China slams US human rights record
June 26, 2015, 8:27 am

Protesters protest on the street in Ferguson, Missouri, the United States, on Nov. 23, 2014, pending the Grand Jury’s decision on whether to charge the police officer killing unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9 2014 [Xinhua]

The document is released each year by China’s State Council (Chinese Cabinet).

The US came under sharp criticism on Friday for a long list of human rights abuses that included everything from detention without charge at Guantánamo, drone strikes and NSA surveillance, to the death penalty, rampant gun violence and endemic racial inequality.

The report is China’s annual response to the US’ report on Beijing’s rights record.

The US in April 2014 executed Ramiro Hernandez Llanas, a Mexican citizen without granting him access to consular assistance, says the report, adding such acts have violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The US also came under sustained criticism for its global counter-terrorism tactics, including the use of unmanned drones to kill terror suspects and use of torture techniques.

“To acquire intelligence from suspects of terrorism and extremism, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used brutal methods, such as sleep deprivation, waterboarding, long-term solitary confinement, slamming prisoners’ head against the wall, lashing, death threat and even the appalling ‘rectal rehydration’,” says the report, titled “Human Rights Record of the United States in 2014”.

China’s foreign ministry has repeatedly said that the United States has no right to confront other countries on their human rights records when it faces problems with racism and mistreatment of prisoners at home.

The Chinese report released on Friday lists the interception of phone conversations of 35 world leaders, the stealing of encrypted information of government organs in other countries and the collection program of mobile phone messages across the globe.

French president, François Hollande, has described new revelations this week that the US spied on three successive French presidents as “unacceptable”.

The leaked US documents show clear evidence of the extent of American spying on countries considered allies.

The Chinese report on Friday went on to express astonishment at some of America’s more extreme domestic habits.

The report cited the killing of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other cases in which African-Americans were shot and killed by white police officers. It also drew attention to the disproportional representation of African Americans on death rows.

China has long rejected criticism of its rights’ record as put forth by the US.

TBP and Agencies