For the past 13 years, China has “retaliated” against the U.S. State Department’s annual human rights country reports with its own report on human rights in the U.S. This year’s report criticizes America on its handling of the Occupy movement and the War on Terror, as well as ongoing inequalities such as chronic homelessness. China’s State Council Information Office cites American and European media sources, as well as Human Rights Watch (whose web address is blocked in China) and other U.S.-based non-profits.
The curation project SneezeBloid published highlights from this year’s report, juxtaposing the text with images of poverty, abuse and Mao fervor in China. The curators also added their own wry commentary before ending with a quotation from the Hong Kong-based communist mouthpiece Ta Kung Pao.
Translated by Deng Bolun.
State Council Information Office Releases 2011 U.S. Human Rights Report, Prompts American Introspection
May 26, 2012
On May 24, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China published “The United States 2011 Human Rights Record.” The report points to serious infringements on the rights and freedoms of U.S. citizens. During the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, tens of thousands of demonstrators were subject to violent and forceful treatment, while many were arrested. This kind of behavior, a wanton trampling of the people’s right to assembly and free speech, shows the reality of America’s free democracy.
(report from CCTV’s primetime news show Xinwen Lianbo)
State Council Information Office: U.S. Press Freedom No More Than a Tool to Pressure Other Countries: According to news reports from the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries, there were nearly 1,000 arrests during the first two weeks of the Occupy Wall Street movement. On October 1 alone, the New York police arrested more than 700 protesters on the charge of blocking traffic, with many demonstrators handcuffed and marched in a straight line over a bridge to wait for a paddy wagon. On November 17, to mark two months of the Occupy Wall Street movement, hundreds of people were again arrested, no less than 276 in New York City. Many were injured and bleeding as the police dragged them away. A number of protesters accuse the police of using cruel tactics.
State Council Information Office: U.S. Strictly Limits Freedom of Speech Online: The U.S. Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act both contain articles that regulate the Internet, empowering the government or law enforcement bodies to regulate and censor any online content that “threatens national security.” The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, passed in 2010, stipulates absolute power to the federal government to shut down the Internet during a state of emergency. [The Internet “kill switch” bill did not actually pass, although it was reintroduced in 2011.]
State Council Information Office: U.S. Experimented on Living People, Horrifying the World: On August 30, 2011, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reported that from 1946 to 1948 the U.S. government funded medical experiments carried out on about 5,500 Guatemalans, intentionally infecting 1,300 soldiers, prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis. They even injected syphilis to the hindbrains of seven epileptic women and gonorrhea into the eye of a terminally ill woman. At least 80 Guatemalans died. U.S. news sites have released reports claiming that the recent exposé of these experiments is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many eye-witness accounts of these terrifying, illegal experiments: the government’s experiments with radiation, mind control experiments, the CIA and Defense Department’s use of enemy combatant experiments during the “War on Terror,” etc.
State Council Information Office: Millions of Homeless Roaming U.S. Streets: There are 2.3 to 3.5 million homeless in the U.S. in any given year. The number of homeless families increased 20% from 2007 to 2010. In the past five years, the rate of individuals leaving their families or communities and applying to live in homeless shelters climbed from 39% to 66%. The U.S. is the world’s biggest economy, but few people enjoy the economic, social and cultural rights that must be safeguarded in order to live with honor and dignity. The U.S. has significantly scaled back education funding, cut teaching staff, reduced class time, and greatly increased tuition. Education for primary school students has gone from bad to worse.
America is this kind of country: A country where power dwarfs the law, a country where forced demolitions cover the land, a country where wronged citizens have grown to a crowd, a country where chengguan can attack street peddlers at random, a country where the people are brainwashed with propaganda, a country full of “naked officials,” a country where no official is uncorrupted, a country where human rights have been completely ruined!
Ta Kung Pao: China’s System of Government Undoubtedly World’s Most Superior Model: An editorial published by Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao indicates that in the 59 years since the establishment of China it has become a model of government for the world. China’s one party administration, multiparty cooperation and “synthetic model” of unified economic, political, cultural, and social development have shown great superiority and created a “Golden Age of China” that has shocked the world.
