China fires back at criticism, says US ignores its own problems on human rights

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China fires back at US human rights criticisms

BEIJING — China accused the United States of destabilizing the world economy and meddling on Friday — its standard response to Washington’s annual review of Beijing’s human rights record.

The U.S. report issued Thursday accused Beijing of abusing its citizens’ rights and maintaining currency policies that cost millions of U.S. jobs.

The Chinese response touched on America’s gun crime and prison population and offered sweeping statements that often mirrored charges in the U.S. report.

“In the United States, civil and political rights of citizens are severely restricted and violated by the government,” read one statement in a report. “Workers’ rights were seriously violated,” said another.

The Chinese report alleged rising American problems with crime, poverty, homelessness and “chronic” racial discrimination, called U.S. college campuses unsafe and said spying on U.S. citizens by their government had reached unprecedented levels.

The U.S. report is drawn largely from the work of rights groups and American diplomats, while the Chinese report mainly cited U.S. media reports as evidence of its claims.

China’s Communist Party propaganda bosses exercise strict control over the entirely state-owned media and allow little reporting on rights abuses and other sensitive topics. The one-party state also permits no independent rights monitoring groups and its own reports on the domestic human rights situation are typically glowing, focussing on the growing economy and numbers lifted out of poverty.

The pattern of the dueling reports has lasted 11 years, although this year’s follows a period of heightened friction over issues including Taiwan, Tibet and trade. The administration of President Barack Obama seems increasingly willing to confront China, after a year in which a lighter approach to Beijing yielded few gains.

As in past years, China’s report accused Washington of criticizing others while turning a blind eye to its own problems, ignoring the numerous reviews of domestic rights issued by the administration and Congress, as well as the work of organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

The U.S. uses human rights as “a political instrument to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, defame other nations’ image and seek its own strategic interests,” the report said.

“At a time when the world is suffering a serious human rights disaster caused by the U.S. subprime crisis-induced global financial crisis, the U.S. government still ignores its own serious human rights problems but revels in accusing other countries. It is really a pity,” the report said.