China, hitting back, slams US rights abuses

BEIJING, Mar 9: China hit back at US criticism of its human rights record today, unveiling its own report detailing what it said were rights abuses in the United States, involving everything from racial discrimination to crime.

The Chinese report, issued by the State Council, or Cabinet, takes aim at US democracy -- calling it ''a game of the rich'' -- the high murder rate, domestic wire tapping and detention of Iraqi reporters by US forces in Iraq.

''We urge the United States government to face squarely their own human rights problems, reflect on their own actions, take practical measures and improve their human rights situation,'' Xinhua quoted the report as saying.

Other abuses involved ''secret snooping, police abuse, wrong convictions and the highest ratio of people behind bars'', Xinhua said.

''The United States has always boasted itself as the model of democracy and hawked its mode of democracy to the rest of the world, but in fact, American 'democracy' is always one for the wealthy and a 'game for the rich','' it said.

The United States should also ''rectify their method of using human rights questions to create international confrontation'', Xinhua said.

''We disapprove of countries meddling in other countries' domestic affairs,'' added Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament.

The US State Department said yesterday that China increased its censorship of the Internet and of media critics last year and that harassment and detention of those challenging the authorities grew.

The annual report is usually swiftly rejected by China, which says its human rights definition differs from the West, insisting that the basic rights of its 1.3 billion people to food, clothing and housing take precedence over individual civil liberties.

REUTERS