Beijing hits back on human rights

China says US democracy is a "myth"

China has hit back at US accusations of human rights abuses by publishing a lengthy list of what it says are widespread infringements of human rights by the United States.

China would like to offer this advice to the US government... Take effective measures to improve the human rights record in your own country and stop ordering other countries on the pretext of safeguarding human rights

Chinese Government report

In an 8,000-word report, Beijing lists a litany of complaints, ranging from irregularities in the 2000 presidential election, to poverty, child and sexual abuse and widespread gender and racial discrimination.

The report, carried by the official Xinhua news agency, uses a variety of sources for its accusations, including British and American newspapers and even the US Central Intelligence Agency.

"Well-informed people know that the so-called democracy has been a myth since the United States was founded more than 200 years ago.

"Political rights of the US citizens have long been infringed," the report says.

"Owing to discrimination based on race, gender, property, education, age and residency, the African Americans, women and American Indians as well as roughly one-third of white American males were long deprived of their legal right to vote."

Police brutality is not uncommon

Chinese Government report

The report quoted Britain's Financial Times as saying the political system "is decaying to a point where even American voters can smell the stink of money".

The report goes on to condemn the high murder rate in "the only country where carrying a private weapon is a constitutional right" and says "police brutality is not uncommon".

Slavery and torture

"Gender discrimination is widespread in almost every aspect of US society. American women have not yet enjoyed equal constitutional rights compared to men," it says.

Women and children smuggled into the United States "are subject to slavery and torture".

Racial discrimination is evident everywhere

Chinese Government report

The report quoted a CIA report as saying up to 50,000 women and children are smuggled in from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe each year.

Racial discrimination is one of the most serious social problems and "is evident everywhere in America", the report says.

Not content to perpetrate human rights abuses on its own territory, the US also exported them to other countries, the report says, pointing to crimes committed by American soldiers in Japan and Kosovo and the training of foreign armies in methods of torture and execution, particularly in Latin America.

"China would like to offer this advice to the US government: abandon your old ways and make a new start, take effective measures to improve the human rights record in your own country, take steps to promote international co-operation in human rights, and stop ordering other countries on the pretext of safeguarding human rights."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.