Wanghailou: The human rights stain in the United States cannot be washed clean

On January 11, the infamous Guantanamo Prison was established 20 years later. Over the past 20 years, the prison at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been subject to multiple abuse scandals. Despite "strong, repeated, and unequivocal" condemnation, the United States continues to use Guantanamo. Only a few of the prison's detainees have been charged or convicted, and today, 39 are still held here. Recently, the independent panel of experts on human rights appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a statement urging the United States to close Guantanamo prison and end this "ugly chapter of wanton human rights violations."

In fact, the United States has set up secret prisons all over the world. Over the years, the atrocities of arbitrary detention and abuse of prisoners in these "black jails" have been reported frequently, adding new stains to the bad us human rights record. Although several U.S. presidents have promised to close Guantanamo, this has not been achieved. This precisely reflects the consistent style of US politicians on the issue of human rights: they talk more and do less; they only talk about others, not themselves.

Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the human rights crisis in the United States has been intensifying: the inability to fight the epidemic has caused the epidemic to be seriously out of control, resulting in the tragedy of more than 800,000 deaths; the disorderly "American democracy" has caused political chaos, civil rights and political rights have no real name; racism has accumulated and the situation of minorities has continued to deteriorate; shootings and violent crimes have reached new highs, and continued social unrest has threatened public safety; the increasing division between the rich and the poor has aggravated social injustice, and the lives of the people at the bottom have been miserable... One failed human rights answer sheet after another was soaked with the blood and tears of the American people, exposing the deep-seated crisis of the US social governance system.

While the domestic human rights issue has been criticized, the United States is also in arrears in the international community a "human rights debt." For a long time, the United States has exported wars under the slogans of "democracy" and "human rights", causing a large number of innocent civilian casualties, causing many countries to fall into turmoil and causing serious humanitarian disasters. In August 2021, the U.S. military retreating from Afghanistan pointed its guns at civilians and ripped off the hypocrisy of "American human rights" in front of the world. In the past two years, in the face of the severe situation of the epidemic raging around the world, the United States has ignored the health and well-being of people in all countries, bullied and threatened international institutions, and continued to hold high the stick of sanctions, becoming the biggest saboteur of the international community's unity against the epidemic. Every piece of the story shows that the US politicians' claims to promote the protection of human rights in all countries in the world are nothing more than empty words that decorate the façade and lies without any credibility.

Without thinking about solving their own human rights problems and wantonly trampling on the human rights of other countries, US politicians have achieved little success in human rights protection, but they can brazenly appoint themselves as "human rights judges" year after year. Every year, the US State Department issues the so-called "Country-Specific Human Rights Report," which criticizes and denounces the human rights situation in various countries and regions of the world, and ignores and avoids all kinds of human rights disasters created by the country. This fully shows that THE US politicians who shout the slogan of "human rights" to the extreme are actually not concerned about the protection of human rights at all, but regard human rights as a political tool for interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and safeguarding their own hegemony. In recent years, in order to curb China's development, some anti-China politicians in the United States have played the "human rights card" at every turn, making irresponsible remarks about China's internal affairs involving Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and still playing the "double standard" routine of ignoring the facts and reversing black and white. However, the hypocritical, empty, and unfounded American "human rights card" will not smear China's world-renowned achievements in human rights development, but will only make people see more clearly the face of US politicians' "fake human rights and real hegemony."

Human rights are not a fig leaf to be used at will. The performance that American politicians want to cover up will only expose their own weakness even more. Some foreign media commented: "Even the staunchest supporters of the US government have to admit that there are human rights problems in the United States." "Recently, the epidemic situation in the United States has continued to worsen, and the number of new cases in a single day has reached a new high, with an average of nearly 2,000 American people losing their precious lives every day. In the face of anger, disappointment and protest at home and around the world, it is time for the United States, a "beacon of human rights" that always likes to look around, and it is time to shine on itself!

(The author is Li Jiabao, a commentator of this newspaper)

People's Daily Overseas Edition ( 2022-01-20 02 edition)

Source: Overseas Network