China Slams U.S. Human Rights Record

The Huffington Post  | by  Stephen Calabria

Beijing's announcement is widely seen as a response to an earlier U.S. State Department report that expressed concern over abuses of human rights in China.

The Chinese report, titled “The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013” and released by China’s Information Office of the State Council, decried what it perceived to be human rights abuses by the United States.

“Acting as the world’s judge of human rights, the U.S. made arbitrary attacks and irresponsible remarks on the human rights situation in almost 200 countries and regions," read a brief editorial accompanying the report in Xinhua, the the state-run news agency,

“If the United States wants to be the self-claimed human rights judge of the world, though China and most countries do not agree, it first needs to sweep its own doorsteps. Otherwise, its words will not be heard, let alone trusted, by other countries.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang later chimed in at a daily news briefing.

“The United States always wants to gossip and remark about other countries’ situations, but ignores its own issues. This is a classic double standard.”

The Chinese government was responding to the U.S. State Department’s annual survey of human rights around the world that was released Thursday. Titled “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013,” the U.S. report painted a largely negative picture of China's approach towards human rights. The report criticized Beijing in areas such as “Respect for the Integrity of the Person”, “Respect for Civil Liberties”, “Respect for Political Rights” and “Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government.”

China's response was equally broad. It covered such areas as the government’s PRISM surveillance program, military drone strikes, solitary confinement within U.S. prisons, widespread gun violence in America, high rates of unemployment and homelessness, child labor.