China blasts US human rights in tit-for-tat report

BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday blasted U.S. human rights record in its annual tit-for-tat report, saying money and family connections are corrupting politics and calling U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq a “gross violation of other countries’ human rights.”

The report issued by the Cabinet’s State Council Information Office also cited gun crime and excessive use of force by police, and touched on other topics including corruption in the prison system, homelessness, racial conflict and gender pay disparity.

“Since the U.S. government can’t be bothered to raise a mirror to look at itself, it’s up to others to complete the task,” the report said.

The U.S. is also guilty of rights violations outside its borders, the report said, citing estimates of civilian deaths in Iraqi and Syrian airstrikes, drone attacks and the monitoring of foreign citizens’ communications.

“America is still committing gross violations of other countries’ human rights, viewing lives in other countries as worthless,” it said.

China publishes such reports each year in response to the U.S. State Department’s annual report on China’s human rights situation issued on Wednesday as part of a larger review of the human rights practices around the world.

This year’s report on China highlighted repression against civil society, saying repression and coercion markedly increased. It especially criticized China’s crackdown on lawyers, saying it reflected the government’s insecurity in the face of popular aspiration for the rule of law.

Hundreds of lawyers and law associates were interrogated, investigated and in many cases detained in secret locations for months without charges or access to attorneys or family members, the report said.

The U.S. report also criticized the enforced disappearances of five men working in Hong Kong’s publishing industry, saying Chinese security officials were believed to be responsible. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.