China Lashes Out At U.S. Human Rights Record

China lashed out at the United States today in an article carrying detailed examples of the poor human rights record in the U.S., making it clear that America is in no position to judge others on the issue.

The article, titled "U.S. Human Rights Record in 1999," was released by the Information Office of the State Council.

The 10,000-word article says that the U.S. State Department annual human rights report issued on February 26, dismissed China' s improving human rights and vigorously attacked China out of its unflinching political bias.

The U.S. report also criticized almost every other country for alleged human rights abuses, but is silent about the human rights problems in the U.S..

"It is therefore quite necessary to have a look at the U.S. human rights record," the five-part article says.

The article notes that in the United States, the safety of the general public and individuals is threatened by the presence of a huge number of private firearms and widespread violent crime.

According to latest estimates by the U.S. Department of Justice, there are 235 million private guns owned by Americans --almost equal to the total U.S. population.

The United States reports an average of more than one million gun-related murders each year.

Shooting rampages at high schools in the United States, with one out of every ten schools witnessing at least one severe criminal incident, the article says.

The United States, known as the "land of the free," ranks first in the world in its proportion of prisoners to the entire population, the article says.

According to statistics issued in 1999 by the U.S Department of Justice, the number of American adults in prison, on probation and on parole, topped 5.92 million in 1998.

The self-proclaimed freedom of the United States has always served none but the wealthiest citizens. In 1998, a book entitled "The Buy of Congress: How Special Interests Have Stolen Your Right to Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness" was published in the United States to expose how the Congress has become a tool of the special interest groups.

This has soured Americans' interest in politics, and the number of voters who went to the polls for the 1998 mid-term election hit a record low of 36.1 percent.

The U.S. boasts that it has freedom of press. Actually, the American media has become the "resources of state power" and a propaganda machine used by the authorities to manipulate public opinion, the article notes.

The United States is the most developed nation in the modern world, with its economy growing for the ninth successive year.

However, the American working class has suffered heavily from a loss of economic and social rights because of the polarization of society, the article says.

The incomes of the richest families, making up one-fifth of the total American families, account for half of the total incomes of American families, while the earnings of the poorest, about one-fifth of the total, claimed a mere four percent of the total.

Over the past 20 years, almost all American workers have experienced a declining wage to a certain degree, while their working hours have increased, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune on September 6, 1999.

The international federation of free trade unions said in a July 1999 report that the United States had been engaged in a " large-scale, sustained and surprising" infringement of the rights of laborers, including violation of the rights of trade unions and using children and prisoners as laborers.

The article points out that racial discrimination is the most profound social problem in the United States.

Racial discrimination is deeply-rooted in American culture --a fact that Americans do not willingly admit, according to a wire story released by the Associated Press on October 2, 1999.

Racial discrimination is a nationwide phenomenon in the U.S.. Police violence stemming from racial discrimination occurs all too frequently, and cases of racial killings are constantly on the rise.

The article also notes that sexual discrimination has been a chronic malady in the United States, and women have been the major victims of domestic violence.

Children's rights in the U.S. is worrying. The article says that the United States is one of the few countries that has legalized the death penalty for juveniles and sentenced more juveniles to death than any other country in the world.

Case after case of U.S. violations of human rights in other countries were reported in 1999, the article says.

The U.S. has also maintained a poor record in the participation in and observation of international conventions on human rights, the article says.

Currently, the U.S. remains the only country other than Somalia that has not yet joined the Convention on the Rights of Children.

The article says that the United States does not have a good human rights record of its own, but likes to play the role of the "world's human rights judge" and makes unwarranted accusations about other countries' human rights records year after year.

"The American government needs to keep an eye on its own human rights situation, mind its own business, and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries by utilizing the human rights question," the article concludes.

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