US human rights report ‘a price list’ to extort other countries

Look, Uncle Sam is busy cleaning up its own mess on human rights problems. Does the US still think it's the beacon of human rights? Illustration: GT

On Tuesday morning, a man fired at least 33 times inside a Brooklyn subway, leaving at least 29 people injured. Just days ago, a mass shooting in California left six dead and 12 wounded. Gun violence in the US tends to break records every year.

Ironically, at around the same time as the latest shooting, the US State Department released the so-called 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, boasting it conducted so-called "factual and objective record on the status of human rights worldwide - in 2021, covering 198 countries and territories," - but excluding the US itself. Obviously, the cries and blood of fellow citizens in the Brooklyn subway station did not affect Washington's political elites making irresponsible remarks on human rights in other countries. US human rights reports often cover dozens or even hundreds of pages to express "concern" for the people of other countries, but are reluctant to leave a name for the people killed and injured from the novel coronavirus epidemic, violent crimes and police brutal enforcement practices at home.

According to statistics updated on April 12 by the US "Gun Violence Archives" website, gun violence has killed at least 11,896 people and injured 9,486 in the US this year alone. In other words, an average of 116 people are killed in the streets by gun violence every day. This is a human rights tragedy in any other country, and it is hard to imagine that it is taking place in a "civilized country" that boasts to be a "beacon of human rights." The US has the most advanced medical conditions across the world, but has become the country with the highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

Just as Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday, "Domestically, human rights protection is an empty promise the US has never fulfilled. Externally, human rights protection is a pretense the US government uses to cover up its agenda of seeking hegemony." It is not surprising that the latest human rights reports contain 90 pages covering the situation in the Chinese mainland, and separately listing Taiwan with ulterior motives, blatantly undermining the one-China principle and mirroring the nature of politicizing human rights. Year after year, Washington exploits the so-called "human rights reports" to slander and smear China. Is it still unclear what intention they have?

Washington's so-called Human Rights Report has been published for 40 years. Countries listed by the US as "unfriendly countries" and competitors are often on the list, while the "friends" of the US have almost never been on it.

In Washington's eyes, whether a country has "human rights" and whether it is "democratic" depends on whether it is obedient to the US and whether it cooperates with the ubiquitous hegemonic tentacles of the US in geopolitics.

The US State Department makes great efforts for the "Human Rights Report" every year. The fundamental reason why it is so active is that this report is its "price list" to coerce and extort other countries, and it is also its "brochure" to demonize and suppress competitors. It is also its "political dessert" given to its cliques when it categorizes countries into different grades.

In this regard, University of London Professor Costas Douzinas wrote in his book "Human Rights and Empire" that human rights became a "bargaining chip in trade, aid, and diplomatic relations." Although the US often claims to be the spokesperson of the international community, the so-called human rights touted by the US are not the human rights in the UN Charter or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the human rights that serve US hegemony. It helps to safeguard the interests of US global hegemony, and those who obey the US enjoy the "rights" while those against the US have no such "rights." As the country that launched the most wars and caused the most civilian casualties in the world after World War II, how many human tragedies were caused by the US in the name of "protecting human rights?"

This year has been particularly difficult for many countries and regions around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has entered its third year. A considerable number of third world countries are facing the "double shortage" of vaccines and food. The wounds left by the war in the Middle East and Europe are still bleeding.

At such a critical moment of life and death, the US still ignores the well-being of the people of all countries, engages in despicable tactics of hegemony in the name of "human rights," and continues to wield the stick of interference and sanctions, in a bid to exploit benefit from the world. This is the most absurd page in the history of human rights, just like this disgusting "Human Rights Report."