China calls out US hypocrisy

China lashed out against U.S. criticism of its human rights record, saying racial discrimination and crime were still rife in the United States and prisoners were being abused at U.S.-run detention centers abroad.

The response came one day after the State Department said the Chinese government's human rights record "remained poor, and the government continued to commit numerous and serious abuses." The State Department study, published each year since 1977, offers a comprehensive analysis of all countries in the world except the United States.

It is "an act that fully exposes its hypocrisy and double standard on human rights issues," said a Chinese report on human rights violations committed in the US, which drew mostly from stories and statistics in the American press.

The Chinese report included:

• private gun ownership in America, saying the "unchecked spread of guns has caused incessant murders."

• secret wire taps and surveillance on American citizens under the Patriot Act.

• the poverty rate and the problem of homelessness.

"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."