China, Russia, Iran, North Korea 'forces of instability'

The United States on Friday labeled China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as "morally reprehensible" governments that it said violated human rights within their borders on a daily basis, making them "forces of instability."

In releasing the State Department's global human rights report for 2017, acting Secretary of State John Sullivan also singled out Syria, Myanmar, Turkey and Venezuela as nations with poor human rights records. Improved human rights in Uzbekistan, Liberia and Mexico were global "bright spots," Sullivan added.

Michael Kozak, a senior State Department official who helped oversee the report, said he did not think policies by President Donald Trump's administration on freedom of the press, refugees, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and other issues undermined the report or left the United States open to accusations of hypocrisy.

The governments of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea "violate the human rights of those within their borders on a daily basis and are forces of instability as a result," Sullivan said in a preface to the congressionally mandated report that documents human rights in nearly 200 countries and territories.

Countries like these that restrict freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, allow and commit violence against religious, ethnic and other minority groups or undermine the people's fundamental dignity "are morally reprehensible and undermine our interests," Sullivan added.

Sullivan said the right of peaceful assembly and freedoms of association and expression are "under attack almost daily" in Iran. Sullivan also condemned what he called "ethnic cleaning" of Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar, and said those responsible for attacks against the Rohingya should be held accountable.

Critics in the United States and globally have accused Trump of giving short shrift to human rights as a foreign policy issue, and of cozying up to authoritarian leaders in Russia, the Philippines and the Middle East. Trump also frequently attacks the US news media.