Human Rights Record of the United States

Annual publication on human rights in the US

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Human Rights Record of the United States

The Human Rights Record of the United States is an annual publication by the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China as a retort to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices by the United States Department of State. The report was first issued in 1998, which each of the Chinese reports citing the U.S. State Department's report in the first paragraph.

Overview

The Human Rights Record of the United States is published annually as a retort to U.S. criticism of China's human rights policies^[1]^{[unreliable source?]} in the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, published by the State Department of the United States.^[2]^{[unreliable source?]} The inaugural Chinese report stated that the State Department reports are "full of distortions and accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. However, the United States turned a blind eye to its own terrible human rights situation and seldom mentioned it." It said that the United States uses the human rights issues as "a political instrument to defame other nations' image and seek its own strategic interests." The report asserted "[The U.S. State Department] released the 'Country Reports on Human Rights Practices' year after year to accuse and blame other countries for their human rights practices. These moves fully expose the United States hypocrisy by exercising double standards on human rights and its malicious design to pursue hegemony under the pretext of human rights."^[1]^{[unreliable source?]} Subsequent reports have continued to levy similar criticisms against the U.S. report.

The Chinese reports typically criticize U.S. domestic social and economic issues, such as poverty, crime and racism. Some of the data cited in the reports is derived from official or authoritative sources; other sections are composed from a variety of material found online, some of which may be anecdotal.^[3]

Regarding the 2010 report, Fareed Zakaria wrote: "The report loses itself and takes away from the more serious charges it does make about Guantánamo Bay and CIA detention facilities. The Chinese government should get the report done by serious Chinese scholars, of whom there are many, rather than the propaganda department of its Communist Party, which seems to have written this one."^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b "China hits back with report on U.S. human rights record". News.xinhuanet.com. Archived from the original on 2013-11-19. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
^ "Full Text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010". News.xinhuanet.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
^ Branigan, Tania (April 11, 2011). "China accuses US of human rights double standards". The Guardian. London.
^ "What in the world? China calls out the U.S. on human rights". CNN. April 18, 2011.