China to US: Fix Your Own Human Rights Problems

The US should take a hard look in the mirror before it criticizes other countries over human rights, China says. “The United States ignores its own severe human rights problems,” said a Chinese report, “treating human rights as a political tool to vilify other countries and to advance its own strategic interests.” The rejoinder comes after Hillary Clinton warned of “negative trends” in China amid the disappearance of activist artist Ai Weiwei, Reuters reports.

A US report issued on Friday pointed a finger at China's crackdown on lawyers, the press, and the Internet. But China fired back in an annual report of its own: “Stop the domineering behavior of exploiting human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.” Poverty and hunger are rampant in the US, and Washington hasn’t ratified several human rights treaties, reads China’s report. What’s more, “the United States is the world's worst country for violent crimes,” and “racial discrimination is deeply rooted” here, “permeating every aspect of social life.” (More China stories.)