China on Friday slammed the United States for having a terrible human rights record in its annual retaliatory report on U.S. human rights situation.
"The U.S., a self-proclaimed human rights defender, saw no improvements in its existent human rights issues, but reported numerous new problems," said the report, carried by official Xinhua news agency and released on Friday.
The nine-page report said the United States is haunted by its history of giving guns to other countries and frequent occurrence of violent crimes. It further noted the U.S. is facing grim problems of racial discrimination and serious racial bias in police and justice systems.
"In the U.S., problems concerning respecting and protecting civil rights are severe. The nation is haunted by spreading guns, frequent occurrence of violent crimes, the excessive use of force by police that infringed on citizens' personal rights, as well as wide criticism of illegal eavesdropping that violated citizens' right of privacy,"
The Chinese government report, titled Human Rights Record of the United States in 2014, came in response to a critical report (the 2014 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices) on China's human rights record issued by the U.S. State Department on Thursday.
"The report is an equal and mutually beneficial way of reciprocating the United States," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, according to Sputnik news.
The United States has accused China of wide-ranging and routine human rights violations in its congressionally-mandated annual report on the state of human rights across the globe, reported Voice of America.
"Repression and coercion were routine, particularly against organizations and individuals involved in civil and political rights advocacy and public interest issues, ethnic minorities, and law firms that took on sensitive cases," the U.S. report said.
