By Zhong Sheng
China’s State Council Information Office issued the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021 on February 28. The report, with tons of facts and figures, fully presents the worsening situation of the already wretched human rights conditions in the US and proves the only superpower has become the “biggest destroyer of human rights in the world”.
Despite having the world’s most advanced medical equipment and technology, the United States has the highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths globally. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the US, epidemic prevention and control has been highly politicized, which has become a tool and a bargaining chip for Republicans and Democrats to attack, reject and confront each other.
Domestically, the US government’s unscientific, unequal and irresponsible epidemic prevention and control conducts have seriously undermined its people’s rights to life and health. People’s mental health deteriorated due to the uncontrolled outbreak; the number of the homeless is staggering; the elderly rights to life are flagrantly violated.
Internationally, instead of making any contribution to the global anti-pandemic cooperation, the US has repeatedly coerced the WHO and has been keen on passing the buck, shifting the blame and political manipulation.
While developing countries are in dire need of vaccines, Washington vigorously pursues “America First” and “vaccine nationalism”, dragging down global anti-pandemic cooperation. What the US has done throughout the pandemic reflects a total disregard for the right to life and health of people around the world, including Americans.
The American society is chronically plagued by systematic racism, gun violence, impartial law enforcement, and rich-poor polarization, which have only exacerbated as the pandemic is running out of control, exposing ordinary Americans to a life of insecurity and fear. However, turning a blind eye to its own human rights problems, the US has instead used human rights as a political tool to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, which lays bare its double standards and hypocrisy on the issue.
Calling itself the “beacon of human rights”, the US is nevertheless a pandemonium where politicians are playing a game of fake democracy and people’s political rights are stomped on at will. “Money politics” is getting so very rampant that election is just a game of the rich while public interests and appeals are persistently ignored. The electoral farce has further deteriorated America’s political polarization, leading to steadily weakening governance capacity, social division and unrest, and stretched public welfare.
Several polls have shown that American people’s trust in their government is about to hit a historical low since 1958, and the international community’s confidence in American democracy is on a nosedive. Yet even in face of such a horrible track record of democratic practices, the US still refuses to face up to reality but insists on politicizing democracy to form small cliques and gangs to split the world asunder. The so-called “Summit for Democracy” held under the guise of safeguarding democracy and human rights ended up a farce widely criticized in the international community.
The US has always pursued hegemonism, unilateralism and interventionism in the attempt to preserve its global hegemony. The country’s frequent use of force has resulted in a large number of civilian casualties. Its abusive use of unilateral sanctions has caused humanitarian crises.
The New York Times reported that more than 50,000 US airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan were reckless and poorly targeted, killing tens of thousands of civilians. A study by an American university showed the 20-year US military operations in Afghanistan have killed 174,000 people, including more than 30,000 civilians, and injured more than 60,000, leaving 3.5 million homeless and nearly 23 million in starvation.
What’s more jaw-dropping is that right after its embarrassed and scrambled withdrawal from Afghanistan, Washington immediately froze billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves at the Afghan Central Bank, pushing the Afghan economy to the brink of collapse. Challenging justice with hegemony, trampling on righteousness for self-interest, and wantonly violating human rights in other countries, the US has become the biggest troublemaker and destroyer against the healthy development of international human rights cause.
As the pandemic and the profound changes unseen in a century are intertwined, it is the international community’s common mission to promote and protect human rights while endeavoring to vanquish the pandemic and recover the economy afterward. The US should look squarely at and get down to solving its own human rights issues and abandoning the habit of human rights politicization. It must join the rest of the world in upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, engage in constructive dialogue and cooperation on human rights, and make concerted efforts for the healthy development of human rights cause worldwide.
Editor’s note: This article is originally published on haiwainet.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
