US beautifying itself as the top country in its annual human trafficking report only brings disgrace on its own head: Chinese Foreign Ministry

　　Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

The US has fabricated the so-called Trafficking Persons Report to deceive the world as it continues to ignore facts. As the US is the greatest human trafficking power, beautifying itself as a top country in the list only brings disgrace on itself, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The remarks from the ministry came after the US released a report listing China as a Tier 3 country on human trafficking and smearing against China with the so-called Xinjiang labor problems.

The US has fabricated the so-called Trafficking Persons Report to deceive the world as it continues to ignore facts. But the reality is that the US is the biggest human trafficking power, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson from China's Foreign Ministry, said at Wednesday's press briefing.

No matter how the US covers itself up, it cannot wash off its slave-trading past. The slavery system had been legally sustained in the US for one-third of its only 246 years of establishment. Between 1514 and 1866, at least 360,000 slave trafficking expedition teams trafficked millions of black slaves to the US, Wang noted.

No matter how the US argues, it won't change its crimes of being "countries of origin, transit and destination of forced labor." Quoting data from the US State Department, Wang said every year some 100,000 forced labors were trafficked to work in the US. In the past five years, every one of the 50 US states and the District of Columbia had reported forced labors and human trafficking cases. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the number of reported cases increased from 3,200 to 11,500 between 2012 and 2019, showing a significant upward trend.

Of the 100,000 people trafficked overseas to engage in forced labor, half are underage. Not long ago, Texas reported a heartbreaking human smuggling case in a van, causing the death of some 50 migrants. Despite this, the US even beautified itself as the Tier 1 country in this regard. It only disgraces itself, Wang said.

China urged the US to correct its human rights crimes with concrete actions, to judge itself with the "the highest standard" boasted by itself, rather than smearing against other countries, Wang said.

For China, Wang noted that the Chinese government has well implemented the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its supplementary protocols on the prevention, suppression and punishment of trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

In 2007, 2013 and 2021, respectively, China issued and implemented the Action Plan against Trafficking in Women and Children (2008-2012), Action Plan against Human Trafficking (2013-2020) and Action Plan against Human Trafficking (2021-2030).

The Chinese government has established a joint inter-ministerial conference system of 35 departments under the State Council, China's cabinet, to combat human trafficking, providing a solid institutional guarantee for preventing and combating human trafficking and for helping and protecting victims. Over the years, remarkable progress has been made in this regard.