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.