Phoenix TV: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement on March 21 saying the US is imposing visa restrictions on Chinese officials for their involvement in human rights violations such as repressive acts against members of ethnic and religious minority groups, dissidents and others inside and outside of China’s borders, including within the US. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: The US statement, full of ideological bias and political lies, maligns and smears China and wantonly imposes restrictions on Chinese officials. It contravenes international law and basic norms governing international relations and grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs. We firmly reject it.

The Chinese people can tell better than anyone else how China’s human rights conditions are. The US is in no position to pass judgement. The Chinese government follows a people-centered human rights philosophy and implements the constitutional principle of respecting and protecting human rights. We take the rights to subsistence and development as the primary basic human rights, make coordinated efforts to promote all people’s economic, political, social, cultural and environmental rights, strive to uphold social equity and justice, and promote the well-rounded development of each individual. China has successfully blazed a trail of human rights development that is in keeping with the trend of the times and its national realities. Thanks to this, China’s human rights cause has made historic achievement and the 1.4 billion Chinese people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness and security in human rights protection has continually improved. As the international community can see, China’s human rights conditions have never been better.

The worst human rights violations in the world were committed by no other than the US. Throughout its history, the US slaughtered, expelled and assimilated Native Americans physically, geographically and culturally, committing systemic human rights abuses. These crimes are more than enough to constitute de facto genocide. The US conducted systemic ethnic cleansing against the American Indians over more than a century after the country was founded. The population of American Indians nosedived from 5 million at the end of the 15th century to 250,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. The US government also adopted cultural assimilation policies, leading to cultural genocide against the American Indians.

The tribulations of Native Americans are far from being the full story of the US’ poor human rights record. The US botched response to COVID-19 has led to the death of over 970,000 Americans, and the persistent and systemic racial discrimination is so deeply entrenched that people like George Floyd cannot breathe. The US aggression overseas violates human rights of people in other countries, inflicting untold sufferings. The US even flagrantly seized the $7 billion frozen assets of the Afghan central bank. By robbing the Afghan people of their life-saving money, it has aggravated the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Yet, such a country has been clamoring for pressure and sanctions on other countries in the name of “protecting human rights”. Such tricks are doomed to fail. 

We urge the US to earnestly reflect upon and rectify its numerous crimes. In the meantime, it should view China’s human rights situation in an objective and just manner, stop denigrating and suppressing the Chinese side and immediately revoke its so-called sanctions against Chinese officials. Otherwise, the Chinese side shall take reciprocal countermeasures in response.