China Tells U.S. To Quit As Human Rights Judge

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING - The United States is beset by violence, racism and torture and has no authority to condemn other governments' human rights problems, China said on Sunday, countering U.S. criticism of Beijing's crackdown.

The row between Beijing and Washington over human rights has intensified since China's ruling Communist Party extended its clampdown on dissidents and rights activists, a move which has sparked an outcry from Washington and other Western governments.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is the most prominent of the activists to be detained by police or held in secretive custody in the latest crackdown.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday she was "deeply concerned" about it, and cited "negative trends" including Ai's detention.

A U.S. State Department report on global human rights released on Friday said Beijing had stepped up restrictions on lawyers, activists, bloggers and journalists, and tightened controls on civil society.

It has also increased its efforts to control the press, Internet and Internet access, the report said.

But China has shown no sign of bowing to foreign pressure.

Its Foreign Ministry on Saturday dismissed the U.S. report as meddling, and its own annual report about U.S. human rights stressed Beijing's dismissive view.

"Stop the domineering behavior of exploiting human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries," it said, according to excerpts published by the official Xinhua news agency.

"The United States ignores its own severe human rights problems, ardently promoting its so-called 'human rights diplomacy', treating human rights as a political tool to vilify other countries and to advance its own strategic interests," said a passage from the Chinese report

Produced by the State Council Information Office, the government's public relations arm, the report dwelled on what it said were severe deprivations and threats facing many Americans, as well as Washington's invasion of Iraq.

It also cited the United States' refusal to ratify a number of international human rights pacts, and listed poverty, hunger and homelessness as stains on the country's rights record.

"The United States is the world's worst country for violent crimes," said the report. "Citizens' lives, property and personal safety do not receive the protection they should."

"Racial discrimination is deeply rooted in the United States, permeating every aspect of social life," it said.

Criticism of China's human rights problems do not come just from foreign governments and groups.

Chinese rights lawyers and advocates have also been dismayed by a recent burst of arrests, detentions and heavy sentences against dissidents and activists.

On Sunday, hundreds of Chinese police moved to prevent a planned outdoor service by a church in Beijing that had been evicted from its former premises.

(Editing by Sophie Hares)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[cigarrants]

03:31 PM on 04/18/2011

I break down these numbers here: http://cigarrants.com/2011/04/18/china-criticizes-american-human-rights/

[allperils]

11:24 AM on 04/14/2011

Iraq
Aghanistan
Libya
Kill Team
Abu Grabbayi
Gitmo
Assange
Unjustified sanctions against Iran

[mbowlingccbc]

10:49 AM on 04/13/2011

It is interesting to turn the tables on ourselves and look to our own civil rights abuses. We do have the most citizens incarcerated per capita in the world, what does that say about our country...are we more prone to being criminal here in the states, or is there a human rights issue involved? I'm thinking its probably the latter.
Not to mention we never really addressed the torture issue in any meaningful way here in the U.S., we basically just swept it under the carpet in 2009.

But that's the big difference between the U.S. and China, isn't it...we can talk about these things and be openly critical of our government and country. That isn't the case in China.

[s002wjh]

02:09 PM on 04/13/2011

depend how you talk. in china you can criticize government etc on forum, blog etc just like we do here. you can also talk between friends, and other people during small talk/parties etc. you can protest, but its limited and it depends on issues. for example there are protest regarding house price, inflation etc, but when it invovle democracy, you will draw police attention very quickly.

[HanMeiRen]

05:02 AM on 04/13/2011

Instead of acting offended we ought to thank China for putting time and effort to criticize our human rights records.

We do not need to stop criticizing China's human rights records.

Let us have a competition to see who is doing better.

Maybe we should publish a report on what items, from the Chinese report, we see as valid criticism, and what we will have done towards addressing them. Maybe Beijing would follow.

I see this as a positive cycle.

[zewdi Z]

03:38 PM on 04/12/2011

@@iceberg said....The communist regime is not China. It doesn't represent the Chinese people. There's no freedom of speech, no freedom of press to speak of and people live in fear under the rule of the current communist government­.
__________________________________________________________________________

Darn! iceberg...I hate to burst your little bubble, but that Chinese "communist" government sounds so much like America!! What do you think happens to fellow Americans who dare to speak up and out against injustices and human rights abuses taking place reguarly in America? Try googling: Jena Six Civil Rights Activist convicted/faces decades in prison. Crooked judge, prosecutor and sheriff's posse. Just like those good old days. The only things missing are the lynch mobs.

[Skaterx999]

02:39 PM on 04/21/2011

Lame comparison.

[Danish5666]

10:41 AM on 04/12/2011

Hypocrisy is alive and well.

Unfortunately most of the comment is about who is worse, instead of criticizing both for their breaches of human rights.

[jo smith456]

10:04 AM on 04/12/2011

AFTER 1) invading Iraq (which resulted in the deaths of THOUSANDS and displacement of MILLIONS); 2) allowing the genocide of Pales ti nians; 3) being the Number 1 arms/weapons seller in the world; 3) hyprocritically and inconsistently being silent on the military crackdown of protesters in Egypt and Bahrain but not in Libya and Syria; 4) its elections being controlled by wall street bankers/financiers,
and so on and so forth, blah, blah, blah...

The US, certainly, does NOT have the moral and ethical right to be criticizing other countries human rights policies... SHAMEFUL...

[iceburg]

07:46 AM on 04/12/2011

The communist regime is not China. It doesn't represent the Chinese people. There's no freedom of speech, no freedom of press to speak of and people live in fear under the rule of the current communist government.

[Acert]

09:40 AM on 04/12/2011

I'm not sure I would call PRC Communist. State-capitalism is more accurate.

[jo smith456]

10:15 AM on 04/12/2011

in the end, Chinese and American businesses are thriving, despite all these propaganda and drama about human rights abuses...

[Pod-gers]

11:47 PM on 04/11/2011

There is no doubt that there are problems in China. Like all other countries there are problems. The issue China is talking about is the unfair and unreaqsonable way the US "picks" a fight with China as they are actively trying to address their problems in a meaningful way, while in the US we seem to be ignoring our own problems.

The stench of the double standard.

China has just finished a complete review and 5 year plan to continue working on their "problems." They noted what historic progress they have made, and where they need to continue working. As I see it they have ignored nothing. They are not ashamed to state publically that they continue to need to learn from others.

However, I never ever hear the US give China credid for solving many problems. In fact, the more progress China makes, the more mad the US seems to get!

What truely amazes me is what short prison terms "dissidents" who commit violent acts for political reasons get! If these "dissidents" pulled this stuff in the US, homeland security would disapear them in a fraction of a second, and we have.

I wish the China bashing would end, so those in China can advocate for continued improvements in China without falling victim to being accused of being a pawn of the US, or US funded NGOs.

I suspect that human rights is NOT the real reason human rights is brought up as an axe against China.

[drjasonmd]

12:48 AM on 04/12/2011

Follow the money (to Shenzen).

[Impaler]

03:49 AM on 04/12/2011

Agreed, the TSA (T&A) under Obama routinely does things to people that would land the average American in Jail, I am traveling to China and Indonesia once again in a few months and always enjoy the freedoms I remember in my younger years here in my country. F & F

[sculptor]

10:54 PM on 04/11/2011

Yeah, right. The US is totally evil and China is as innocent and pure as the new driven snow...

Baloney! Pure baloney. Compared to the millions slaughtered by the PRC's government in the not so distant past the US is a saint of a nation. Furthermore, China's government should be grateful that we gentilly criticize them in an attempt to help them improve their moral deficiencies.

[drjasonmd]

11:35 PM on 04/11/2011

How valiantly you've managed to tear down your own false dichotomy. Bravo to you!

[Acert]

12:36 AM on 04/12/2011

No, that's the conclusion, which you have implied.

[iceburg]

09:32 PM on 04/11/2011

I'm confused. Many readers seem to have ignored what the Communist regime has been doing to the Chinese people. It is a despicable crime for the police to arrest innocent people in the street, or to perform housebreaking in the middle of the night.
This country does have an awful lot of problems, and the government always makes the people feel disappointed. But it doesn't make people feel horror. Man is innocent unless he proves otherwise. And people, whether as a group or as separate individuals, have the right to walk on the street of his country.

[drjasonmd]

10:06 PM on 04/11/2011

Are you serious? The US government doesn't make people feel horror? Tell that to the millions of Afghans and Iraqis. Innocent until proven guilty? Tell that to the thousands of prisoners your country is holding in secret prisons around the world.

People have the right to walk on the street in China. It's clear you know little about that country other than what your propaganda machine has been telling you. If you bothered to read the polls, you'd find that the Chinese people feel as good about their government as you do about yours.

[sculptor]

11:20 PM on 04/11/2011

Yes, but it's all relative. Do you have any idea how many million Chinese have died at the hands of their own government in the past sixty years?

Note, though the Bush Administration should all be tried in the Hague for what they did, the current government's hands are relatively clean. Can anything ever similar be said of the Chinese Government? No, that's because the Chinese government is a dictatorship that is directly descended from Mao's nightmare.

[Acert]

11:43 PM on 04/11/2011

Tyranny of the masses is still tyranny. The fact that a plurality or even a majority supports the punishment of dissidents does not make it right.

[Impaler]

03:53 AM on 04/12/2011

I have never been so afraid of a Government as I am this regime, between the TSA committing crimes daily, and our Justice Department protecting criminal racists, or handing our sovereignty over to Mexican drug lords, I actually look forward to going to China.

[Acert]

09:32 PM on 04/11/2011

Just to note, whatever our current human rights abuses are, the PRC dwarfs them.

[drjasonmd]

10:06 PM on 04/11/2011

Care to elaborate?

[Acert]

10:13 PM on 04/11/2011

For starters, we are not presently using the military to detain dissidents. I can shout "Free Bradley Manning!" without being afraid of the being kidnapped and tortured in the middle of the night. Don't get me wrong, I realize the danger we have of getting to that point, but unlike China, we aren't there yet.

[jo smith456]

10:11 AM on 04/12/2011

cannot remember China invading a country (without provocation), resulting in the deaths of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS and displacement of MILLIONS, like what we did in Iraq
...not to mention our big-time lying to the world, to justify our invasion...
AND
(and our allowing the daily human rights violations and insults... to Pa le s ti nians..., and our country being the number 1 arms/weapons exporter of the world..., BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH

[Acert]

07:54 PM on 04/12/2011

Tibet.

[osofar]

07:31 PM on 04/11/2011

China does not have 1000+- military bases abroad forcing the will of the military-industrial-congressional-bankster agendas abroad. China is moving forward, and most Chinese tell me things are vastly better in China. No Chinese soldiers are fighting abroad, so my students have spent their entire lives knowing that their nation will not sacrifice their lives in illegal and dubious wars. They are correct. American exceptionalism is its arrogance in dictating what the world should do.

[drjasonmd]

10:07 PM on 04/11/2011

Fanned.

[Pod-gers]

06:42 PM on 04/11/2011

On a factual note, Ai WeiWei is NOT the designer of the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium as he falsly claims, Li Xinggang is the famous designeor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7478923.stm

http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/nst/headlines/n214319084.shtml

[Plaidavenger]

06:38 PM on 04/11/2011

A government holds power over its people. They "oversee" what goes on in their state and act as they feel is appropriate when certain conflicts arise. China has been around for centuries and is used to its leaders having absolute authority over their people. The US, on the other hand, was founded as a democracy. Of course these two titans are going to clash heads when it comes to how to rule their people! I'm not saying China or the US is right in how they rule their countries, because both countries have their share of problems and successes. It just seems that these two states bickering at each other won't do anything except stir unrest in their relationship with one another. Bottom line, the US can't really tell China what to do, as China continues to rise as a world super power. Likewise China can't tell the US what to do. This is the definition of sovereignty and at least for now, these countries have the people and resources to maintain their sovereign status.