China issues shocking U.S. Human Rights Record report

[1776Forever]

China issues shocking U.S. Human Rights Record report
March 13, 8:28 PM
Human Rights Examiner
Deborah Dupre'

http://www.examiner.com/x-10438-Human-Rights-Examiner~y2010m3d13-China-issues-shocking-US-Human-Rights-Record-report

Human Rights begin at home. Clean up own backyard China urges U.S.

China's Information Office of the State Council published a report titled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009" yesterday. The full text of China's State Council assessment of U.S. human rights violations as published in Xinhuanews follows:
The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2009 on March 11, 2010, posing as "the world judge of human rights" again. As in previous years, the reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China, but turn a blind eye to, or dodge and even cover up rampant human rights abuses on its own territory. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009 is prepared to help people around the world understand the real situation of human rights in the United States.

(much more at link)
............

This goes on and on. It includes:

I. On Life, Property and Personal Security

Widespread violent crimes in the United States posed threats to the lives, properties and personal security of its people.

II. On Civil and Political Rights

In the United States, civil and political rights of citizens are severely restricted and violated by the government.

III. On Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Poverty, unemployment and the homeless are serious problems in the United States, where workers' economic, social and cultural rights cannot be guaranteed.

IV. On Racial Discrimination

Racial discrimination is still a chronic problem of the United States.

V. On the Rights of Women and Children

The living conditions of women and children in the United States are deteriorating and their rights are not properly guaranteed.

(much more at link)

And ends with this statement:

The above-mentioned facts show that the United States not only has a bad domestic human rights record, but also is a major source of many human rights disasters around the world. For a long time, it has placed itself above other countries, considered itself "world human rights police" and ignored its own serious human rights problems. It releases Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year to accuse other countries and takes human rights as a political instrument to interfere in other countries' internal affairs, defame other nations' image and seek its own strategic interests. This fully exposes its double standards on the human rights issue, and has inevitably drawn resolute opposition and strong denouncement from world people. At a time when the world is suffering a serious human rights disaster caused by the U.S. subprime crisis-induced global financial crisis, the U.S. government still ignores its own serious human rights problems but revels in accusing other countries. It is really a pity.

We hereby advise the U.S. government to draw lessons from the history, put itself in a correct position, strive to improve its own human rights conditions and rectify its acts in the human rights field.

...........

It is not without cause that China has helped to bring down our quality of life through jobs elimination but it is also true that most of us have done this to ourselves! Purchasing all the "stuff" made in China and our own Governments help in the trade issues that have helped to deteriorate our lifestyles. It is hard to read but some of it is the truth.

[treestar]

1. They are missing the point

We might have poverty but we have freedom of speech and religion, rights to counsel and a fair trial - the Bill of Rights. They don't have that, so they can't judge at all on the question of human rights.

[Whisp]

3. no you don't.

there is no such thing as equal justice for all and we all know it here.

[TalkingDog]

28. You can choose perfect freedom or you can choose perfect equality

You cannot have both. It is impossible.

You can have a watered down mixture of each. But if everyone had perfect freedom there would be anarchy. Perfect equality would require so many restrictions that freedom would be impossible.

[treestar]

29. Maybe it isn't perfect, but the ideal is there and followed

China does not even have the ideal. There is no intent to have free speech, etc. in China.

Sure they can point to our flaws but they aren't even trying.

[Whisp]

36. many bring up this 'free speech' thing. What exactly is it?

how can a country the size of America have free speech when the media is not on the side of the american people but on the side of the MIC and capitalists ideals and clearly work for those agendas rather than the poor and middle class.

where is the free speech when the Iraq war was brewing and the ratio of the military being interviewed and pro-war was so vastly higher than the dissenters. Where was the free speech to educate americans about who really has part ownership in these mega-media outlets - the very people that profit from a nice war once in a while to spend their wares.

where is the free speech when Christiana Amanpour had guests on her show just after the Haita Earthquake. One of her guests slipped in the fact that the poverty in Haiti is party due to cheap subsidized food imported from the US that displaced local farmers. But how did Christiana respond to this? She didn't, she ignored him like he was invisible and steered the topic in another direction.

Where is the free speech that if one strays from the status quo lines you get called a conpiracy nut and are relegated to the laughing stock crowd, the woo woo's and such. Why is it so bizarre to entertain the fact that there really are conspirators at work against us all the time. the banks, the MIC, the liars, the cheats, the Roves,. Yes, Virginia, Conspiracy Theories are not theories, they are reality.

[Last_Stand]

38. For now, at least...

you can still criticize the U.S. government online or standing on the corner with a sign and not worry too much about being detained indefinitely.

However, I certainly don't disagree with any of your observations about the limits of said speech.

[Whisp]

43. depends on who you are and what information you have.

ask Gary Webb and all like him how his freedom of speech went

[treestar]

41. Being able to pay for mass dissemination is another question entirely

You are giving one journalist way too much power, she does not have that much power, and the guest got to say what he did on the mass media - and was not arrested.

In China you can get arrested for saying things not mass disseminated - that's the point.

And calling people conspiracy nuts is part of free speech - would you have that outlawed?

[Whisp]

44. that sample I gave was just one tiny example

of thousands of such manoevers by our so called free press. its a given, the media is not on our side and prevents the voice of the average person to be heard. that is supression of speech to me. There are other ways to do the very same thing than shoot you because you critisized the goverment in a town meeting.

what I would like outlawed is the bliss that comes with ignorance but thats not likey to happen. People are so invested in this 'land of the free we are the best ever on the whole planet we are better than everyone!' mentality.

[1776Forever]

5. That is very true. What they are saying about not having us tell them & the rest of the world

how to run their countries and not look at our own before we do it I think is true also. The US should not be saying we are so wonderful when most of the things they are listing are factual. I agree that they have no leg to stand on when it comes to the freedom of their citizens! That is the one thing we still have and should keep vigilant on! Net neutrality is one issue that needs to be discussed more as an example. I watched CSPAN broadcast yesterday about the Comcast and NBC Universal deal. It was very interesting and something we should all keep up on as an example of the power structure of our media and internet freedoms.

[treestar]

30. Yes, and it is worth noting that they had the Tianamen Square protest

and their citizens with a Statute of Liberty. Yet unless I have missed it we don't have protests with people referring to their ideals positively here.

[newfie11]

6. good, I am happy to see them pointing this out n/t

[Webster Green]

16. We don't have any of that stuff.

All those protections were declared to be null and void by The Big Dick And His Trained Chimp, and the current administration has done nothing to remedy that disgrace.

[treestar]

31. It's not nearly that bad

We still have freedom of speech or you couldn't have posted that.

Ordinary trials still go no day to day. We still have the ability to challenge violations on the 4th or 5th or 6th Amendments in the courts. I believe the Chinese people have none of that.

[Webster Green]

35. There are people being held right now with no charges and no trials.

The fact that some people get trials doesn't really help the people who don't get trials, or don't even know why they are being held.

Torture and indefinite detention have been "legalized".

The highest court in the country, The U.S. Supreme W. Court, is completely corrupt, and will no doubt continue to take away our rights, one by one, until they are all gone.

It is that bad!

[treestar]

39. The masses of U.S. citizens still get trials

We were rightly worried about what Bush was doing, but it was limited to people they could try to call "terrorists."

The SCOTUS is not completely corrupt because we don't like what they decided on one case or two.

There's no evidence they did it out of corruption.

[Webster Green]

42. Our constitutional rights are not limited to U.S. citizens.

Nor are the Geneva Conventions. Habeas Corpus goes back to the fucking 13th century. How far back are you willing to regress out of fear of a few terrorists?

IMO the U.S. Supreme W. Court acts in the interests of corporations, not the people. They are corrupt.

[indepat]

18. junior revoked much of the Bill of Rights and BHO has ratified much of the carnage junior wrought

upon us. :)

[treestar]

32. Whatever he may have done, Jr. was not able to "revoke the bill of rights"

That's insane.

[indepat]

45. That's playing off a line from Legal Weapon II. The Constitution is the Constitution and the laws

of the land are the law unless struck down by the Supreme Court. I personally don't think the felonious five are hep to striking down any law restricting personal freedoms, no matter how seemingly blatantly unconstitutional, hence, revocation by executive and/or legislative fiat in the absence of the Supreme Court upholding its sacred trust. :)

[NC_Nurse]

2. Yep. Looking in the mirror first is always a good policy. How can other countries

take our complaints about their records when our own is so dismal these days? High poverty, crime, high rates of incarceration, torture, illegal wars, the list goes on and on...

and it's time someone called out our corrupt and greedy financial industry for putting the entire world's economy in a crisis. Our holier-than-thou attitude is really losing it's punch.

[midnight]

4. They do make a good point. Let's reinstate our Constitution for all and not

use the patriot act to block our rights. I think that this one step would go a long way in improving our abuses.

[virgogal]

7. I think China might take a look inward historically.

[1776Forever]

8. Both the US & China should look at what we really stand for! I think we both can learn something!

This is the first time I have read or heard China say anything about how we run our country. I don't think you can say most of what they said does not have any truth to it. It does make me sad to say that.

[malaise]

20. You are correct

The US has been writing reports about other countries for decades. Neither is in a position to preach to the other but I like the idea that the kettle is responding to the pot.

[treestar]

33. Bush and Cheney aside, the US is in a position to preach

For example, see the International Documents on Human Rights. Some of them read like the Bill of rights. It was our country that first articulated these things, and we at least try to follow it. Bush/Cheney were the worst but we did vote for Obama and not McCain and caught ourselves before it went too far.

[Whisp]

11. true. but.

does every other country in the world have to have explemlary top notch human rights records before the U.S. can be called on their dismal record?
This arguement doesn't impress me at all... 'o, well look whose talking and Their human rights'.

China has not policed the world and pretended they are the ones holding democracy together and dashing about the globe doing heroic good deeds in the name of humanity while probably killing more people than anyone else with their technology and military and economic strangleholds on so many people across so many borders.

it is not the land of the free so many believe, it more like a land of a free for all if you are in the market of mass robbery and murder by rotting financial systems and a mentality of a military state.

[virgogal]

21. If I were as unhappy with this country as you seem to be I'd get the hell

out.

Our country is still a "baby",in the eyes of most other nations.

Look back at the history of most,if not all, any countries in the world and you'll find injustice.

As long as humans are running things,that's the way it is.

[Go2Peace]

22. Typical McCarthiest reactionary BS post

Nothing changes unless it gets called on. And even if the poster wanted to leave not everyone can leave even if they wanted to for a lot of reasons.

Man, when will people like you wake up, the only reason we have the areas of Justice we do have is because people like this poster called it out. Exceptionalism is bullshit. It only leads to mediocrity. Thank God people stir it up anyway and change happens.

[1776Forever]

24. Thank you - please see my reply to this in post #28.

:fistbump:

[1776Forever]

23. So you think I should get out? What do our military, which I have had many in my family, fight for?

They fight for our freedoms! It is not a democracy if we only wave the flag and say everything that goes on in Washington is OK with us! It is democracy when we question what is happening and ask if those policies that we live under are truly helping our nation. There is so much poverty out there and so many people in this country without health care and those who are homeless now because of these policies issues that I can say for one, who has had ancestors here since the 1700's, I would like to see more for the people and not so much rhetoric for the rich and corrupt. If you're going to "talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk”!

As Martin Luther King Jr. said:

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

[L0oniX]

27. I think the main point is ...pull the fucking log out of your own eye...

before you try to remove the sliver from others. I think a lot of this bull shit and influence comes from the religious right wing hypocrites.

[treestar]

34. Amen, and look at China and they'd certainly find injustice

People were killed in Tianamen Square just for protesting.

[Donnachaidh]

15. same can be said here

All the genocide perpetrated on Native Americans in the cause of empire building is something that has NEVER been properly addressed.

[bvar22]

25. "I think China might take a look inward historically."?

THAT is what China is asking us to do.

Are you big enough to pull up you panties and take that look?

[Dreamer Tatum]

9. This report was probably used to develop internal policy before it was used this way nt

[Greyhound]

10. For crap's sake! Quit blaming the victims. n/t

[Subdivisions]

12. I posted this two days ago and to a chorus of crickets...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7904130

[1776Forever]

13. So sorry - I tried to check this out before posting. I agree it needs to be discussed.

:hi:

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bluestateguy]

17. If this criticism was coming from Sweden or Norway I might pay attention

but China has no credibility to criticize us on those grounds.

[1776Forever]

19. Please read my #19 reply.

I think we need to be honest here and admit some of this is the truth.

[RandomThoughts]

26. My problem with China is non representative leadership.

Or rule without vote, and issues needed to maintain that. Although the recent supreme court rule on corporations gives the same issues here.

However I don't disagree that the US has had lots of issues also. And personally I have no problem with another country making the US transparent by pointing out its issues.


I remember about a year ago China had a good reply to a comment, something about clean up your own house first. My point is that part of that is to address the poverty and issues they mention in the USA by avoiding a corporate governance that is no different then a totalitarian state.

I also read where the newer generation of Chinese workers are working less, not wanting to do as many hours for low pay which would be a shift in worker's situation, however the same lack of equitable wages in China, or issues around safety, get created in the US over last 20 years, by trying to compete with systems that are not as efficient.

So I would argue that the reason the US has so many problems, is because its leaders public or private, wanted to match the wages in china or other countries, leading to the many of the problems they mention. And if US workers did not match them, they lost the jobs.

My earlier comment on race to the bottom, was more about manufacturing deterioration over 30 years of free trade and monopoly capitalism that moves jobs to china because of the lower cost of labor.

[Romulox]

46. Dimes to doughnuts the Chinese people are happier with their leadership overall than we...

What is "representative" about our gov't, where the public may be 70% for something and the politicians simply "take it off the table"? How exactly is our system superior?

[COPE2]

37. america is 100 times more frightening than china

ive compiled a list of links to show how frightening american human rights are. also, the majority of american human rights violations are done outside the u.s., usually for business interests. america has a notorious and long history of supporting the most ruthless dictators in the world.
http://cope2.angelfire.com/JUSTRIGHT/

[spanone]

40. perspective is everything