobs."
Hong Kong's Oriental Daily News said earlier this week in an editorial that the US reports on China's human rights, military build up, and next month's Treasury Department report that would list China as a "currency manipulator", are being used by Washington to get China's support at the forthcoming nuclear summit.
The White House intends to use the summit, which is likely to gather leaders from more than 40 nations in Washington in April, to target Teheran and Pyongyang, it said.
The delay in issuing the human rights and military reports on China this year is not due to Washington's "goodwill", but should be seen more as a weapon used by the US against China, the report said.
Washington used to release the human rights report at the beginning of the year and the military report on March 1. It has, however, not yet come out with the military report for 2009.
Sun Zhe, director of the Sino-US Relations Research Center at the Tsinghua University, however, said that the US report is not all that bad for China.
"As a major power, China should be more open to criticism and supervision of its economic development and political system," he said.
"Through more dialogue and cooperation, the two countries can gain more understanding and learn from each other."
Tan Yingzi in Washington contributed to the story
