Interview: U.S. weaponizes human rights, fabricates "forced labor" lies to smear China: pundit-Xinhua

Interview: U.S. weaponizes human rights, fabricates "forced labor" lies to smear China: pundit

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2022-07-02 19:39:00

by Xinhua writers Sun Ding, Hu Yousong

WASHINGTON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- "In my opinion, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is nothing but a political ploy designed to bash China," an American pundit has said.

"At the end of the day, this is not about human rights, of course. Rather, it is about the U.S. government's seemingly endless attempt to vilify and undermine the reputation of China," Daniel Kovalik, an American lawyer who teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, told Xinhua in recent interviews.

Based on the so-called act, which entered into effect in late June, U.S. Customs and Border Protection bans imports of all products related to China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"If the U.S. really wanted to deal with forced labor, it could start at home by dealing with the rampant forced labor in the U.S. in the form of forced prison labor," Kovalik said, adding that this Act will likely have a negative impact on some U.S. companies.

The United States uses the human rights issue as a "bludgeon" against what it sees as a target while choosing not to wield it when it comes to its allies and partners, said Kovalik. It has nothing to do with human rights, he said, adding that "it's about U.S. economic and strategic interests."

The expert also underscored it is even more hypocritical of the United States to talk about the human rights issue given its own record.

The United States, he said, invaded other countries "over and over again" unilaterally -- which has led to humanitarian tragedies and disasters in many parts of the world -- while it has failed to improve the livelihood and conditions of its own poor and vulnerable groups.

"We have homelessness. We have people who are hungry. We have the most prisoners of any country in the world by absolute number and by proportion of the population," he explained. "We have no right to be criticizing anyone else's human rights."

"They don't care about China's human rights," he said. "They care about the fact that China is now an ascending economic power in the world and diplomatic power. And they try to use human rights to undermine China because it sees China as an economic competitor."

"I think China just needs to keep doing what it's doing -- moving forward, building roads, building trains, engaging in sustainable development, lifting people out of poverty," Kovalik said.

"Just keep doing what you're doing. The rest of the world sees what China is. The rest of the world respects China," Kovalik stressed. "The propaganda of the West will just fall under the weight of its own absurdity."