US State Department slams China on human rights

In stark contrast to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s softer remarks on China’s human rights, the US State Department report reveals sharp criticism of the eastern superpower over rights violations ranging from religious repression to extrajudicial killings.

The report, which was mainly drafted during President George W Bush’s administration, covers 2008. It noted a spike in rights repression around the time of last summer's Beijing Olympics, including the massive crackdown on Tibetan freedom protesters.

"The government of China's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas," the 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices states, according to CNN.

Chinese authorities "committed extrajudicial killings and torture, coerced confessions of prisoners and used forced labour", it specifies.

Moreover, the Chinese Government is accused of “severe cultural and religious repression” of minorities and harassment of dissidents and activists.

China has expressed anger at the criticism, calling the accusations groundless and charging Washington with interfering in the country’s internal affairs.

"We urge the US side to reflect on its own human rights problems, stop acting as a human rights guardian, stop interfering in others' internal affairs by issuing such human rights reports," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu to reporters at a news conference, according to The Associated Press.

The fiery exchange on human rights comes just days after Clinton told reporters that the human rights issue will take lower priority than the global economic crisis, climate change and the security crisis in US-China talks.

Her comment marked a shift in the US' approach to China, and drew criticism from rights activists angry that the United States had downplayed the importance of human rights.

"In a shocking display of pandering, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear in Beijing, that the Obama Administration has chosen to peddle US debt to the largest dictatorship in the world over combating torture, forced abortion, forced labour, religious persecution, human sex trafficking, gendercide, and genocide," Republican Chris Smith, a US House member who is often outspoken on rights issues said earlier this week.

But some officials, CNN reported, have said privately that the Obama administration is taking a new approach to handling China’s human rights problems. The new strategy includes less public criticism and more private talks, with hopes it will prove more effective in changing China’s human rights record.

Other countries the report raised concern over were North Korea, Zimbabwe, Russia Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

The report also made a surprising acknowledgment about concerns regarding the United States’ own human rights record.

"As we publish these reports, the Department of State remains mindful of both domestic and international scrutiny of the United States' record," it states.

"As President Obama recently made clear, 'we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.'"

Clinton, who signed off on the report’s findings, said in preface to the State Department report that America will “seek to live up to our ideals on American soil” as it pursues greater respect for human rights in other countries, according to Agence France-Presse.