CHINA / SOCIETY
China's upcoming report on US human rights violations shows 2020 'a declining point' of American democracy
2020 ‘a declining point’ for American democracy
Published: Mar 01, 2021 10:13 PM
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

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

China will issue a report on US human rights violations as Washington's failed anti-epidemic efforts in the past year worsened social division, aggravated political chaos and racial discrimination. 

China's State Council Information Office will in the near future issue a full report on human rights violations in the US in 2020, an official statement said on Monday.

The report came after the US and some other Western countries, as well as media, launched a "big lie" diplomatic offensive against China on Xinjiang and COVID-19 topics. 

The 15,000-Chinese-character document details facts regarding Washington's incompetent pandemic containment leading to tragic outcomes, American democracy's disorder triggering political chaos, ethnic minorities suffering racial discrimination, continuous social unrest threatening public security, growing polarization between the rich and the poor, aggravating social inequality, and the US trampling on international rules resulting in humanitarian disasters, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Compared with the 2019 report on US human rights issued in 2020, which elaborated on issues including the infringement of citizens' civil rights, the prevalence of money politics, rising income inequality, worsening racial discrimination and growing threats against children, women and immigrants in the US, the 2020 report revealed that many of these issues were severely aggravated by the US' "reckless" COVID-19 response. 

The US' deteriorating human rights record has also been criticized by international experts. Independent UN human rights experts appealed on Friday for the new US government to adopt wide-ranging reforms to end police violence and address systemic racism and racial discrimination. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at Monday's media briefing that "we hope the US will abandon double standards, and face up to serious human rights issues such as racism and violent law enforcement, and take concrete measures to protect human rights."

Zhu Ying, deputy director of the National Human Rights Education and Training Base of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Monday that the 2020 report — which objectively depicted the true human rights situation in the US — revealed a turning point of the US' democratic system, based on the key points of the report released on Monday. 

"Triggered by the pandemic, 2020 was a turning point for the US' democratic system from victory to decline, and Joe Biden will not reverse the declining trend of its democratic system," Zhu said. 

The main highlight of 2020 report is that it revealed the inevitable declining trend of US human rights, Zhu said. 

Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said that violations of human rights in the US were serious. "The poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US caused more than 500,000 deaths, much greater than any other country around the globe, and that this kind of tragedy happened in a country like the US - a super power with the most advanced medical technology in the world - is an unforgiveable mistake by the US government."

Compared with the facts like the Texas power crisis, the death of George Floyd and the huge number of COVID-19 deaths, many criticisms raised by the US against China, such as the ridiculous claim of "genocide" in Xinjiang, are totally groundless, Lü said. 

Western politicians with great influence and power believe in the theory of Joseph Goebbels, who was the Nazi Germany minister of propaganda: If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it, said Lü, noting that they are using this "big lie" diplomacy approach to stigmatize China, and China's report will be a retaliation to their approach.  

The US, home to less than 5 percent of the world's population, accounted for more than one-quarter of the world's confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly one-fifth of the global deaths from the disease, the report says. 

African-Americans were three times as likely as whites to be infected by the coronavirus, twice as likely to die from it, and three times as likely to be killed by the police, according to the report. One in four young Asian-Americans was the target of racial bullying.

The report said the pandemic has led to mass unemployment, calling vulnerable groups the "biggest victims" of the US government's incompetent COVID-19 response.

Another highlight of the report was the US presidential election in 2020, in which money-tainted politics turned elections into a "one-man show" of the wealthy class, and people's confidence in the American democratic system dropped to the lowest level in 20 years, the report said. 

The release of the 2020 report comes amid the ongoing 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council, during which some Western countries - led by the US - accused China over human rights issue in Xinjiang. 

US President Joe Biden decided to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council, aiming at remodeling and monopolizing international human rights expression with its human rights policy designed to help the US in its competition with others, Zhu said. 

China is playing an increasingly important role in the UN Human Rights Council, and it is also making its own contributions to the remodeling of international human rights. China has provided an open and inclusive human rights development path for the world, Zhu said. 

China's human rights path stresses national development and a balance between human rights and economic development, and highlights sovereignty and the non-interference principle, Zhu said.