Beijing: Mounting a scathing attack, China today described the US human rights record as "tattered and shocking", mocked at the "hypocrisy" of American democracy and accused Washington of having a "notorious record" of trampling upon the sovereignty of other countries.

China, in its tit-for-tat report to counter the American State Department's annual report slamming Beijing on human rights, listed "a multitude" of cases of human rights violations by the US within its own country and in other nations and bluntly told Washington to improve its own record.

The US State Department in its report released yesterday said Chinas human rights record was poor but did not list Beijing as the worst abuser of human rights.

The report had alleged human rights abuses in China, including "extrajudicial killings and use of forced labour" and accused the government of harassing and arresting journalists, writers and activists and tightening controls on religious freedom in Tibet and Muslim-majority Xinjiang.

Coming out with a matcher today, China said the US "reigns" over other countries and makes "arrogant and malicious attacks" on their human rights record, but "mentions nothing about its own human rights problems."

"The human rights records in the US can be best described as tattered and shocking," the report released customarily by the Information Office of China s State Council for the ninth consecutive year, said, telling Washington to stop applying "double standards" on human rights issues.

The report reviewed the US human rights record in 2007 from seven "perspectives", including on life and personal security, human rights violations by law enforcement and judicial departments, civil and political rights, racial discrimination, women and children and USs violation of human rights in other nations.
Source : PTI