China delivered a major “BOOP!” Thursday, when the foreign ministry said the U.S. had no place to slam other countries on their human rights records when it’s battling its own racism problems at home.
Citing the killings of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement and a scathing and disturbing U.S. Senate report on the torture of detainees under George W. Bush’s administration, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called the U.S. out on its hypocrisy and “poor record.”
The pretty spot-on comments come after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. ambassador to China Max Baucus issued statements Wednesday mentioning the case of the imprisoned Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.
From Reuters:
“The United States has no right to pose as arbiters and at every turn point their fingers at other countries’ human rights as racism and mistreatment of prisoners and other serious problems in the United States are facts now known to all,” Hong told a daily news briefing.
China and the United States often spar about each other’s human rights records, and on Wednesday, Beijing urged Washington to “correct its ways” following the torture report.
China’s suggestion that the U.S. should have a seat comes the same week a Chinese court delivered sentences for up to eight years behind bars for seven students of scholar Ilham Tohti, a member of the Muslim Uighur minority.
“The United States was ignoring the facts about the great strides China has made to improve human rights,” Hong said.
“The United States is not looking at the facts and intentionally smearing China’s rights situation, exposing even more the U.S. hypocrisy and double standards on the issue of human rights,” he added.
“We advise the U.S. side to reflect on and correct its own human rights problems and stop their unwarranted attacks on China.”
Maybe both the U.S. and China could use a refresher course on human rights. We’re just saying.
SOURCE: Reuters | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
