From watchdog to the watched: China’s 2025 Human R...

From watchdog to the watched: China’s 2025 Human Rights report exposes the US

Monica Cheru—Managing Editor

For decades, the United States has positioned itself as the world’s moral referee, releasing annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices since 1977. China has been a frequent target—Washington’s reports on Beijing highlight alleged mass detentions in Xinjiang, restrictions in Hong Kong, censorship, and crackdowns on dissent.

But Beijing has now institutionalized its own counter-narrative. Since 1998, China has responded with annual reports on human rights in the U.S., which have grown in scope and sophistication. The latest edition, covering 2024, reads like a mirror image of Washington’s critiques—only this time, it is the United States under the very brutal spotlight it developed and perfected over the years.

2024 U.S. Human Rights Abuse Highlights

Failing is poor:40 million Americans in poverty; 771,800 homeless—an 18% rise in a single year.
Entrenching inequality: The top 10% of households hold 67% of wealth; the bottom 50% own only 2.5%.
Racial injustice: African Americans are three times more likely to be shot by police; Native Americans have a 17-year shorter life expectancy in some states.
Gun violence epidemic: Over 40,000 deaths in 2024, including 503 mass shootings.
Immigrant tragedies: Border deaths surged, with Texas’s El Paso sector recording 168 fatalities in 2024, up from 72 two years earlier.
Foreign policy hypocrisy: unwavering support for Israel despite UN warnings of “plausible genocide” in Gaza and sweeping sanctions hurting low-income countries.

Get the full report here:

https://news.cgtn.com/news/files/Full-text-The-Report-on-Human-Rights-Violations-in-the-United-States-in-2024.pdf

Revenge or Reality?

What makes the report compelling is that it cites American and international data sources—from the New York Times, Pew Research, and Brennan Center for Justice to UN experts and U.S. government agencies. This gives the figures undeniable credibility.

But it would be naïve to take the report as neutral monitoring. It is a strategic mirror, designed to flip Washington’s human rights discourse back at itself. Just as the U.S. has long highlighted abuses in China, Beijing is saying, “Look who’s talking.”

This means the human rights narrative is not really a tool of global accountability but rather a weapon in geopolitical maneuvers.

Both Washington and Beijing use human rights discourse as leverage. U.S. reports highlight authoritarianism and suppression abroad, while China stresses inequality, racial violence, and foreign policy abuses in America.

Neither side tells the full story, but together, they expose a global irony that while human rights are universal, their defense has become a highly selective weapon.

Meta Description: China’s 2025 human rights report delivers a “revenge watchdog” blow to the United States, exposing poverty, racism, gun violence, and foreign policy hypocrisy—mirroring decades of U.S. reports on China.