Weekly review

The United States, the world's richest state, is beset by rampant gun violence, serious racism, and an increasing portion of its population have become poorer, a report released yesterday by China on U.S. human rights said.The U.S., under siege with all its human rights problems, is in no position to criticize other countries' human rights, the report released by the State Council's Information Office said.Washington has taken human rights as a "political instrument to defame other governments' image and seek its own strategic interests", Beijing said.In breakdown, the report lists high incidence of gun-related bloodshed crimes in the U.S. resulting from its outrageous gun ownership policy. It has 12,000 registered gun murder cases a year, and tens of hundreds people are shot to death or get injured in gunfights, the highest in the world.In the U.S. the violation of citizens' civil and political rights by the government is severe, the report said. Between October 2008 to June 2010, more than 6,600 travelers were subject to electronic device searches, half of them are American citizens.And, abuse of force and violence, and torturing suspects in order to get their confession is serious in the U.S. law enforcement, the report said.The US regards itself as "the beacon of democracy." However, its democracy is largely based on money, the report writes. According to a report from The Washington Post on October 26, 2010, U.S. House and Senate candidates shattered fundraising records for a midterm election, taking in more than $1.5 billion. The midterm election, held in November, cost $3.98 billion, the most expensive political rally in the US history. Various interest groups have actively spent on the event, the report said.While advocating Internet freedom, the US in fact imposes strict restriction on cyberspace. On June 24, 2010, the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which will give the American federal government "absolute power" to shut down the Internet under a declared national emergency rule.Economically, unemployment rate in the United States has been stubbornly high. Proportion of Americans living in poverty has risen to a new high. The US Census Bureau reported in September that a total of 44 million Americans found themselves in poverty. The share of residents in poverty climbed to 14.3 percent in 2009, the report said.Also, Americans living in hunger and starvation increased sharply. A report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in November showed that 14.7 percent of US households were food insecure in 2009. And, the number of families in homeless shelters increased 7 percent to more than 170, 000, it said.On the global stage, the U.S. has a "notorious record of international human rights violations", said the report. The U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already caused huge civilian casualties.Prior to Beijing's releasing the human rights report, a U.S. State Department report on global human rights released on Friday said that Beijing had stepped up restrictions on activists, lawyers and online bloggers, and tightened controls on civil society to maintain stability.A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissed the U.S. report as meddling in China's internal affairs. Two days later, Beijing released its own report on U.S. human rights problems."The United States ignores its own severe human rights problems, ardently promoting its so-called ‘human rights diplomacy', treating human rights as a political tool to vilify other countries and to advance its own strategic interests," Beijing report said."The United States is the world's worst country for violent crimes," it said. "Citizens' lives, property and personal safety do not receive the protection they should."