The US has issued its annual human rights report, "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy." The range of reactions are predictable. CNN calls their article "U.S. issues delayed human rights report", and begins with:
The second annual report was to have been released earlier this month, but it was delayed in part because State Department officials believed it would not be taken seriously amid stories of abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Not be taken seriously
becomes more evident if we look at foreign news reports. The Sydney Morning Herald is straightforward: "Prison scandal blunts human rights report". The Chinese press sends two messages: one in English, another in Chinese. China View, the English wing of the Xinhua news service, chooses to be more circumspect by summarizing an article in the British Telegraph that cites a 'cloud' of POW abuses
discrediting the report.
The more fun--albeit predictable--reaction is in the Chinese-language press. The headline of the Xinhuanet website today is 美国人权报告是史无前例伪善
, "American Human Rights Report Is a Historically Unprecedented Example of Hipocrisy". I'll quote the front-page blurb:
驻伊美军残酷虐待伊拉克战俘的野蛮情景还历历在目。5月17日，美国国务院发表了人权报告。主要内容是吹嘘美国如何在全球100多个国家和地区“帮助推动民主和人权”。这份报告发表的时机和引起的反响耐人寻味。
The barbarous circumstances of cruel mistreatment of POWs by American soldiers in Iraq is still being layed out for the eyes of the world. On May 17th, the US State Department issued a Human Rights Report, the main thrust of which is to boast about how the United States has "helped to promote democracy and human rights" in over 100 countries across the globe. The timing of and motivation behind this report should be carefully considered.
Historically, human rights has been a sticking point between China and the United States, especially in issues of trade. Before the granting of permanent favored-nation status on China by the Clinton Congress, Chinese abuses of human were a topic of discussion in Washington each year. The Bush administration has been surprisingly lenient and pragmatic towards China in this respect, likely because it is more pro-free-trade than anti-human-rights-abuses.
--And because it's obviously not getting enough press in the US media, Xinhuanet brings us coverage of the 2004 Miss Universe pageant. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer also has a nice photo album.
--John at Sinosplice has an interesting post on his Chinese blog about an alternate form of the character 考
.