China issues report on human rights violations in US

BEIJING - China on Friday issued a report on the human rights violations in the United States.

Titled "The Record of Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2019," the report said the facts detailed in the document show that "in recent years, especially since 2019, the human rights situation in the United States has been poor and deteriorating".

The report was released by the State Council Information Office based on published data, media reports and research findings.

Consisting of foreword and seven chapters, it detailed facts on human rights violations in the United States relevant to civil and political rights, social and economic rights, discrimination suffered by ethnic minorities, discrimination and violence against women, living conditions of vulnerable groups, and abuses suffered by migrants, as well as US violations of human rights in other countries.

US women face severe discrimination, violence

Women in the United States still face systematic, broad and institutional discrimination, with shocking overt and covert gender discrimination in various forms, the report said.

Women in the United States were 21 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than women in peer nations, it noted, adding that sexual assault cases against women kept increasing.

Wealth polarization in US hits 50-year high

The gap between rich and poor in the United States hit a 50-year high in 2018 as the Gini Index of the country grew to 0.485.

Citing various media reports and public records, the Record of Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2019 said the increasing consolidation of wealth in the hands of a few has gone beyond what many Americans deem to be justified or morally acceptable.

In 2018, the richest 10 percent held 70 percent of total household wealth. The bottom 50 percent saw essentially zero net gains in wealth over the past 30 years, driving their already meager share of total wealth down to just 1 percent from 4 percent, who are literally getting crushed by the weight of rising inequalities, according to the document.

The basic trend of widening income gap in the United States is casting negative influences on the enjoyment and realization of human rights, said the report.

The main reason for this trend is structural, which is determined by the political system of the United States and the capital interests, adding that the US government not only lacks the political will to eliminate these structural causes, but also continuously introduces policies and measures to strengthen them.

In the United States, "the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power," said the report, citing Philip G. Alston, United Nation special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

While some 39.7 million people living in poverty in 2018, the US Congress has refused to raise the federal minimum wage of 7.25 US dollars per hour for a decade.

In the meantime, the health gap between the United States and countries with the same level of development continues to widen, as 13.7 percent of US adults were uninsured at the end of 2018, up from 10.9 percent at the end of 2016, said the report.