China blasts U.S. after damning rights report

In a yearly tit-for-tat that follows the release of the annual world human rights report issued by the U.S. State Department, the Information office of the State Council, China_s cabinet, accused Washington of double standards. "The U.S. report also criticizes almost every other country for its human rights situation, but is silent about the human rights problems in the U.S.," said the statement, published by the state-controlled Xinhua news agency. The State Department report issued on Friday said China_s human rights record "deteriorated markedly" in 1999. It cited suppression of religion, jailings of dissidents and political purges in Tibet. The report focused on China_s exhaustive campaign to destroy the Falun Gong spiritual movement, saying thousands of members had been detained and others interned in psychiatric hospitals. It said China has tortured Christian leaders, intensified pressure on Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs as part of a clampdown on "separatists," and had virtually wiped out the China Democracy Party -- an unofficial group that challenges one-party rule.