The Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

“ Homelessness is a serious problem. The USA Today reported that a snapshot tally conducted in June 2005 found 727,304 homeless people nationwide, meaning about one in 400 Americans were without a home (National Count of Homeless Puts Issue In Human Terms, USA Today, Oct. 12 2005) . According to a survey by the United States Conference of Mayors in 24 cities including Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, requests for emergency shelter in 2005 increased in the survey cities by an average of 6 percent from a year earlier, with 71 percent of the cities registering an increase. ”

“ Per capita medical expenses in the United States are higher than in any other countries, however, the crisis of health insurance for workers is quite prominent. Statistics show that in 2004, the overall costs of health care increased 8.2 percent over 2003, but 45.8 million people or 15.7 percent of the total population were out of health insurance coverage, an increase of 800,000 people from the previous year. New York City alone had nearly two million residents without health insurance, with two thirds of them on payrolls. Each year 18,000 Americans die due to lack of medical treatment. ”

“ To respect for and protect human rights is a necessity and indicator of human civilization, and to promote human rights is the common responsibility of all countries and a major theme of international cooperation. No country in the world can claim to have a perfect state of human rights, nor can any country stay outside the course of human rights development. ”

“ Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter described the prisoner abuse by the U.S. military in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo as "embarrassing," and going against the rudimentary American commitment to peace, social justice, civil liberties and human rights.
The facts listed above show a poor human rights record of the United States, which forms not only a sharp contrast with its image of a self-claimed "advocate of human rights," but also disaccord with its level of economic and social development and international status. ”

“ The rates of colored people without health insurance are higher than that of whites. The uninsured rate was 19.7 percent for blacks and 32.7 percent for Hispanics, that is to say nearly one of every three Hispanics in America had no health insurance. The black life expectancy was six years less than that of whites, and the mortality for black infants aging below one year doubled that for such white infants. ”

“ U.S. women often fall victim to domestic violence. Statistics from American Institute on Domestic Violence showed each year in the United States 5.3 million women are abused, and 1,232 women are killed by an intimate partner. A news report said one out of every three American women would fall under the influence of domestic violence in her life.
American women face high risks of sexual offense. The FBI reported in October 2005 that during 2004, approximately 94,635 females nationwide were victims of forcible rape, which means that 63.5 out of every 100,000 women suffered from forcible rape. ”

“ The United States is the richest in the world, but its poverty rate is also the highest among the developed countries. In the United States, problems such as poverty, hunger and homelessness are quite serious, and the economic, social and cultural rights of working people are not guaranteed. ”

“ The United States is a multi-ethnic nation of immigrants, with minority ethnic groups accounting for more than one-fourth of its population. But racial discrimination has long been a chronic malady of American society.Black Americans and other ethnic minorities are at the bottom of American society and their living standards are much lower than that of whites. ”

“ In 2004, the poverty rate was 24.7 percent for African Americans, 21.9 percent for Hispanics, and 8.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites. In New Orleans, 100,000 of its 500,000 population live in poverty, with the majority of them being black Americans. The homeownership rate for blacks is 48.1 percent compared with 75.4 percent for whites. The Washington Post reported on April 11, 2005 that in 2004, about 29 percent of African Americans who bought or refinanced homes ended up with high-cost loans, compared with only about 10 percent of white Americans. ”

“ According to the Washington Post, 76.3 out of every 200,000 blacks were found infected with HIV/AIDS, eight times higher than whites. Blacks account for more than half of all new HIV/AIDS infections in America and black women account for an astonishing 72 percent of all new cases among women. More than 80,000 American blacks die annually due to lack of health insurance, with the death rate of middle-aged black males twice that of the same white group. ”

“ The U.S. government should stop provoking international confrontation on the issue of human rights, and make a fresh start to contribute more to international human rights cooperation and to the healthy development of international human rights cause. ”

“ One third of children in the United States were born out of wedlock, and half of the children live in single-parent families. At present, four million U.S. children live with jobless parents, facing such problems as domestic violence, melancholia, and drug and alcoholic addiction.
American juveniles often fall victim to violent crimes. More and more students go to school with knives or other weapons. In 2005, the number of students found with knives and other weapons in Maryland schools was 2,845, a jump of 63 percent over the past five years. ”

“ Among the population aged under 18, those who lived in poverty accounted for 30 percent of the total in Washington D.C., 27 percent in Mississippi and Louisiana, 26 percent in New Mexico, and 24 percent in West Virginia. In New Orleans, 40 percent of children in urban areas lived in poverty.
American children's health has seen a decline, and death rates of infants and juveniles are increasing. Nationally, 29 percent of children had no health insurance at some point in the last 12 months, and many got neither checkups nor vaccinations. ”

“ Clark's was one of the longest incarcerations served by the 164 people who have been exonerated by DNA testing. (After 24 Years in Prison, Man Has a Reason to Smile, the New York Times, Dec. 8, 2005) . On the night of Dec. 21, 2005, the CNN Larry King Live program interviewed four convicted felons that have recently been proven innocent by DNA evidence after having stayed more than 10 years behind bars. Well-known Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos said during the program that he had seen studies that there are up to 20 percent of wrongful convictions in the United States. ”

“ Yet it has issued annual reports making unwarranted charges on human rights practices of other countries, an act that fully exposes its hypocrisy and double standard on human rights issues, which has naturally met with strong resistance and opposition from other countries. We urge the U.S. government to look squarely at its own human rights problems, reflect what it has done in the human rights field and take concrete measures to improve its own human rights status. ”

“ Blacks had the lowest median household income of 31,905 dollars, compared with whites at 53,978 dollars. Although just 10 percent of the population, blacks were estimated to make up 30 percent or more of the homeless.
Minorities face discrimination in employment and occupation. According to a report of the U.S. Department of Labor, in November 2005 the black unemployment rate was 10.6 percent, compared with the white unemployment rate at 4.3 percent. Black male earnings were 70 percent of white males, and black females earnings, 83 percent of their white counterparts. ”

“ In 2004, 2.1 billion U.S. dollars was spent on lobbying the federal government and the Congress, and 3 billion U.S. dollars for elections of the President and members of Congress in the United States. The USA Today revealed that since 2000, 5,410 trips of Congress members were financed by undisclosed sources and Congress members have taken 16 million U.S. dollars in privately financed trips. It's a "revolving door" for lobbyists to turn into politicians and retired politicians from government service to engage in influence peddling in the private sector. ”

“ A joint Gallup Poll by the USA Today and CNN found job approval for Congress, which has a Republican majority, has fallen to 29 percent, the lowest level since 1994; 49 percent American adults say they believe "most members of Congress are corrupt." Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark said it is an offense to democracy to describe the United States as a democracy. ”

“ It was reported that since 1998 more than 2,200 former U.S. government employees have become lobbyists; among them are 273 former White House staff members and 250 former Congress members and department heads from the Executive branch.
On Oct. 24, 2005, a national public opinion survey released by the U.S. News and World Report revealed that 73 percent Americans believe their leaders are out of touch with the average person; 64 percent of Americans feel that their leaders are corrupted by power; 62 percent think that leaders seek for increase in personal wealth. ”

“ It is known to all that in the United States, various firms and interest groups hire public relations and consulting companies to lobby the Congress and the Administration, spending money to influence their decisions and win government contracts. ”

“ At a press conference, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louis Arbour sharply criticized the United States for infringing human rights by setting up secret prisons and transferring terrorism suspects without going through legal procedures under the pretext of fighting terrorism, noting that such acts were eroding the global ban on torture. ”

“ In America, black criminals tend to get heavier penalties than their white counterparts. According to the State of Black America 2005 issued by the National Urban League, blacks who are arrested are three times more likely to be imprisoned than whites once arrested, blacks are sentenced to death four times more often than whites, and a black person's average jail sentence is six months longer than a white's for the same crime. ”

“ The United States flaunts its press freedom but scandals about the U.S. government blocking and manipulating information came out continually. The New York Times reported on March 13, 2005 that the United States is in "a new age of prepackaged TV news." ”

“ Although blacks are just 12.2 percent of the American population, 41 percent of American prisoners detained for more than one year are blacks, and 8.4 percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29 are behind bars. ”

“ The Washington Post reported on Dec. 25, 2005 that every year nearly 12,000 Americans use guns to kill people. In the reports of crimes received by American police in 2004, 70 percent of the murders, 41 percent of the robberies and 19 percent of assaults on persons were committed with firearms. ”

“ A survey released by Kaiser Family Foundation in September 2005 found that only 60 percent of employers offered health insurance coverage, down from 69 percent five years earlier. In 2005 the average annual premium for family coverage hit 10,880 dollars. In coming years rising health care costs will price more and more people out of coverage. ”

“ Poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women. In 2004, 28.4 percent of households headed by single women were in poverty. More and more women and children became homeless. In the city of Pasadena, Southern California, the number of homeless women and children reached 701 in 2005, increasing by 42.7 percent over 2003 and accounting for 57.6 percent of the homeless population in the city. Homeless women and children became the largest homeless population, surpassing that of single men for the first time. ”

“ According to a FBI report issued in October 2005, of the 9,528 victims of hate crimes in 2004, 53.8 percent were victims of racial prejudice, and 67.9 percent were blacks. Among the hate crime offenders, 60.6 percent were whites. According to statistics, blacks are twenty times more likely than whites to be a victim of hate crimes. In Los Angeles, 56 percent of hate crimes were targeted at blacks.
VI On Rights of Women and Children
The United States does not have a good record in safeguarding the rights of women and children. ”

“ The Los Angeles Times reported on June 16, 2005 that Los Angeles County has become "the homeless capital of America," with the average number of vagabonds or people in shelters hitting 90,000 a day, including 35,000 people chronically homeless. ”

“ The federal system was 40 percent over capacity. (The Nation's Prison Population Continues Its Slow Growth, U.S. Department of Justice, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs) As the government cut back on expenditure of prisons, some state prison systems reduced input on medical care for prisoners. As a result, a large number of prisoners were infected with tuberculosis or hepatitis. In April 2005, a 44-year-old male inmate died in a prison of New York for lack of timely treatment. In recent years, hundreds of inmates suffered head injuries from maltreatment in New York City alone. ”

“ This means that anyone involved in the commission of a serious crime during which someone is killed is also guilty of murder, even if he or she did not personally or directly cause the death. About 9,700 inmates were serving life sentences for crimes they committed before they turned 18. ”

“ The unchecked spread of guns has caused incessant murders. In February 2005, mother and husband of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow were shot to death at home in Chicago.
In March, a rape suspect killed one judge and two others at a courthouse in Fulton County in Atlanta and hijacked four cars to escape. ”