Recently the US, UK and some other countries have been using Hong Kong and the COVID-19 pandemic to find human rights fault with China, showcasing an astounding ignorance and prejudice against China. As the most brutal human rights abusers in history, they are in no way qualified to point fingers at China on human rights.
America's not-very-long history began with the plundering, driving away and killing of indigenous Indians. After centuries of barbaric slaughters, the number of Indians within the scope of US has fallen from 5 million in 1492 to 250,000 today!
Even former US President Jimmy Carter described his own country as the most belligerent on earth. In its 240 years-plus history, only 16 of them passed by without a war and most of the wars were started by the US. In recent years, in the wars and military operations launched by the US against Afghanistan, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria, large numbers of civilians have died or been injured. The 2003 Iraq war killed 655,000 Iraqis.
Frequent mass shootings left the American human rights record a mockery. According to official US statistics, 100,000 innocent people fall victims to shootings in the country every year and 30,000 of them die for this reason. On the most recent Independence Day alone, more than 400 shooting cases occurred, killing over 120.
There is serious race-based inequality and discrimination in the US. More than 50% of the people killed by police in recent years have been Afro-Americans and Hispanics. Americans of color make up 37% of the total population but 67% of the incarcerated population. The recent killing of George Floyd, an Afro-American man, by police has sparked renewed mass protests. All these point to the systemic racial discrimination in the US, in which minorities 'can't breathe.'
According to statistics, more than 567,000 Americans were homeless in 2019. By 2018, 13.7% of the American people enjoyed no health security and about seven million people had lost their health insurance. The US is the only developed country with millions of hungry people. In 2018, 39.7 million people lived in poverty, including 12.8 million children. Treatment of immigrants has become increasingly inhumane. Between July 2017 and the end of 2018, the Immigration and Naturalization Service forced the separation of more than 5,400 children from their parents at the border.
America's mask of human rights has been shattered by its poor performance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. American politicians put economic considerations, partisan interests and electoral politics above the safety and health of their people. Now more than 3.1 million cases have been confirmed and 130,000 people have died of COVID-19, about 387 deaths per million people, which are respectively 36, 27 and 129 times of the Chinese figures. Care has been taken away from many infected senior citizens and refused for those without an insurance coverage! The US has even exported the COVID-19 virus through repatriations of illegal immigrants!
The UK is another hypocritical defender of human rights. How many indigenous people in the Americas, Australia, Africa and Asia were massacred by Britain during the colonial period? Probably even Britons find the figures too large to count and sum! It was Britain that first began in the mid-16th century the evil slave trade that lasted for centuries. How many Africans were sold as slaves around the world and how many died onboard slave ships? It is hard to find statistics!
It was Britain that launched two opium wars against China after mid-19th century, annexed Chinese Hong Kong and forcibly dumped opium on China, poisoning the Chinese people. In 1842 the British army massacred the conquered city of Zhenjiang! In the 99 years of British occupation of Hong Kong, the residents there were never treated as equals but were bullied and oppressed! In 1900, the invading armies of Britain, the US and other six powers committed mass killings in Beijing and other places!
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has reported a significant rise in racial discrimination and racist crimes in the UK in recent years, with highly visible systemic racial discrimination against people of African and Asian descents.
The number of homeless people in Britain reached 7,500 in 2015 and has been increasing in recent years. According to a report of a UN fact-finding mission by human rights experts, a fifth of the British population, or 14 million people, live in poverty.
In the current fight against COVID-19, the British performance has not been very impressive. With less than well-thought-out policies, the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths are alarmingly high. It has not been able to effectively protect the safety and health of its citizens.
Do the US and UK really care about human rights in China? No! How can a country that does not respect the human rights of its own citizens really care about those of others? They are just looking for excuses to achieve a hidden political agenda.
They want to tarnish China's image and shift domestic tensions. There has been a sharp contrast between the good governance in China and the 'chaos' in their countries. The politicians in these countries have neither the courage nor the breadth of mind to accept the fact, nor the will or ability to solve their own problems. Their only ability is to make somebody else a scapegoat. But they forget a thing: their countries are not parts of China and their affairs are not under Chinese jurisdiction!
They want to agitate the Chinese people against the Communist Party of China (CPC) and create civil unrest in China. But what they don't know is that the Chinese people are happier and more united than ever. China will lift itself out of poverty as a whole this year and has already set up a universal health care system. In the fight against the pandemic, all those infected, from newborns to seniors, the oldest one being 108 years old, have been given timely care. The number of confirmed cases and deaths are far lower than those in the US, UK and other countries. Arguably, as the CPC believes in and always places the people's interests above everything else, the Chinese people will only love, trust and support this great political party more with each passing day.
They want to instigate and help sustain the anti-China separatist forces in Hong Kong, turning it into a bridgehead of 'color revolution' against China. It is a delusion. The National Security Law for Hong Kong targets a very small number of criminals who seriously endanger national security. It safeguards the lawful rights and freedoms of law-abiding citizens and foreign enterprises and expatriates in Hong Kong. The promulgation and entry into force of the law has been universally welcomed while the anti-China forces of disorder in Hong Kong are falling apart. Hong Kong is Chinese Hong Kong. No one should have illusions or unrealistic intentions for it!