The 2016 United States Presidential poll was a “farce” as it was fought with lies exposing the hypocritical nature of the democracy in America where racial discrimination is “worsening”, a Chinese report on America’s human rights record said on Friday.
In a tit-for-tat report on the U.S. which every year releases human rights record of China and other countries, a Chinese official report said money politics and power-for-money deals had controlled the presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Voter turnout and support rate reached new low, the report, ‘The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2016’ released here said. Only about 55 per cent of voting age citizens cast ballots in the 2016 election, lowest in 20 years, the report said, adding that a growing number of Americans were disappointed or even angry about the election. It was the most expensive election ever and Americans running for federal offices spent about $6.8 billion, more than what consumers spend on cereal, it said.
“Judge of rights, what?”
The U.S. poses once again as “the judge of human rights,” the report said. “Wielding ‘the baton of human rights,’ it pointed fingers and cast the blame on the human rights situation in many countries while paying no attention to its own terrible human rights problems.
“With the gunshots lingering in people’s ears behind the Statue of Liberty, worsening racial discrimination and the election farce dominated by money politics, the self-proclaimed human rights defender has exposed its human rights ’myth’ with its own deeds,” it said.
“In 2016, money politics and power-for-money deals controlled the presidential election, which was full of lies and farces. There were no guarantees of political rights,” the report said.
Shooting of African-Americans
Racial relations in the U.S. continued to deteriorate in 2016, the report said, adding that there were repeated incidents of African-Americans being shot by white police.
Racial discrimination heavily influenced law enforcement and justice fields and there were systematic gaps between minority races and white people in employment and income, the report said.
A total of 69 per cent of respondents in a poll said race relations in the U.S. were generally bad. Six in 10 Americans said race relations were growing worse, up from 38 per cent a year ago, it said.
Second highest prisoner rate
The U.S. had the second highest prisoner rate, with 693 prisoners per 1,00,000 of the national population, the report said.
“Roughly, 2.2 million people were incarcerated in the U.S. in 2014,” it said citing data from a marketing research body.
The situation of protection of rights of women, children and elders in the U.S. was worrisome in 2016 as women were paid much less compared to their male colleagues who do the same work, and they frequently fell victims to sexual harassment and assault.
Poverty rate among children remained high and cases of abuse of elder people happened from time to time, it added.
