An embroider teaches her granddaughter embroidery skills in Hami, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on March 19. Photo: Xinhua

 
“The US history is full of notorious human rights violations and it never reflects on its own mistakes!” said spokesperson of the regional government of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at a video press conference on Thursday.

“The US has boasted so-called universal values and portrayed itself as a fighter of democracy and beacon of freedom and model for human rights. And it is always ready to lecture others,” Xu Guixiang, spokesperson of the Xinjiang regional government, said at the press conference.

However, Xu noted, the US is the one that committed race genocide and started the most wars in the world. It is also the one that started forced labor and adopted double standards on counter-terrorism. “Moreover, the US is the recidivist of mass surveillance, and it is the lie machine that blatantly uses lies in diplomacy.”

Scholars and experts who attended the Thursday press conference also shared their studies on the US’ notorious record on human rights. 

Peng Wuqing, a professor on laws from Xinjiang Normal University, said at the press conference that numerous cases have proven the tragic history of black people and immigration being turned into forced labor in the US. But the US government has avoided talking about this or taking its responsibilities.

Peng pointed out that the US has only approved 14 international labor conventions, and among the eight core conventions of the labor organizations, it only approved two, making it the country with the least international labor conventions.

“No matter how some anti-China forces have smeared China’s Xinjiang for so-called forced labor and no matter how the US portrays itself as the fighter of human rights, it can never deny the solid evidence of its own violations of labor rights,” Peng said. 

Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, shared his views on the US’ “concerns” over Xinjiang’s Muslims. “The US shows no respect to Islamic culture, nor does it care about Muslims. It is using them to create instability and to disturb China’s Xinjiang – this is its ulterior purpose.”

Zuliyati Simayi, a professor from Xinjiang University, talked about the US’ immigration policies which forcibly separate children from their parents and making numerous tragedies.
Since 2018, 24 immigrants, including seven children, died in the border detention centers in the US. In recent years, more than 25,000 migrant children among 270,000 detained ones have been detained for more than 100 days, and some have been detained for more than five years. 

“We called on the international community to pay attention to the human rights violations in the border detention centers in the US, urging it to stop these violations, close them, stop separating children from their parents, and take concrete measures to protect migrant children’s rights,” Zuliyati said. 

US' Stained Human Rights Record Graphic: Deng Zijun/GT