The 57th session of the commission cleared a "no-action motion" tabled by China by a vote of 23 in favor, 17 against and 12 abstentions.

This represented the 10th victory China has achieved over the United States since 1990, which has tried repeatedly in vain to force a draft resolution on China's human rights situation through the annual human rights commission session. And it was thus the 10th failure for the United States.

One of the questions asked by many is why each failed attempt had not stopped the making of a fresh one. The answer has to do with the US foreign policy.

Many countries, especially developing ones, have pointed out that the so-called human rights issue has long been used by the United States as a tool for pursuing power politics and hegemonism.

China is not the only country whose human rights situation is distorted and bad-mouthed by the United States. More than 100 countries and regions are mentioned in the annual human rights report issued by the US Department of State.

The US anti-China efforts obviously stem from the fact that Washington does not want to see a China building socialism with Chinese characteristics and enjoying political stability and rapid economic development.

Therefore, although China is enjoying the best human rights situation in history, the United States has tried its utmost to hawk the allegation that "China's human rights situation is deteriorating," in a bid to distort China's image and create trouble for China.

Another question coming to people's mind is why the US anti-China move ended up in failure each time. The answer lies in the questionable intention of the US concern for others' human rights and in the United States' own human rights record.

While trumpeting human rights, the United States has been pushing for the continuation of an already 10-year-old economic embargo against Iraq, turning a blind eye to thousands of children who have died or are facing death for lack of food and medicine.

It also dropped depleted uranium bombs, which are extremely harmful to both humans and the environment, in Iraq and Yugoslavia.

Washington, a self-claimed "human rights defender," even criticized China for banning the notorious evil cult "Falun Gong," which has caused the death of many a practitioner.

It can thus be seen clearly that under the pretext of safeguarding human rights, the United States has been trying to force its own views on others and interfere in the internal affairs of those countries which it regards as obstacles to its realization of worldwide hegemony, said a number of delegates from developing countries at the current human rights session.

It is well known that the United States has been faced with serious human rights problems at home such as gender and racial discrimination, police violence and money politics.

Meanwhile, Washington has adopted a negative attitude toward international human rights conventions: It has refused to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Children and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, for example. Among Western countries, only the United States voted against the Declaration on the Right to Development.

More and more countries have expressed their opposition to the way in which the Americans have behaved at the UN human rights commission sessions. And this explains why Washington has failed in making other countries sponsor anti-China resolutions in Geneva since 1999.

Diplomats from developing countries noted that what the United States is attempting to do at the human rights session bespeaks its pursuit of the Cold War mentality and power politics and such efforts are doomed to failure.

(Xinhua 04/19/2001)