26 February,2009 04:44 PM IST | | PTI
China on Thursday rejected the US criticism of its human right records particularly in Tibet, saying it was opposed to any attempt by Washington to interfere in country's internal affairs.
The State Department report, presented in the US Congress yesterday, turned a blind eye to the efforts and historic achievements China has made in human rights, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"It wilfully ignored and distorted basic facts, groundlessly assailing China's human rights conditions and making random and irresponsible remarks on China's ethnic, religious and legal systems," the agency said.
"The US State Department has issued a report almost every year since 1977 on the human rights conditions of other countries, using it as an excuse to interfere with others internal affairs," it added.
The report accused China of stepping up cultural and religious repression of minorities in Tibet and elsewhere, and increasing the detention and harassment of dissidents.
It also pointed its fingers at the human rights conditions in some other countries such as Russia, Pakistan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Cuba, Iran, Somalia and Zimbabwe.
The report comes just three days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Beijing on her first visit to China.
