On Thursday, Chinese diplomat Fu Cong told the UN Human Rights Council that, "The United States conducts large-scale extraterritorial eavesdropping, uses drones to attack other countries’ innocent civilians, and its troops on foreign soil commit rape and murder of local people."
The condemnation comes in response to US-led criticism of China’s human rights abuses, including Beijing’s detention of dissident activists and lawyers. This week, 11 other countries, including Australia and Japan, joined the US in a statement critical of China’s policies on human rights.
That statement demands an end to Beijing’s repressive tactics, saying acts to suppress dissidents are "in contravention to China’s own laws and international commitments."
Beijing has long argued that China is improperly singled out for criticism, arguing that other countries, especially Western countries like the United States, should examine their own human rights records before launching accusations and condemnations.
A Western interpretation of the official Chinese position on domestic human rights loosely reads that if the people of China felt repressed they would do something about it, and that the absence of unrest within the country is evidence of a cooperative relationship between the people and the government. Beijing states that the Chinese people, not international monitors, "have the greatest authority to pass judgment" on social conditions in China.
Fu went on to blast endemic racism in America which, he stated, "is the country’s deep-rooted malaise."
