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Facts & Figures: US Human Rights Record
The Information Office of China's State Council Tuesday issued an article headlined" US Human Rights Record in 2000," containing a wide range of facts and figures on human rights conditions in the US
Information on US Elections:Since the beginning of the 20th century, the voter turnout for congressional elections has ranged between 30 and 60 percent. Meanwhile, the highest voter turnout rate for presidential elections, which are regarded as major US political events, stands at 65 percent.
The 50 million voters who cast presidential ballots in 2000 represented less than one-fourth of the 205 million eligible voters throughout the nation, hitting a record low in US election history.
The general election in 2000 cost about US$3 billion, 50 percent more than in 1996 and reaching an all-time high.
The congressional races in various states cost another one billion dollars.
The soft money collected by various parties and candidates in 2000 reached 648 million dollars, five times the figure of four years ago.
During the election campaign, at least 20 contributors gave more than one million dollars each.
The top spender in the congressional campaign of 2000, Jon Corzine of New Jersey, spent more than 60 million dollars to win his Senate seat, setting a new record for campaign spending.
Twenty-six out of 32 Senate races and 417 out of 433 House races were won by the candidate with the most money to spend, according to the most recent statistics available.
Social Security: More than 80 people die in gunfight dailyThe National Rifle Association, together with firearms manufacturers, funneled several billion dollars into Capitol Hill, lobbying congressional members to oppose limits on gun sales and possession. As a result, gun control legislation did not pass.
According to the article, the United States is the world's number one "gun nation" with more than 200 million privately owned guns -- nearly one for each American. The number of registered weapon vendors in the country exceeds 100,000.
Statistics show that over 31,000 people in the United States are shot fatally each year, and over 80 people are killed in gun-related incidents every day.
The judicial system in the US is extremely arbitrary, with the death penalty exercised in 38 states.
By July 1, 2000, there were 3,682 people on death row in US prisons, 90 percent of whom were victims of sexual abuse and assaults within the prison walls. Most of them are poor and have had to rely on public defenders to handle their cases.
A team of Columbia University professors revealed on June 12, 2000, that 68 percent of the death penalty cases were erroneously judged throughout the United States.
Thirty mentally retarded persons have been executed in the United States in the past decade.
About 6.3 million men and women in the US were on probation or parole or were in jail by the end of 1999, making up 3 percent of the adult population of the United States. The incarcerated population has increased 2.7 percent from the previous year, up 44.6 percent against 1990.
By February 15, 2000, more than two million men and women were behind bars in the US, up 75 percent compared to 1.14 million 11 years ago, accounting for one-fourth of the total number of imprisoned people in the world.
Worsening polarization:The end of the 20th century witnessed the most prosperous economic period in the history of the United States, with the economic growth rate rising continuously for 118 months by the end of 2000.
However, the gap between the rich and poor was further widened.
The richest Americans, who make up one percent of the US population, own 40 percent of the total property of the country, while over 32 million citizens, or 12.7 percent of the total population, live under the poverty line.
The incidence of poverty is higher than in the 1970s, and higher than in most other developed countries.
The average working time of US citizens was 1,957 hours annually, longer than in other developed countries.
A newly published book in the United States said that some female cashiers and workers on production lines have to wear protective undergarments because they are not permitted to take time to go to the toilet.
About 30 million US citizens had no social security eight years ago, and the figure has increased to the current 46 million, and one out of every six US citizens has no medical insurance.
One in five high school graduates cannot read his or her diploma; 85 percent of unwed mothers are illiterate; 70 percent of Americans arrested are illiterate; 21 million Americans cannot read.
More than 5,000 children die in shoot-out every year. Women in the US are paid an average of 26 percent less than their male colleagues.
Since 1980, the number of prisoners in the United States has tripled, while that of the female prisoners has quadrupled.
As many as 50,000 women and children are smuggled from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe to the United States every year. They are often forced to become prostitutes or ill-treated workers and servants. Children as young as nine are among those smuggled.
The human trafficking and the sex slave trade have become the third most profitable illegal trade in the United States, following drugs and arms smuggling.
Incomplete statistics show that crime rings in the United States earn US$7 billion from human trafficking annually.
As many as 5,000 American children are shot dead annuallyThe percentage of gunshot victims under age 14 is 21 times that of 25 other industrialized countries.
Some 1.5 million children, or two percent of the country's total, have one or both parents in prison.
Since 1990, 14 juveniles have been executed for their crimes. In the first seven months of 2000, four juvenile criminals were executed, more than the figure of other countries combined in the past seven years.
In October 2000, 83 juvenile criminals, who were under 18 when their crimes were committed, were waiting to be executed.
According to an investigation conducted by the UNICEF, the poverty rate of the children in the United States ranks second among the 29 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
To date, a total of 13 million children live in poverty, three million more than the figure of 1979.
In the United States, at least 290,000 children are working in factories, mines and farms where working conditions are dangerous.
Children working on farms often have to work 20 hours a day and run the risk of pesticide poisoning, injury and permanent disability. They account for eight percent of the country's total child workers, while job-related deaths make up 40 percent of the country's total occupational death toll.
Racial Discrimination:Nearly 2 million aboriginals are living on streets of big cities in the United States and 40 percent of them don't have sufficient food.
The unemployment rate of African Americans is double that of whites.
Ninety-eight percent of judges in the United States are white people.
Nearly half of the 2 million US inmates are black, another 16 percent are Latin American.
One out of every three young black people is confined in detention systems or on parole.
In the past 200 years of US history, a total of 18,000 people were sentenced to death, only 38 of whom were white, accounting for 0.2 percent of the total.
US arms exports accounts for more than a third of the world: The US military expenditure and ammunition exports rank first in the world. The country's military expenses account for one- third of the world's total and exports of ammunitions amount to 36 percent of the global total. Its military spending budget for 2001 increased by US$12.6 billion over the US$200 billion for 2000.
Incomplete statistics show that the United States has waged wars in foreign countries and regions more than 40 times in the 1990s. The country uses cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells, which are banned by international law, and new arms of mass destruction in foreign countries, causing death and injuries to local people, and also producing a disastrous effect on the eco- environment in those countries, according to the article.
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