China Releases Full Report on US Human Rights 2019 Record

By PRC State Council Information  Office

March 15, 2020

China released a report titled “The Record of Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2019” prepared by the State Council Information Office. It focused attention on income inequality, racism, gender discrimination, gun violence, cruelty to migrants, imperialism through propaganda, sanctions, and war.

This is a summary of the report made by the twitter account “Defend the PRC” (@defendchina). The report can be read in full here.

“We lied, we cheated, we stole … It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment,” said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a speech on April 15, 2019.

“The remarks of US politicians have completely exposed their hypocrisy in adopting double standards on human rights issues and using them to maintain hegemony.”

This report is based on a variety of published data, reports and research findings. The facts detailed in the report prove that in recent years, especially since 2019, the human rights situation in the United States has been poor and deteriorating.

• The number of mass killings in the United States hit a record high of 415 in 2019, with more than 1 happening every day of the year. In total 39,052 people died from gun related violence in the United States in 2019. A person is killed with a gun in the United States every 15mins.
• Elections have become money games for the rich. Spending in the 2018 elections for Congress topped US $5.7 billion, making the battle for control of the House and Senate the most expensive midterm ever. 2020 presidential candidates have raised more than US$1.08B for the election.
• The US has the most serious polarization between the rich and poor among developed countries. The Gini Index grew to 0.485. The wealthiest 10% of US households control nearly 75% of household net worth. The bottom 50% saw essentially zero net gains in wealth from 1989 to 2018.
• The US is currently the only developed country where millions are hungry. 39.7 million people living in poverty in the US in 2018. More than half a million Americans lacked permanent shelter. There’s 65 million adults who chose not to seek treatment for a medical issue because of the cost.
• Racial hate crimes in the US have shocked the world. The majority of domestic terror related arrests were linked to white supremacist violence. “The US has always been in the midst of a white nationalist terrorist crisis,” reads a comment.
• Shootings and brutal abuse of African Americans by policemen are frequent. African American adults are 5.9 times more likely to be incarcerated than white adults. An UN Special Rapporteur called such racial disparities a vestige of slavery and racial segregation.
• The racial gap in employment and wealth is striking. Over the past 40 years, workers of African descent have consistently endured an unemployment rate approximately twice that of their white counterparts.
• The typical wealth for a white household is nearly 10 times that for African Americans. If current trends continue, it could take more than 200 years for the average family of African descent to accumulate the same amount of wealth as its white counterparts.
• Religious intolerance continues to deteriorate. Pew Research Center surveys showed that about 82 percent of respondents say Muslims are subject to at least some discrimination in the United States.
• Some 64 percent say Jews face at least some discrimination in the United States. Extremists inspired by extremist ideology were responsible for 249 anti-Semitic incidents in 2018. An UN report noted the exceptionally violent anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.
• The United States has the most dangerous situation for women among high-income countries. In 2015, an astounding 92 percent of all women killed with guns in these countries were from the United States.
• Women in the US were 21 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than in peer nations. Every month, an average of 52 women were shot and killed by an intimate partner. Up to 70% of US women had experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime
• Child poverty is a shocking problem. Around 12.8 million US children lived in poverty and a total of 3.5 million children under five were poor, with 1.6 million of those children living in extreme poverty.
• “No child should have to worry where their next meal will come from or whether she will have a place to sleep each night in the wealthiest nation on earth,” said the Children’s Defense Fund, yet “about 1 in 5 US children lived in poverty and faced these harsh realities every day”
• Poverty among the elderly is becoming more and more serious. One in 12 seniors aged 60 and older — 5.5 million people — did not have enough food. About 40 percent of middle-class Americans would live close to or in poverty by the time they reach age 65.
• The US government’s treatment of immigrants has become increasingly harsh and inhumane. US immigration authorities had separated more than 5,400 children from their parents at the Mexico border since July 2017. A total of 24 immigrants, including seven children, have died in custody
• The United States is “the most warlike nation in the history of the world.” The United States has spent US$6.4 trillion on wars it launched since 2001, which resulted in more than 800,000 deaths and left tens of millions displaced.
• The United States 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.
• 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. Worsening money politics distorts public opinion and makes the so-called democratic election a game for the rich.
• Politics has led to a proliferation of guns. The manufacture, sale and use of guns in the US is a huge industrial chain, forming a huge interest group. Interest groups such as the National Rifle Association made large political donations for presidential and congressional elections.
• The intertwined drawbacks of party politics, election politics and money politics make it difficult for the legislative and executive authorities to do anything about gun control, only allowing the situation to deteriorate.
• According to an US online media report dated Dec 11, 2019, the United States has far more guns than any other country and in 2017 the estimated number of civilian-owned firearms in the United States was 120.5 guns per 100 residents, meaning there were more firearms than people.
• According to a Nov 20, 2019 report on the website of the Center for American Progress, one person is killed with a gun in the US every 15 minutes, citing figures on shooting deaths from 2008 through 2017. In total 39,052 people died from gun related violence in the US in 2019.
• Mass shootings occurred one after another. The United States is a country with the worst gun violence in the world. Frequent mass shootings have become a defining feature of the United States.
• The Mirror reported on Dec. 30, 2019 that the number of mass killings in the US hit a record high of 415 in 2019, with more than one happening for every day of the year. That compares with 337 in 2018; 346 in 2017; 382 in 2016; 335 in 2015 and 269 in 2014.
• Violent crimes number is alarming. The “Crime in the United States, 2018” report released by the FBI in 2019 showed that in 2018, an estimated 1,206,836 violent crimes occurred nationwide, including 16,214 murders, 139,380 rapes, 282,061 robberies, and 807,410 aggravated assaults.
• The “Criminal Victimization, 2018” report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2019 showed that the number of violent-crime victims aged 12 or older in the United States was 3.3 million in 2018, rising for three consecutive years.
• According to the US Census Bureau, there are 39.7 million people living in poverty in the United States, including 12.8 million children in 2018.
• American Progress website reported that more than 4 in 10 Americans are struggling to afford basics such as housing, food, and health care. The US Congress has refused to raise the federal minimum wage of US$7.25 per hour for a decade, contributing to the worsening of poverty.

Finally the report touches the human right implications of the US government policy of sanctions towards other countries and made a special mention of sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba:

Unilateral sanctions grossly infringed on human rights in other countries. According to a report on the UN website on Nov 7, 2019, for the 28th consecutive year, the UN General Assembly had adopted a resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba. According to a report by the United Nations on May 28, 2019 titled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” the economic and commercial embargo in almost six decades was a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all Cubans. The report said it is imperative that the government of the United States comply with the resolutions adopted by the international community in the General Assembly and unconditionally end its embargo policy against Cuba. In a statement published by the UN website on Aug 8, 2019, High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet pointed out that the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States on Venezuela would have far-reaching implications on the rights to health and to food in a country where there were already serious shortages of essential goods.

This article first appeared  in the Orinoco Tribune

https://orinocotribune.com/