A close look at U.S. hegemonic practices disguised in human rights protection

By Zhong Sheng

A record of human rights violations in the U.S. was issued Friday by the State Council Information Office of China. The 20,000-character report titled “The Record of Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2019” cites abundant facts and data, proving that the human rights situation in the U.S. has been poor and deteriorating in recent years.

Following a framework of its own narrow understanding of human rights and using its core interests of pursuing global hegemony as a yardstick, the U.S. released annual reports on other countries’ human rights every year by piecing together innuendoes and hearsay. These reports wantonly distorted and belittled human rights situation in countries and regions that did not conform to U.S. strategic interests, but turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the persistent, systematic and large-scale human rights violations in the U.S. All of this did nothing but exposing the hypocrisy of the U.S. who touts itself as a world human rights defender and the country’s real intention to seek hegemony under the disguise of human rights.

It’s a common practice for the U.S. to attack other countries’ human rights, as it flaunts itself as “the land of freedom” and “a beacon of democracy,” which, however, is just something imaginary that fools the people and the world. As a matter of fact, the human rights condition in the U.S. is riddled with shocking problems.

The U.S. is a country with the worst gun violence in the world. The lack of restraint in the right to hold guns has led to rampant gun violence, posing a serious threat to citizens’ life and property safety. The democratic rights stipulated in the constitution are only enjoyed by the rich, as the worsening money politics distorts public opinion and makes the so-called democratic election a game for the rich.

Besides, the U.S. is also facing a string of other human rights issues, such as the absence of basic guarantee of social and economic rights, ethnic minorities suffering from bullying and exclusion, severe discrimination and violence against women, vulnerable groups living in difficulties, and migrants suffering inhumane treatment.

However, Washington turns a blind eye to these problems and has repeatedly chosen to avoid them. The number of unanswered requests in the U.S. from the UN’s so-called “special rapporteurs” had risen to 22 by March 2019, according to The Guardian and other news agency, but the U.S. just acted ignorant and made no reply.

The U.S. keeps saying to promote human rights development in each country, but is actually taking the “America first” approach. In order to maintain its hegemony over the world, the U.S. wantonly trampled on human rights in other countries, as well as the international order and international system with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter as its core. As a country that was so good at withdrawing from cooperation, breaching commitments, shirking international responsibilities and shaking the foundation for global cooperation, that was always imposing sanctions and resorting to forces, the U.S. was the culprit plunging many places around the world into disturbances and chaos, and was responsible for humanitarian disasters that followed. The country has long lost its international morality and credit.

During a general debate over the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council on Sept. 10 and 11 last year, the U.S. was criticized by the World Peace Council who said Washington’s intervention in Latin American countries violated the UN Charter and infringed upon their right to self-determination and state sovereignty.

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic presents a clearer image – at this critical moment, to value human rights is to put people’s lives and health in the first place, and to protect human rights is to well control the epidemic and improve capability through multilateral cooperation.

The U.S., doing nothing to combat the virus or protect lives amid the epidemic, is draining its brain to attack human rights of other countries, which is totally incomprehensible. What’s more, some U.S. politicians even pointed fingers at other countries’ human rights in disguise of the epidemic, slandering other countries and shifting contradictions. Such practices are exactly what goes counter to human rights.

The U.S., a country preoccupied with human rights problems at home, unscrupulously tramples on the human rights of people in other countries, resulting in untold sufferings. It has always adopted double standard on human right issues, interfered with other countries’ domestic affairs in the name of human rights, and sought hegemony in disguise of human rights. Such hurtful acts are a grave violation of international morality and human conscience and are despised by all people who hold on to kindness and justice.

The U.S., attacking human rights in other countries by cooking up stories, calling white black and slandering, will only leads to disrepute, as it must pay for such immoral practices. We advise the U.S. to carry out self-examination, recognize its problems and manage its own affairs, and stop being a disturber that defames other countries and a troublemaker that runs counter to the global development of human rights.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)