Once upon a time, a long time ago, when American leaders spoke on human rights, the world listened. Today, largely due to the extreme abuses by Republicans during the Bush Regime, but complicated by Obama’s failure to restore our international integrity as promised, the US has lost all semblance of moral authority. When we justly criticize other nation for human rights abuses, they just hand us a mirror.
The United States is beset by violence, racism and torture and has no authority to condemn other governments’ human rights problems, China said on Sunday, countering U.S. criticism of Beijing’s crackdown.
Pro-democracy protesters carry portraits of detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei urging for his release before walking to a China’s liaision office in Hong Kong April 10, 2011. Chinese characters on a placard reads ”Release pro-democracy protesters. To build a democratic China”. (Reuters/Bobby Yip) The row between Beijing and Washington over human rights has intensified since China’s ruling Communist Party extended its clampdown on dissidents and rights activists, a move which has sparked an outcry from Washington and other Western governments.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is the most prominent of the activists to be detained by police or held in secretive custody in the latest crackdown.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday she was "deeply concerned" about it, and cited "negative trends" including Ai’s detention.
A U.S. State Department report on global human rights released on Friday said Beijing had stepped up restrictions on lawyers, activists, bloggers and journalists, and tightened controls on civil society.
It has also increased its efforts to control the press, Internet and Internet access, the report said.
But China has shown no sign of bowing to foreign pressure.
Its Foreign Ministry on Saturday dismissed the U.S. report as meddling, and its own annual report about U.S. human rights stressed Beijing’s dismissive view.
"Stop the domineering behavior of exploiting human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries," it said, according to excerpts published by the official Xinhua news agency.
"The United States ignores its own severe human rights problems, ardently promoting its so-called ‘human rights diplomacy’, treating human rights as a political tool to vilify other countries and to advance its own strategic interests," said a passage from the Chinese report
Produced by the State Council Information Office, the government’s public relations arm, the report dwelled on what it said were severe deprivations and threats facing many Americans, as well as Washington’s invasion of Iraq.
It also cited the United States’ refusal to ratify a number of international human rights pacts, and listed poverty, hunger and homelessness as stains on the country’s rights record.
"The United States is the world’s worst country for violent crimes," said the report. "Citizens’ lives, property and personal safety do not receive the protection they should."
"Racial discrimination is deeply rooted in the United States, permeating every aspect of social life," it said… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
Don’t get me wrong, please. I am in no way defending China’s human rights policies and think that Clinton’s criticism is spot on. Sadly, China’s criticism is equally valid. The US has the most inequitable distribution of wealth in the industrialized world. The US has refused to ratify human rights treaties, because Republicans filibustered them. Bush’s invasion of Iraq the greatest war crime of the 21st century. Republican racism is rampant here. So any time we criticize, the offending nation has justification to throw it back in our face. That’s the problem with hypocrisy.
6 Responses to “The Problem With Hypocrisy”
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Hey Tom,
I agree for the most part. There is indeed hypocrisy from its leaders. However, the U.S. is more than its leaders – it is also its people. We still have a voice, despite the many attacks on those of us that disagree with our politicians. There is a TomCat, for example, with a website call http://www.politicsplus.org here. Is there a Chinese equivalent of TomCat with a http://www.politicsplus.org website? I don’t think so – but I could be wrong. There is where despite our leaders’ hypocrisy, there are still enough differences that make any justification on the part of the offending nation invalid. Our voice shouldn’t wither because there is a just critique aimed at our leaders – when something is wrong we do need to state so, whether here OR there.
Welcome George. 🙂
I agree for the most part too. Just because our government lacks the moral authority, individual Americans do not. I’m inclined to think that there is a Chinese TomCat, but he’s operating surreptitiously on black market servers. Also, when PP was on blogger during the Bush Reich, I tracerouted traffic here through the spy-node in LA. I am in full agreement with your last statement.
The United States does not deserve to be listened to by the rest of the world. We constantly preach one thing but do another. Conservative Republicans try to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, and our largest corporations exploit and kill foreign workers in overseas markets. We act as the policeman (dictator) for the world, and serve as the planet’s arms merchant. Our greed is unbounded. We claim to support democracy, but we lavish friendly dictatorships with foreign aid. We claim to support basic human rights as we engage in rendition and torture. We equate money with speech and worship corporations as though they were exalted people.
WE ARE NO EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW!
Jack, like George said, we (the government) are no example to follow.
TC, you and Jack are dead on. We can hardly criticize other nations regarding their human rights while Gitmo is not closed and those men are not tried by a US Court (not military court either). Most of them should be returned to their own countries. Trial by being Muslim is not a crime.
…And while Bush, Cheney and other are not in prison for war crimes.