Latest US human rights report scales back criticism on some allies while ramping up attack on perceived foes: media
The US State Department on Tuesday released an annual government report on global human rights abuses, which significantly reduced criticism of some US allies such as Israel while escalating disapproval of perceived foes, BBC reported.
The latest State Department report on China is similar to last year's version, which smeared the human rights conditions in regions including Xinjiang and Hong Kong. In response, the Commissioner's Office of the China's Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong SAR expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition on Wednesday, noting that the report disregarded facts and deliberately smeared the human rights and rule of law situation in the SAR.
The report covers the 2024 calendar year, before the Trump administration took office, CNN reported on Tuesday. CNN cited sources as saying that the report was largely completed before US President Donald Trump began his second term. However, it underwent significant revisions in the subsequent months.
The report saw notable changes and other key issues omitted compared with the report released in April 2024, according to media reports. It significantly reduced criticism of some US allies such as Israel and El Salvador while escalating disapproval of perceived foes such as Brazil and South Africa, per the BBC.
The report's section on Israel is much shorter than last year's edition and contains no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis or death toll in Gaza, as the death toll rose to some 61,000 people, Al Jazeera reported.
According to CNN, there is also no mention of the criminal trial of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of bribetaking, fraud and breach of trust, which were ongoing at the time.
However, for traditionally allied European countries, the latest report alleged a deteriorating human rights situation in 2024, noting that "significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression."
Washington has lambasted European nations with allegations of free speech backsliding. In February at the Munich Security Conference, US Vice-President JD Vance launched a scalding attack on European countries, spending the majority of his speech accusing European governments of retreating from their values, and ignoring voter concerns on migration and free speech, the BBC reported.
Not all of the reports were drastically changed from last year, CNN reported, citing the section on China, which is very similar to the previous year's report, accusing the human rights violations in regions including Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
A spokesperson for the Commissioner's Office of China's Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region responded to the report on Wednesday, noting that despite its own egregious human rights record, the US fabricated false claims of "deteriorating human rights conditions in Hong Kong," recycled cases of secessionists in Hong Kong to lent them support. This fully exposes the US politicizing and instrumentalizing human rights issues in a despicable attempt to contain China's development by exploiting Hong Kong.
A Chinese observer noted that under the current US government, human rights issues are no longer a foreign policy priority. "They know they aren't exactly a model in that field - with countless human rights issues of their own," Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
"Yet, some in the State Department still use it as a tool to smear other countries. They churn out these reports out of habit, recycling baseless claims with no evidence; they still wield human rights as a stick when it suits them to contain China, even though its impact is as feeble as a matchstick," Lü said.
China's progress in social development and human rights conditions, especially in ethnic minority regions, is undeniable and cannot be erased by any such report, the expert stressed.