The US State Department issued the 2021 Human Trafficking Report on July 1, local time, again listing China as the “worst performing third category” and denigrating that the Chinese government has extensively implemented “forced labor” in Xinjiang and other places. policy. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on the 2nd that he firmly opposed the US’s groundless accusations against China based on lies and rumors. According to a report by the Latin American News Agency, Cuban Foreign Minister Rodriguez stated on the 1st that the current US government “shamelessly repeats the lies carefully planned under the previous leadership”, which is a “sign of political corruption” in the United States.
According to a report by “Voice of America” on the 2nd, this year’s report assessed the efforts of 188 countries and regions in the world to combat human trafficking from April 2020 to March 2021. It is the 21st year that the US Department of State has issued such a report. Although George Floyd, a black American man, was “kneeled and killed” by white police last year, which triggered protests across the country and around the world, the report listed the United States itself and other 28 countries and regions as the “top-performing first-category list.” 17 countries including China, Russia, and Cuba are listed as the “worst-performing third-category list.” The two middle categories are the second-category list and the second-category watch list.
When answering related questions on the 2nd, Wang Wenbin said that the United States is not qualified to wield the human rights stick everywhere. What the US needs to do is to reflect on and correct its human rights crimes such as genocide, racial discrimination, and forced labor. The cry of the “Floyds” of the United States continues to this day. This tragic incident reflects only the “tip of the iceberg” of racism and systematic human rights violations in the United States. American minorities, aboriginals, refugees, and immigrants have long faced threats of discrimination and xenophobic words and deeds, and “white supremacy” has not yet been circulated. Whether the United States can seriously examine and correct its own human rights abuses remains to be seen by the international community.
The US report also included Hong Kong, China on the second-category watch list, citing the implementation of Hong Kong’s National Security Law and Hong Kong’s “decrease in prosecuted human trafficking cases.” The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government issued a press release on July 2 and strongly opposed the biased and unreasonable assessments in the US report. A spokesman for the Hong Kong Government said that there has never been any sign that criminal groups use Hong Kong as a destination or transit point for human trafficking. Human trafficking has never been a common problem in Hong Kong.
According to a Reuters report on the 2nd, Thailand was downgraded to the second category watch list in the US report this year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand expressed disappointment at this and stated that this does not fully reflect the country’s major efforts and progress in combating human trafficking. Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “The U.S. report is a unilateral assessment conducted by the U.S. from its own perspective and does not represent any international standard.”
