Cartoon: Xinhua

Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presented at Wednesday's routine press conference a cartoon titled "Funeral of two-year-old terrorists" done after the US air attacks in Kabul, before its final withdrawal from Afghanistan, turned out to be massacre of civilians.

The cartoon Zhao presented shows seven coffins ready to be buried with crowds surrounding and flames and smoke in the background. The scene was about a US air strike on August 29 at a house in Kabul, which the US troops claimed to be a terrorists hide-out but turned out to be the residence of a family of 10. Seven of the 10 killed were children, including two two-year-old babies. 

In the past two decades, the US launched more than 90,000 air strikes in countries including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan killing up to 48,000 civilians. When the Global Times asked Zhao to comment, he noted that the US has committed grave crimes against human rights overseas.

Zhao first noted that the US has used fake intelligence to launch a war and created a humanitarian disaster, including using a tube of detergent to start the Iraq War and a staged video to strike Syria. In its 240 years of history, the US has been without war for only 16 years. Since the end of the World War II until 2001 there were 248 military conflicts in 153 countries and regions and the US launched 201 or 80 percent of them. Since 2001, US' illegal wars and military operations have killed more than 800,000 and left tens of millions of people homeless. 

Just like the cartoon revealed, the US also slaughtered civilians with the excuse of fighting terrorism and revenge. Zhao also noted that in addition to the Kabul tragedy, the US shot indiscriminately at civilians because one of its soldiers was attacked, killing 24 civilians including the elderly, women and children. The brutality is outrageous. The so-called "most accurate air strike in history" launched by the US on Raqqa, Syria in 2017 killed many civilians. A former US soldier once said that the US drone attacks are purely "killing for the sake of killing."

The US imposed unilateral sanctions and severely undermined the human rights of people in relevant countries. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the US has ramped up the use and threat of unilateral coercive measures, causing countries like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria to face severe shortages in anti-epidemic supplies and food, limited access to information, and the block from humanitarian aids, Zhao stressed, adding that those unilateral sanctions unauthorized by the UN Security Council have brought about severe adversity for the lives and development of local people. 

These are facts with solid evidence and people have their fair judgment. It is preposterous that the US claims to be "protecting human rights" at every turn. Is it protecting human rights when  staging wars or invasions? Is it protecting human rights when shooting and dropping bombs on civilians? Is it protecting human rights when wielding the big stick of sanctions?