WASHINGTON — China, the host of the Summer Olympics, is an authoritarian nation that denies its people basic human rights and freedoms, harasses journalists and foreign-aid workers, and tortures prisoners, the U.S. charged Tuesday.
China is still among the world’s human-rights abusers despite rapid economic growth that has transformed large parts of Chinese society, the State Department said in an annual accounting of human-rights practices around the world.
The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The country-by-country report is compiled separately from U.S. diplomatic efforts and presented to Congress. It also notes further backsliding in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia last year and ticks off a string of undemocratic moves taken by close U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.
Political adversaries Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe and Syria were all listed as human-rights abusers. Sudan’s record was called “horrific.” North Korea is called an absolute dictatorship with repressive policies that control the most basic aspects of daily life.
