China issues report on U.S. human rights violations in 2023

Graphic shows an excerpt of the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023 issued by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China on May 29, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Xiaoxuan)

BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council Information Office on Wednesday issued the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023, revealing the country's deteriorating human rights situation with facts and figures.

The report calls on the U.S. government to take concrete measures to tackle its human rights problems, and respond to the expectations of the American people and international concerns.

The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023, the report said, adding that human rights are becoming increasingly polarized in the country.

"While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded," it said.

Noting that civil and political rights have been reduced to mere talk in the United States, the report draws attention to worsening problems including gun violence, partisan fights, police brutality and the ineffective police enforcement accountability system, mass incarceration and forced labor, political polarization, election manipulation, and the declining government credibility.

"The chronic disease of racism persists," the report said, highlighting that African Americans face serious racial discrimination and inequality in fields such as law enforcement and medical services.

Asian Americans have experienced intensified discrimination, the rights of Native Americans have been constantly violated, and "racist ideology is spreading virulently in the United States and spilling across borders," it added.

Growing economic and social inequality makes life extremely difficult for the poor, the report said, noting that the United States has been refusing to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Economic, social and cultural rights are stigmatized as "welfare cheese" in the United States, and the phenomenon of "in-work poverty" is widespread, with the gap between the rich and the poor further widening, it added.

The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and remains the only UN member state which has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it said, warning of the persistent violations of the rights of women and children in the country.

Meanwhile, politicians have "forsaken the rights and welfare of immigrants," it said.

Overseas, the United States has long pursued hegemonism, practiced unilateralism and power politics, and created humanitarian crises, it said.

"In the United States, human rights is essentially a privilege enjoyed only by a few. The country's various human rights problems seriously threaten and hinder the healthy development of the world human rights cause," said the report.

The report consists of Foreword; Civil and Political Rights Become Empty Talk; The Chronic Disease of Racism; Growing Economic and Social Inequality; Persistent Violations of the Rights of Women and Children; Heart-wrenching Struggles of Undocumented Migrants; and American Hegemony Creates Humanitarian Crises. ■