China said Friday the U.S. practices on human rights have demonstrated to the whole world what "textbook" human rights hypocrisy looks like.
China resolutely opposes and rejects any country interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
Hua made the remarks at a daily news briefing in response to a Weibo post by the U.S. Embassy in China related to China's human rights.
She said that under the gloom of the COVID-19 pandemic, people's right to life is the most important of all human rights. However, the single-day death toll in the United States from COVID-19 has exceeded that of the 9/11 attacks, which is "shocking and saddening."
"When a government does not even care about or try to protect the lives of its own citizens, how can it convince others that it genuinely cares about and works to protect human rights in other countries?" She asked.
"Indeed, where are the human rights of the 15 million COVID-19 confirmed cases and nearly 300,000 deaths in the United States? Where are the human rights of the more than 40 million African Americans? And where are the human rights of the millions of Iraqi and Afghan civilians thrown into wars?" Hua asked quoting comments left by netizens under the U.S. embassy post.
In contrast, she said, the Chinese government always puts human lives at the top and makes the best possible efforts to protect their health and safety and safeguard everyone's value and dignity, Hua said.
Highlighting some of the country's achievements, Hua said China has ensured subsistence for 1.4 billion people, lifted more than 850 million out of poverty and created employment for 770 million.
It has also woven a basic security net for 250 million elderly citizens, 85 million disabled and 43 million low-income residents in urban and rural areas, the spokesperson said.
China has the largest middle-income group in the world, and has put in place the world's biggest systems of education, social security, medical care and community-based institutions of democracy, she added.
"Human rights are neither a fancy empty slogan nor a tool for interfering in other countries' internal affairs," said Hua, adding human rights should help usher in real improvements in people's lives and realize the value and dignity of humans.
China calls on all countries to uphold the principles of impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, conduct international cooperation and strengthen exchanges on human rights based on equality and mutual respect, and oppose politicization and double standards over human rights issues, Hua said.
