Beijing urges Washington to stop rights violations, distortion of facts

GENEVA — China on Wednesday urged the United States to take the Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, as an opportunity to stop human rights violations in all forms and take effective measures to prevent its human rights situation from further deterioration.

In a statement on behalf of the Chinese delegation at the adoption of the outcomes of the UPR of the United States, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the United Nations in Geneva, regretted the country did not accept most of the recommendations proposed by China in the latest UPR process.

“China is deeply concerned about (the) deterioration of human rights situation in the US,” the diplomat said.

He added the United States has failed to take effective measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. US politicians have been passing the buck and shifting the blame.

The United States has been pursuing vaccine nationalism and stockpiled a disproportionate quantity of COVID-19 vaccines that far exceeds the needs of its population. It has also refused to provide vaccines to other countries, including its allies, the statement said.

Devastating impact

It stressed that racial discrimination and police brutality remain devastating in the country, with perpetrators still at large. Muslims, refugees and immigrants face discrimination and xenophobia.

“Armed interventions by the US resulted in tremendous deaths of civilians in other countries. US military personnel slaughtered innocent civilians and conducted torture in their overseas operations,” said the statement.

It also mentioned that the United States imposed unilateral coercive measures on some developing countries which seriously violated international law and caused severe human rights and humanitarian crises.

“The US neither apologizes for its evil past of genocide nor provides reparation to the victims. Instead, it distorted facts, maliciously slanders other countries out of political motivation,” the statement concluded.