China says US rights continue to decline

China published a report on the United States' human rights situation on Thursday, saying Washington pays no attention to its own terrible human rights problems while pointing fingers and casting blame on the human rights situation in many other countries.

The report, titled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2016", was released by the Information Office of the State Council, in response to the "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016" issued by the US State Department on March 3.

According to the report, while the US poses as "the judge of human rights", concrete facts show that it saw continued deterioration in some key aspects of its own human rights issues last year.

"With the gunshots lingering in people's ears behind the Statue of Liberty, worsening racial discrimination and the election farce dominated by money politics, the self-proclaimed human rights defender has exposed its human rights 'myth' with its own deeds," it said.

The US had the second-highest prisoner rate, with 693 prisoners per 100,000 population, and the occurrence of gun-related crimes continued at a high level, the report said.

It also said money politics and power-for-money deals had controlled the presidential election last year, which it said was full of lies and farces.

Racial relations in the US continued to deteriorate, with repeated controversial incidents of blacks being shot by white police officers, it said.

Tao Wenzhao, a researcher of US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the human rights situation in the US has seen little improvement in recent years, and the US public is also dissatisfied with the situation.

"The US government has failed to effectively deal with issues such as racial relations and gun control," he said, "and therefore, US society is increasingly divided."

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn