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Human Rights Violations: America Versus China

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Human Rights Violations: America Versus China
Human Rights Violations: America versus China
Submitted By: James Allan

Every year, the American government publishes its report on China’s human-rights record as part of the United States ' Country Reports on Human Rights Practices— prompting a Chinese response in its own critique of U.S Human rights, informally known as the China Human Rights Report.(Chan Lecture Human Rights April 8) Both countries, as might be expected, find plenty wrong with each other. However, this ping-pong-like war of words cannot hide the fact that both countries based on their sheer size(population and geographical area) and strength have arguably been the two greatest violators of human rights in the world in the past twenty-five years. With that, This essay will argue that the People’s Republic of China, due in part to ensuring the continuing survival of the ruling party regime has been a greater violator of human rights within its own borders due to restrictions on the freedom of press, religion, speech and other domestic human rights violations. However, this essay will also make an additional argument that the United States, particularly after the September 11th attacks has through its military aggression, the ‘war on terror’ campaign and the appalling treatment of enemy combatants and citizens been a greater violator of human rights on an international scale.
Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, the People’s Republic of China (will henceforth simply be known as China) has undergone a profound cultural, economic and social transformation. Since China’s official transformation from the Maoist planned economy to the socialist market economy. Over 150 million people have been lifted out of poverty due to China’s burgeoning economy and the quality of life has been improved for hundreds of millions more.(Chan Lecture April 8) However, this growth has come at the expense of an innumerable amount of gross human rights violations committed by the Chinese Communist Party,



Cited: List "China Annual Report 2011." Amnesty International. (2011): n. page. Print. <http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/china/report-2011>. Chan, Alfred. "China’s Foreign Policy, China’s Minorities, China’s Human Rights" Chinese Government and Politics 2280E. Huron University College, London, Ontario.March 18, 20 & April 8, 10. Lectures. Dreyer, June. China 's Political System: Modernization and Tradition. 7th. Miami: Pearson Education, 2010. Eddlem, Thomas. "Military Commissions throughout U.S. History." The New American 27.19 (2011): 35. Print. Nye, Joseph. "Soft Power." Leadership Excellence 26.9 (2009): 9-. ABI/INFORM Global. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. Sanders, Rebecca. "(Im)Plausible Legality: The Rationalisation of Human Rights Abuses in the American ‘Global War on Terror." The International Journal of Human Rights 15.4 (2011): 605-626. Print. Shirk, Susan. “China, Fragile Superpower” Oxford University Press, London U.K (2007) Waterboarding." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 25 May. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/waterboarding>. Wilson, Richard. Human Rights in the 'War on Terror '. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 143-157. Print.

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