China accuses US of hypocrisy in own rights report

China accused the United States of hypocrisy yesterday as it issued a report on the US human rights situation, hitting back at Washington's criticism of its own rights record, state media said.
"The US practice of throwing stones at others while living in a glass house is a testimony to the double standards and hypocrisy of the United States in dealing with human rights issues," the official Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.
The written account was released by the information office of the State Council, or Cabinet -- a practice that has been repeated every year for 10 years in response to US criticism of China's rights situation.
It was published in retaliation to a US State Department report issued Wednesday charging that the attitude of Beijing's communist rulers to human rights had worsened last year.
The US report said China had stepped up repression in Buddhist Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang, restricting dissent and religious freedom in the two western regions, while maintaining heavy censorship of the press.
"The government's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas," it said.
China cited widespread violent crimes in the United States as posing "serious threats to its people's lives, property and personal security", according to Xinhua.
The report also claimed an increasing number of restrictions had been imposed on civil rights in the United States and said there was no proper protection of prisoners' basic rights.
The spat comes just days after a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Beijing appeared to signal a detente between the world powers on the sensitive issue of human rights.