US' annual China human rights review shorter, remains sharply critical

The Star

3 days ago

The US State Department's annual review of China's human rights record, released on Tuesday, was pared back as part of a broader restructuring of its country reports but still retained many of its most politically sensitive criticisms of Beijing's conduct.
'Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year in China against predominantly Muslim Uygurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,' the report said in its executive summary.
The China assessment, an extensive catalogue of Beijing's alleged violations in the previous calendar year, is part of a package of department reports reviewing some 200 countries and territories based on standards enshrined in international human rights agreements.
Its release comes after a months-long delay amid controversy that the reports would substantially scale back long-standing critiques of certain forms of abuses or display bias against perceived US foes.
In recent years, the reports have been released in the spring, accompanied by a launch event led by the Secretary of State. This year – the first release under the second Donald Trump administration – no such event was held.
Intended to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, the reports include some of the most comprehensive human rights reviews compiled by any single body in the world.
They are also widely used in both US and international courts, particularly during asylum hearings.
This year, the individual country reports removed sections on disabilities, gender and political participation, among others. At 42 pages, the China report was in line with the leaner format applied to other countries – down from 91 pages last year and 87 pages in 2023.
Still, as in previous years, the report catalogued Beijing's conduct regarding arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; transnational repression against individuals outside China; and restrictions on freedom of expression.
As with last year, the report highlighted what it called genocide and crimes against humanity in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, reflecting a 2021 State Department determination that Beijing's treatment of Uygurs and other Muslim minorities met the legal definitions of those crimes.
In its 22-page addendum on Hong Kong, the report said that the human rights situation there had deteriorated in the previous calendar year as regional and central governments 'further dismantled Hong Kong's political freedoms and autonomy'.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday that the reports had been adjusted to make them more 'readable' and 'objective', insisting that the adjustment 'doesn't reflect a change of any US policy when it comes to human rights'.
'Sometimes less is more,' Bruce continued, comparing the shorter reports to the Trump administration's restructuring of foreign aid, adding that its human rights priorities would become clearer with next year's report.
Still, some US Democratic lawmakers objected to the shortened reports.
'By deliberately watering down or cutting factual reporting on global human rights violations ... the State Department under Secretary [Marco] Rubio has shamelessly turned a once-credible tool of US foreign policy mandated by Congress into yet another instrument to advance [Make America Great Again] political grievances and culture war obsessions,' said Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The previous Joe Biden administration had made advancing democracy a key theme, hosting an annual 'summit for democracy' to gather government, business and civil society to 'advance democracy, fight corruption and counter authoritarianism'.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has slashed its human rights and humanitarian programming, a move that some have criticised as playing into the hands of the Chinese government.
In recent years, Beijing has issued its own report on US human rights violations, citing American racial discrimination, wealth polarisation and gun and police violence, among other issues.
'While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalised, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded,' China's State Council Information Office wrote in May 2024.
The report's Tuesday release comes a day after the US and China jointly announced that they would extend a tariff truce until November. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST