China, “U.S. Has Human Rights Problems”

Responding to U.S. criticism of its human rights record, China returned fire in a blistering rebuttal Monday. The human rights debate is heated between the two sides.

China released yesterday the `Human Rights Record of the U.S. in 2001.` This report, which was released by the government`s State Council Information Office through the Xinhua Press, is a counterpart to the U.S. State Department`s human rights reports on March 4th.

In the report, China strongly criticized American human rights problems in six areas, including life, starvation, and child issues. In the section of the `lack of safeguard for life, freedom and personal safety,` it said that, “In 1998, the number of criminal cases in the U.S. reached 12,48 million, and during the years since 1997, 480,000 people have been murdered in the country.” It continued that, “Shooting is the second major cause of non-normal deaths after traffic accidents in the U.S., averaging 15,000 deaths annually. Also, sales of weapons and ammunition in the U.S, in the three months of September through November of 2001 grew anywhere from 9 percent to 22 percent.”

The report also said that, “In March 2001, the family of a French victim brought a lawsuit against the police and prison guards of the state of Nevada. Nine prison guards were accused of beating the victim to death.” In addition, the report also criticized the misjudgment of the court. “Since 1973, a total of 99convicts on the death row have been proven innocent.”

It also indicates that, confronting a problem of polarization between the rich and the poor, the U.S. has the serious problem of the increase of the poor, hungry, and homeless. “According to a report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor on November 29, 2001, 4.02 million Americans were living on relief.”

According to the report, the problem of mission children is serious. For example, in 1999, 750,000 children at 17 or younger went mission. It also mentioned the issue of racial discrimination. “The unemployment rate was twice as high for blacks as for whites.”

When the U.S. announced a human rights report in last year, China also released its human rights report of the United States

ljhzip@donga.com