The Record of Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2019

State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China

March 2020 

Foreword

 "We lied, we cheated, we stole ... It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a speech on April 15, 2019.

   The remarks of U.S. politicians have completely exposed their hypocrisy of adopting double standards on human rights issues and using them to maintain hegemony.

   The United States claims to be founded on human rights, touting itself as a world human rights defender. Following a framework of its own narrow understanding of human rights and using its core interests of pursuing global hegemony as a yardstick, the United States released annual reports on other countries' human rights every year by piecing together innuendoes and hearsay. These reports wantonly distorted and belittled human rights situation in countries and regions that did not conform to U.S. strategic interests, but turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the persistent, systematic and large-scale human rights violations in the United States.

   This report is based on a variety of published data, reports and research findings. The facts detailed in the report prove that in recent years, especially since 2019, the human rights situation in the United States has been poor and deteriorating.

   -- The United States is a country with the worst gun violence in the world. The number of mass killings in the United States hit a record high of 415 in 2019, with more than one happening for every day of the year. In total 39,052 people died from gun related violence in the United States in 2019. A person is killed with a gun in the United States every 15 minutes. “This seems to be the age of mass shootings,” commented USA Today.

   -- Elections have become money games for the rich. Spending in the 2018 elections for Congress topped 5.7 billion U.S. dollars, making the battle for control of the House and Senate the most expensive midterm ever. In 2018, the 10 largest individual donors funneled more than 436 million U.S. dollars to Super PACs (political action committees) in the midterm elections. The race to raise money for the 2020 presidential election is heating up. Candidates have raised more than 1.08 billion U.S. dollars for the election.

   -- The United States has the most serious polarization between the rich and poor among developed countries. The Gini Index grew to 0.485 in 2018, the highest level in 50 years. The wealthiest 10 percent of U.S. households control nearly 75 percent of household net worth. The bottom 50 percent saw essentially zero net gains in wealth from 1989 to 2018.

   -- The United States is currently the only developed country where millions of people are hungry. There were 39.7 million people living in poverty in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released in 2018. On a single night in the previous year, more than half a million Americans lacked permanent shelter. There were 65 million adults who chose not to seek treatment for a medical issue because of the cost.

   -- Racial hate crimes in the United States have shocked the world. White supremacy in the United States has shown a resurgence trend. The majority of domestic terror related arrests were linked to white supremacist violence. A white man opened fire and killed 22 people at a Walmart superstore in El Paso, Texas. His motive was hatred toward Hispanics. "The United States has always been in the midst of a white nationalist terrorist crisis," said a comment.

   -- Shootings and brutal abuse of African Americans by policemen are frequent. African American adults are 5.9 times more likely to be incarcerated than white adults. An UN Special Rapporteur called such racial disparities a vestige of slavery and racial segregation.

   -- The racial gap in employment and wealth is striking. Over the past 40 years, workers of African descent have consistently endured an unemployment rate approximately twice that of their white counterparts. The typical wealth for a white household is nearly 10 times that for African Americans. If current trends continue, it could take more than 200 years for the average family of African descent to accumulate the same amount of wealth as its white counterparts.

   -- Religious intolerance continues to deteriorate. Pew Research Center surveys showed that about 82 percent of respondents say Muslims are subject to at least some discrimination in the United States. Some 64 percent say Jews face at least some discrimination in the United States. Extremists inspired by extremist ideology were responsible for 249 anti-Semitic incidents in 2018. An UN report noted the exceptionally violent anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.

   -- The United States has the most dangerous situation for women among high-income countries. In 2015, an astounding 92 percent of all women killed with guns in these countries were from the United States. Women in the United States were 21 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than women in peer nations. Every month, an average of 52 women were shot and killed by an intimate partner. Up to 70 percent of U.S. women had experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.

   -- Child poverty is a shocking problem. Around 12.8 million U.S. children lived in poverty and a total of 3.5 million children under five were poor, with 1.6 million of those children living in extreme poverty. "No child should have to worry where her next meal will come from or whether she will have a place to sleep each night in the wealthiest nation on Earth," commented the Children's Defense Fund in a report, adding that yet "about one in five children in America lived in poverty and faced these harsh realities every day."

   -- Poverty among the elderly is becoming more and more serious. One in 12 seniors aged 60 and older -- 5.5 million people -- did not have enough food. About 40 percent of middle-class Americans would live close to or in poverty by the time they reach age 65.

   -- The U.S. government's treatment of immigrants has become increasingly harsh and inhumane. The “zero-tolerance” policy caused the separations of many children from their families. U.S. immigration authorities had separated more than 5,400 children from their parents at the Mexico border since July 2017. A total of 24 immigrants, including seven children, have died in U.S. custody since 2018.

   -- The United States is "the most warlike nation in the history of the world." The United States has spent 6.4 trillion U.S. dollars on wars it launched since 2001, which resulted in more than 800,000 deaths and left tens of millions displaced.

I. Civil and Political Rights in Name Only

II. Absence of Basic Guarantee of Social and Economic Rights

III. Ethnic Minorities Suffer from Bullying and Exclusion

IV. Severe Discrimination and Violence Against Women

V. Vulnerable Groups Living in Difficulties

VI. Migrants Suffer Inhumane Treatment

VII. The United States Wantonly Trampled on Human Rights in Other Countries