BEIJING, March 9 (UPI) -- China responded swiftly to a U.S. State Department report criticizing its human rights record, issuing one of its own Thursday outlining America's problems.
"The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005," released by the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, is part of the country's policy of tit-for-tat criticism when the annual report comes out in Washington.
State-run media accused the State Department of "posing once again as the world's judge of human rights," adding it had "pointed the finger at human rights situations in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but kept silent on the serious violations of human rights in the United States."
The 5,300 word document outlined five major areas (personal safety, police and judicial abuse, political rights and freedoms, economic and social inequities, racism) where China felt it necessary to "help people realize the true features of this self-styled guardian of human rights."
Several of the sources cited in the report, including American media organizations and rights watchdog groups, are the same ones that China slams as "distorting facts" or "hurting the feelings of the Chinese people," when they shine the spotlight on the PRC's problems.
Analysts note Beijing's turnaround in reacting has improved in the five years since the policy began. When the State Department issued its China report on Human Rights Practices for 2001 on March 4, 2002, it took the Chinese government a week to shoot back with its own on March 11. This year, the PRC response time was under 24 hours.
