In a yearly tradition like no other, China has retaliated yet again to the United States’ annual human rights report by issuing one of its own, focused only on the “human rights violations” that were committed by the US in the past year.

As usual, the report begins by condemning the US for acting as the world’s “human rights defender” while failing to evaluate its own record:

Following a framework of its own narrow understanding of human rights and using its core interests of pursuing global hegemony as a yardstick, the United States released annual reports on other countries’ human rights every year by piecing together innuendoes and hearsay. These reports wantonly distorted and belittled human rights situation in countries and regions that did not conform to U.S. strategic interests, but turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the persistent, systematic and large-scale human rights violations in the United States.

The 22-page report is divided into seven chapters detailing many of the main problems facing American society — from a widening wealth gap to systemic racial discrimination to gun violence — all the usual criticisms that China has leveled against the US over the years.

It even declares that the human rights situation in the United States has been “poor and deteriorating” in recent years, “especially since 2019.”

Choosing a strategy of “the best defense is a good offense” when it comes to human rights, Beijing has been issuing this same kind of report since the late 1990s. The report is mostly based on Western media news reports and studies.

As valid as these critiques may be, they tend to fall a bit flat considering the messenger.

This year, the report’s criticisms of the US included: “demonstrators were arrested for protesting against government policies,” “citizens’ personal dignity and privacy are systemically violated” and “intolerance against Judaism and Islam continues to worsen.”

The report was released immediately after the US State Department’s annual human rights report was unveiled.

Along with Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, China drew special mention in the US report with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo describing the detention of hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang as the “stain of the century.”