China denounces US over human rights

China has fired back at US criticism of its human rights record, issuing a report that denounced the United States for offences ranging from allowing crime and poverty at home to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The report – issued annually in response to the US State Department’s global human rights survey – accused the American military of committing “wanton slaughters”, killing thousands of foreign civilians and torturing detainees.

“The atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the infringement of human rights of foreign nationals by the United States,” said the report, released by the press office of China’s Cabinet.

The US State Department report released on Monday accused China’s Communist government of persecuting dissidents and religious activists, and said prison inmates were tortured and mistreated.

Washington is likely to again seek censure of China next month at the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Past such motions to censure have been killed by China’s allies on the commission.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the State Council report was “an alarm bell to get the United States to be alert to its own problems”.

“The United States opted for this confrontational approach and China has to make a response,” he said. “The United States should take this seriously.”

The Chinese report accused the United States of hypocrisy in condemning conditions in foreign nations while staying silent on its own.

“In 2004, the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal shocked the humanity and was condemned by the international community,” the report said.

“It is quite ironic that on February 28 of this year, the State Department of the United States once again posed as the 'world human rights police',” it said.

The report cited the case of Zhao Yan, a Chinese woman who was beaten and attacked with pepper spray by a US border guard during a visit to Niagara Falls. The guard has been charged with battering her.

In other criticisms, the report said racism was deeply entrenched in the United States. It said politics were manipulated by the wealthy and dismissed the US electoral system as a “contest of money”.

The report cited census bureau figures saying the number of Americans living in poverty had been rising for three straight years to 35.9 million in 2003. It also said Americans were threatened by “rampant violent crime”, and civil rights abuses by law enforcement.

The report criticised Washington for failing to ratify the United Nations’ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, saying the US government had little concern for worker welfare.

China ratified the covenant in 2001, but opted out of a key clause asserting workers’ right to form independent unions.

“The world people have to probe the human rights record behind the Statue of Liberty in the United States,” the report said.

Liu said the Chinese government “not only attaches importance to the economic and cultural rights of its people but also to the civil rights of our citizens”.

“We are working very hard to improve the human rights of Chinese people in various fields,” Liu said. “Human rights in China is far from perfect. … It takes time.”