Stop making farce in pretext of 'human rights'

The British government has indulged itself in political farce again by making biased and irresponsible remarks to blemish China's human rights record.

In its latest annual report on human rights, it, disregarding its own flawed human rights record, listed China as one of 28 "countries of concern".

The report "selectively ignored" real and continuous human rights progress made in China, which is obvious to any person without prejudice.

As a developing country, China has been improving its human rights situation, including improving people's livelihood, eliminating poverty, upholding the rule of law, and investment in cultural and economic projects in ethnically-inhabited areas, among others.

Chinese people of various ethnic groups enjoy fundamental rights conferred by the Constitution according to law and the level of their enjoyment has increased significantly.

In the past year, Chinese authorities moved to ensure justice and transparency by introducing measures to correct and prevent wrong verdicts and making judgment documents and court proceedings accessible online.

New rules for better management of petitions were also released to prohibit putting petitioners under any form of confinement.

Promoting the protection of human rights for Chinese people and allowing every citizen to live with dignity is a core target of China's reform and opening-up efforts.

Most of the countries listed in the report are developing countries.

Why doesn't the report highlight some Western countries, including Britain itself, that have also violated human rights?

The British government simply turned the report into an ideological political show.

Instead of squandering efforts and taxpayers' money on pointing fingers at other countries, the British government should sweep its own doorstep instead.

Acting as a world human rights defender, Britain itself has had its problems.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with Britain as a major player in the U.S.-led military operations, have caused massive civilian casualties.

Britain's remote drone operations in Afghanistan spurred anti-war protests at home. Protestors demanded an end to remote killing before even more innocent civilians were slaughtered as the British Royal Air Force started to remotely operate drones flying in Afghanistan from British soil.

The UK phone-hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch's News International, which has dominated media coverage worldwide, also cast doubt over the "freedom of the press" upheld by Western media organizations and raised concerns about privacy rights in the country.

Differences still exist among nations on human rights issues due to different levels of cultural and economic development and China stands for narrowing them through dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and equality.

China is ready to discuss human rights issues with Britain, and they have established mechanisms for dialogue to exchange ideas and settle differences.

A human rights dialogue between China and Britain scheduled this week has been called off because of Britain's latest human rights report, which has made irresponsible comments about China's political system and blemished the country's human rights record.

Instead of helping to create a passage to see and feel a real China, Britain, however, has built a wall that stands in China's way to the world and closed the door for dialogue by taking human rights issues as a pretext for interfering in China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty.

It is advisable for Britain to refrain from making wrong accusations against China on human rights and create conditions for future human rights dialogue.