China says it regrets US quitting UN Human Rights Council

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“China will continue, working with all sides, to make its contribution to the healthy development of human rights around the world via constructive dialogue and cooperation,” he added.

Asked about U.S. criticism of China’s rights record, Geng said the United States was ignoring the facts and that anyone who was without prejudice could see the enormous progress China had made on rights. The official publication of China’s top anti-graft watchdog said in a commentary on Wednesday the U.S. decision to leave the council “has put the American peoples’ boastful image of being a defender of human rights on the verge of collapse”.

The separation of immigrant families on the U.S.-Mexico border showed the hypocrisy of the United States and that it “cannot and should not” criticise other countries’ rights record, it said. Human rights have long been a source of tension between the world’s two largest economies, especially since 1989 when the United States imposed sanctions on China after a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

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China regularly rejects criticism of its human rights record and points to its success at lifting millions out of poverty.
But the ruling Communist Party brooks no political dissent and since President Xi Jinping took office, dozens of rights lawyers and activists have been arrested or jailed in a crackdown activist say is worse than any in decades.

Beijing also releases an annual report lambasting the United States for its rights problems, invariably citing racism, political standards and gun violence.