"I CAN'T BREATHE"

Ethnic minority groups have suffered "systematic racial discrimination" in the United States, the report read.

African Americans are "three times" as likely as whites to be killed by police and "one in four" young Asian Americans have been targets of racial bullying, it added.

The report noted that the death of African American George Floyd, who called out "I can't breathe" as a police officer kneeled on his neck, has sparked a national outcry.

Ensuing protests for racial justice erupted in 50 states. The US government suppressed demonstrators by force, and more than 10,000 people were arrested, it noted.

The report also touched on other topics such as the record-breaking gun trade and shooting incidents in the US

"More than 41,500 people were killed in shooting incidents across the United States in the year, an average of more than 110 a day, and there were 592 mass shootings nationwide, an average of more than 1.6 a day," it read.

Concerning the growing polarization between the rich and the poor in the United States, the report noted, "The richest 1 percent of Americans have a combined net worth that is 16.4 times that of the poorest 50 percent."

TROUBLEMAKER FOR GLOBAL SECURITY

At a time when global unity is needed to fight the pandemic, the United States persists in pursuing an "America First" agenda, isolationism and unilateralism, wantonly imposing sanctions, bullying and threatening international organizations, and treating asylum seekers with cruelty.

In doing so, the US is becoming the "biggest troublemaker" for global security and stability, the report said.

By imposing sanctions against International Criminal Court staff and bullying other countries, the United States has escaped international probes into possible war crimes in other countries and police violence targeting its own citizens, it said.

It continued to comment on the unilateral sanctions imposed by Washington on countries including Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria, noting that the sanctions made it difficult for the countries to obtain necessary anti-pandemic medical supplies in a timely manner.

Asylum seekers have been treated cruelly in the United States, it added, noting that the US government had expelled at least 8,800 unaccompanied immigrant children despite serious protection risks during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The then US president's pardon of Blackwater contractors convicted of war crimes in Iraq violated US obligations under international law and had the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future, it said.

Experts say the report, mainly based on widely circulated surveys, analysis reports and media reports, came in sharp contrast to reports from the US State Department, which were released in the name of "human rights" and fabricated groundless charges against China.

The report from China "is not meant to interfere in another country's internal affairs, but to faithfully reveal the true human rights situation in the US," said Chang Jian, director of the human rights study center at Nankai University.

"We welcome fact-based constructive criticism from others, rather than attacks on China's human rights situation with trumped-up accusations based on lies, distortions and ideological biases, as the United States has done in its annual report," said Li Xiaojun, an official with the State Council Information Office, at a briefing on the report on Wednesday.