U.S. Drops China from List of 10 Worst Rights Violators
March 15th, 2008What’s more absurd, the fact that China isn’t on the list, or that the U.S. issues such a list in the first place?
More than a million Iraqis have died since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
I wonder if that figures into the report at all…
Via: IHT:
The announcement that the U.S. State Department no longer considers China one of the world’s worst human rights violators has earned the ire of human rights groups.
In its annual report on more than 190 countries, the State Department did say Tuesday that China’s “overall human rights record remained poor” in 2007. China, the report said, tightened media and Internet curbs and increased controls on religious freedom in Tibet and the western Xinjiang region. The report said that China’s abuses also included “extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor.”
But the report dropped China from a list of 10 countries that it deemed the worst offenders: North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan.
At a news conference, Jonathan Farrar, acting assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, did not answer questions about why China was dropped from the list of worst abusers.
“I think the report highlights that generally the human rights record remains poor,” he said.
When asked repeatedly why China was dropped from the list, and whether that had anything to do with the Beijing Olympics this summer, Farrar said: “I would say China is listed under a section dealing with authoritarian countries undergoing economic reform where the democratic political reform has not kept pace. And that is a completely accurate assessment.”
The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders denounced the move. “This decision was announced even as it was learned that some 100 Tibetan monks have been arrested and Chinese authorities are refusing to release activist Hu Jia and dozens of other freedom of expression advocates,” the organization said in a statement. “U.S. authorities are depriving themselves of yet another effective way to pressure China, without having achieved any good-will gesture from Beijing.”
Other critics said that the United States should look closer to home when gauging human rights abuses.
Amnesty International USA complained that the Bush administration was giving lip service to human rights around the world while ignoring abuses by allies of the United States.
“It is also shocking to read the horrific record of what amounts to torture and cruel treatment of individuals held by allies of the United States in the war on terror, knowing that the U.S. government has sent people to those countries for interrogation through its extraordinary renditions program,” the executive director of Amnesty International USA, Larry Cox, said in a statement.
1. I’m surprised it took them this long, since their by far our biggest business partner
2. Love this: “The report said that China’s abuses also included “extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor.”” How does that differ from us?! The first 3 are a no-brainer, and for those of you who don’t know, the prison business is booming in the US and using prisoners for labor is becoming more common every day.
…oh, and 3. Just in time for the Olympics! What a coincidence…
In light of what has just happened (and is still happening) in Tibet, this announcement is duplicitous at best and hypocritical at worst. This (U.S.) administration has no shame. The skewed and twisted sense of justice, liberty and fairness seems to favor those who can afford the best justice money can buy. That includes the Goddamned Chinese.
The Olympics? maybe, but I think the fact that China is 1) coming to dominate the world (except in amount of military weapons, which sees the good ol’ US of A still at number one); 2) can effectively destroy the US economy by dumping dollars/unpegging their currency from the dollar; 3) is the only country that can tell Bush where to stick it (as can Russia, but Russia will have to deal with some consequences…China won’t)…I think these reasons have more to do with it than the Olympics, which is only temporary. Yet I don’t think the Us should be on the list, either. Israel? maybe. My list would be North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe, Congo, Central African Republic, Mauritania (a hub of the world-wide slave trade), Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Haiti, and China, not necessarily in that order. But I can see Israel making the list at some point…not only are they committing genocide against Palestinians, they are also persecuting non-Ashkenazi Jews as well. Israeli jounalist Barry Chamish is all over this. Finally, Zionist persecution of Christians in Israel is getting worse all the time. But none of that matters to the Religious Right pharisees that advise Bush, McCain (who may have to dump Zionist John Hagee from his endorsement lineup), and others.
Of course when it comes to intellectual property rights there’s plenty of concern about China’s practices–they’re right up there on this “priority watch list”.
I guess it’s clear which kind of rights the U.S. considers most important.
America is definitely a dictatorship and nasty human rights abuser.
But for Christ’s sake, how could they not list China as one!?
This is a country that has been proven to be involved in executing members of the harmless Falun Gong spiritualist group, and harvesting their organs for sale:
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-3-30/53503.html
I mean, what else would it take for them to make that list…selling babies to be eaten? Oh wait, they allow that in China too…
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t37170-0.html
P.S. Guys like Alex Jones and Kevin have taken a lot of heat from the Left for depicting the Chinese regime in an unflattering way (being called xenophobe, and all that crap). But seriously folks, the fact that our gov’t and business leaders have married the U.S. economically to China is all the proof you need that Corporate America are completely unprincipled scumbags who deserve to be put out business (in addition to all the other good reasons).
Why Me?
Because WE OWN YOU dummy!
I have seen the face of god.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AI8mC8XucY