The statement of the U.S. Mission today comes as no surprise. For the United States, being the thief crying “stop thief” is a role it has got so used to play, and being self-centered and righteous and bossing other countries around is imbedded in its genes. What truly surprises us is that at a time when alarming human rights violations in the United States are there for everyone to see, it still has the courage to play human rights preacher, with no idea that it has already become the laughingstock of the world.

The list of human rights crimes committed by the United States at home and abroad is too long to draw. In the United States, racism and racial discrimination prevail. For too long, minorities, including people of African descent, people of Asian descent and Muslims, have been subjected to discrimination and abuse. It practiced evil slavery and carried out horrific massacres of American Indians in history. Guns are out of control and police violence is appalling. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the United States has disregarded people’s right to life and right to health, and failed to take effective measures against the pandemic. More than 34 million people have been infected and more than 600,000 lost their life. Inequality is deeply rooted in the U.S. where over 40 million people are struggling in poverty, and their situation is further exacerbated by the pandemic. The United States has put innocent migrants in arbitrary detention for excessively long period of time and forcibly separated migrant children from their parents. This act has far too often caused family breakdowns and brought lifelong trauma to migrant children.

The United States, under the pretext of democracy and human rights, used lies and disinformation to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and frequently bullied and coerced others in an attempt to impose its own will on these countries. To those countries that defied its coercion, it imposed unilateral coercive measures or even waged wars against them, causing enormous civilian casualties and displacement, and tearing countless houses and cities down to rubble. The U.S. overseas military personnel arbitrarily killed and raped civilians of other countries, committing serious war crimes. The unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States have impeded economic and social development in many developing countries where the people are struggling for survival. The refusal of the United States to lift unilateral coercive measures during the pandemic is inhumane by any standard. In recent years, UCMs have further become a tool for the United States to swamp foreign enterprises and retard development of other countries in order to maintain its monopoly.

If the United States dares to claim that it is committed to protecting the rights of individuals, then how about the rights of those “George Floyds” who could not breathe? How about the rights of more than 600,000 Americans who died in the pandemic? How about the rights of Americans who are struggling in poverty? How about the rights of migrant children in custody at the U.S. immigration centers? How about the rights of innocent civilians in other countries who lost their lives or families under indiscriminate bombings by the U.S. armed forces? How about the rights of people in other countries who are starving and dying because of the UCMs that it imposed? And how about the rights of people and employees, whose countries and companies are framed and sanctioned by the United States? The United States owes the whole world a serious answer.

The promotion and protection of human rights is a sacred cause. The international community shall not allow the United States to use human rights as a tool and fabricate lies and disinformation to slander other sovereign countries, interfere in their internal affairs, undermine their stability, or even conduct unlawful military interventions. Nor should the United States be allowed to divert the world’s attention from its serious human rights problems by smearing and attacking others. The United States must recognize its wrongdoings in human rights and take immediate actions to redress them. It must abandon hegemonic and bullying mentalities, and halt unilateral acts of power politics. It must stop using human rights as a political tool, and instead carry out dialogue and exchanges on human rights with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and take part in the work of multilateral human rights mechanisms, if it intends to win the trust of the international community. Otherwise, it will end up being increasingly isolated in the world.

The Chinese government upholds a people-centered approach and takes people’s aspirations for a better life as its goal. The Chinese people are the real masters of their country, enjoying social equity and justice as well as equal opportunities for development. China has succeeded in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, eradicated absolute poverty, and made major strategic gains in fighting the pandemic. China pursues an independent foreign policy of peace, stays committed to developing friendship and cooperation with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and respects the right of people of all countries to choose their own development path. China is also dedicated to safeguarding world peace and promoting common development in an effort to build a community with shared future for human beings. The United States should feel ashamed if it attempts to compare its human rights records, domestic and overseas, with China.