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The United States ranks first in the world in terms of military spending
and arms export. Its military expenditure accounts for nearly 40 percent
of the world total, more than the combined military expenditure of the
nine countries ranking next to it. Its arms exports account for 36 percent
of the world total. US defense budget for the 2003 fiscal year announced
by the US Defense Department on February 4, 2002 totaled 379 billion US
dollars, up 48 billion US dollars, or 15 percent, over the previous year
and representing the highest growth rate in the past two decades.
The United States ranks first in the world in wantonly infringing upon
the sovereignty of, and human rights in, other countries. Since the 1990s,
the United States has used force overseas on more than 40 occasions. On
April 1, 2001, a US military reconnaissance plane flew above waters off
China's coast in violation of flight rules, causing the crash of a Chinese
aircraft and the death of its pilot. It presumptuously entered China's
territorial airspace without permission from the Chinese side and landed
on a Chinese military airfield, seriously encroaching upon China's sovereignty
and human rights. After the incident, the United States made all sorts
of excuses to defend itself, refusing to make a public apology for the
serious consequences of its intruding aircraft and trying to shirk its
responsibilities. This aroused great indignation and strong protests from
the Chinese people.
The United States has built many military bases all over the world, where
it has stationed hundreds of thousands of troops, violating human rights
everywhere in the world. Before the September 11 incident, the United
States had stationed its troops in more than 140 countries. Today, the
United States has expanded its so-called security interests to almost
every corner of the world. In recent years, US troops stationed in Japan
have frequently committed crimes. In 1995, three American soldiers raped
a Japanese schoolgirl in Okinawa, sparking massive protests by the Japanese
people and arousing the alert of world public opinion. In fact, scandals
like this happen almost every year. On January 11, 2001, an American soldier
was arrested for molesting a local schoolgirl in Okinawa. On January 19,
the Okinawa parliament adopted a resolution of protest against frequent
criminal activities by American soldiers, calling for reduction of US
troops in Japan. However, in an e-mail message to his subordinates, the
US commander in Okinawa insulted the Okinawa magistrate and parliament.
On June 29, another soldier of the US air force sexually assaulted a Japanese
girl in Kyatan of Okinawa.
The NATO headed by the United States dropped a large number of depleted
uranium bombs during the Kosovo war, subjecting peace- keeping soldiers
as well as the local people to serious danger. The US side claimed that
one of the reasons for the withdrawal of US troops from Kosovo is that
"it would not let radiation hurt our boys." Latest reports say
that the United States knew the dangers of depleted uranium bombs and
where they were dropped, and that, when dividing up peacekeeping zones,
it allocated the most seriously contaminated areas to allied forces. After
the US army entered Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, it gave a boost to
the sex industry in the two places. Over the past year, Bosnia-Herzegovina
uncovered dozens of women trafficking cases, many of which were associated
with the US army. Most of the US soldiers were involved in prostitution
and some of them were even involved in selling women. In September 2000,
the US Army published a report of more than 600 pages, detailing all kinds
of bad behaviors committed by the No.82 air-borne division of its First
Army during their peace-keeping mission in Kosovo, admitting that the
general atmosphere of the US army in Kosovo is very inhumane.
Available data indicate that in the Gulf War the United States dropped
more than 940,000 depleted uranium bombs with a total weight of 320 tons
onto Iraqi land, causing serious destruction to the environment of Iraq
and the health of its people. The Ministry of Health of Iraq pointed out
in a report that the number of cancer patients in Iraq increased dramatically
after the Gulf War, from 6,555 in 1989 and 4,341 in 1991 to 10,931 in
1997. In the ten years since the end of the Gulf War, the incidence rate
of leukemia, malicious tumors and other difficult and complicated cases
in areas hit by depleted uranium bombs in southern Iraq was 3.6 times
higher than the national average and the proportion of women with miscarriage
was ten times as high as in the past. On February 22, 2002, Emad Sa'doon,
a medical expert with Basra University in southern Iraq, disclosed to
the media that after many years of research the medical group led by him
found that in the 1989-1999 period, the number of patients with blood
cancer doubled and the number of women with breast cancer increased 102
percent.
The United States always flaunts the banner of "freedom of the press".
Yet according to an Agence France-Presse report on February 21, 2002,
the annual report of International Journalism Institute published on the
same day pointed out that the way in which the US government dealt with
the media during the Afghan War and its attempt at suppressing freedom
of speech by independent media were "the most amazing in 2001."
In the United States, close to 100 companies manufacture and export considerable
quantities of instruments of torture that are banned in international
trade. They have set up sales networks overseas. In its February 26, 2001
report, Amnesty International said some 80 American companies were involved
in the manufacture, marketing and export of instruments of torture, including
electric- shock tools, shackles and handcuffs with saw-teeth. Many instruments
of torture and police tools are high-tech products, which can cause serious
harms to the human body. For instance, handcuffs,which would tear apart
the flesh of the tortured if the victim slightly exerts himself, are very
cruel, and so is a high- pressure rope for tying up a person. Although
categorically prohibited by US law, the Commerce Department of the United
States has given official export licenses for exporting such tools. According
to statistics, American companies have secured export licenses and sold
tools of torture overseas valued at 97 million U. S. dollars since 1997
under the category of "crime control equipment." It is inconceivable
that, while the US State Department is talking about human rights, the
US Department of Commerce has given export licenses for products determined
as instruments of torture in statutes of the US government, said Dr. William
Schulz, who conducted the investigation.
The United States has also conducted irradiation experiments with the
dead bodies of babies from overseas. The Daily Telegraph and the Observer
of the United Kingdom disclosed in June of 2001 that the United States
has recently declassified some top-secret documents, which indicate that
in the 1950s the United States carried out what was called "Project
Sunshine" experiments. For these experiments, about 6,000 dead babies
were obtained from overseas and cremated without permission of their parents.
The ashes were sent to laboratories for irradiation studies.
The US government has until this day refused to sign the Basel Convention,
which restricts the transfer of waste materials. It often transfers dangerous
waste materials by different methods to developing countries, damaging
the health of the people of other countries. The Associated Press reported
on February 25, 2002 that, according to an estimate by environmental protection
organizations, as much as 50 percent to 80 percent of the electronic wastes
collected by the United States in the name of recycling have been shipped
to a number of countries in Asia for waste treatment, causing serious
environmental and health problems to the local people.
The United States has announced its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol,
refusing to bear the responsibilities of improving the environment for
human survival and bringing about negative impacts on environmental protection
efforts in the world.
The Third UN Conference Against Racism held in Durban of South African
in September 2001 was an important gathering in the area of international
human rights at the beginning of the new century. It attracted representatives
from more than 190 countries, which reflected the burning desire of the
international community to eliminate hatred accumulated over time and
eradicate the remnants of racism through dialogue and cooperation. The
United States, however, turned a deaf ear to the voices of the international
community. Ignoring its international obligations, it asserted openly
to boycott the conference before it was opened. Although the United States
sent a low-level delegation to the conference as a result of prompting
and persuasion by the United Nations, it took the lead in opposing discussing
slave trade and colonial compensation, expressed opposition to putting
Zionism on a par with racism, and walked out of the conference midway.
Behaviors of the United States at the conference revealed its hypocrisy
when it professes itself as "a world judge of human rights"
and show how arrogant and isolated the hegemonic acts of the US government
are.
For many years, the US government has year after year published reports
on human rights conditions in other countries in disregard of the opposition
of many countries in the world, cooking up charges, twisting facts and
censoring all countries except itself. It also publishes a report every
year to make a so-called appraisal of anti-drug trafficking campaigns
of 24 countries including all Latin American countries. The United States
deals with any country it deems "inefficient in cracking down on
drug trafficking" with condemnation, sanctions, interference in the
latter's internal affairs, or outright invasion.
In 2001, without support from the majority of member countries, the United
States was voted out of the United Nations Human Rights Commission and
the International Narcotics Committee. This shows, from one aspect, that
it is extremely unpopular for the United States to push double standards
and unilateralism on such issues as human rights, crackdowns on drug trafficking,
arms control and environmental protection. We urge the United States to
change its ways, give up its hegemonic practice of creating confrontation
and interfering in the internal affairs of others by exploiting the human
rights issue, go with the tide of the times characterized by cooperation
and dialogue in the area of human rights, and do more useful things for
the progress and development of the human society.
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