It said that in China “repression and coercion markedly increased during the year against organizations and individuals involved in civil and political rights advocacy”.
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“Since the USA government refuses to hold up a mirror to look at itself, it has to be done with other people’s help”, it said.
The State Department singled out numerous governments for criticism, including what it described as “historically authoritarian regimes” in North Korea, Cuba, China, Iran, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
China publishes such reports each year in response to the U.S. State Department’s annual report on China’s human rights situation issued on Wednesday, which this year highlighted repression against civil society.
“In every part of the world, we see an accelerating trend by both state and non-state actors to close the space for civil society, to stifle media and Internet freedom, to marginalize opposition voices, and in the most extreme cases, to kill people or drive them from their homes”, Secretary of State John Kerry said.
Unveiling the report at a news conference, Kerry said the worst human rights abuses in 2015 occurred in the Middle East, fueled by wars in Iraq and Syria that had caused enormous suffering.
No substantial progress concerning the economic and social rights of United States citizens were made, the report said.
“Attempts to politicize the issue of human rights to disrupt China’s stability and development will prove to be futile”, Lu said.
The report said that the USs’ overseas monitoring projects infringed on the privacy of citizens of other countries.
The report cited Turkey, Malaysia and Tajikistan for using broad counter terrorism or national security laws to restrict political dissent and stifle freedom of expression.
Nigeria: The report cited Boko Haram killings and destruction, creating more than 100,000 refugees; security services responding with killings, torture, rape; ethnic, regional, religious violence; vigilante killings; lack of independent judiciary; official corruption; violence against women, child abuse, female genital mutilation, infanticide; bonded labor; impunity at all levels of government. It especially criticized China’s crackdown on lawyers, saying it reflected the government’s insecurity in the face of popular aspiration for the rule of law.
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Despite establishing diplomatic ties with Cuba an a historic visit to Havana by U.S. President Barack Obama, the report criticized the Castro government for its continued practice of arbitrary, short-term detentions of opposition members.
