China has weighed in on the U.S.’s recently announced decision to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council, Reuters reported.
“China expresses regret at the U.S. decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a briefing on Wednesday, according to the news agency.
“China will continue, working with all sides, to make its contribution to the healthy development of human rights around the world via constructive dialogue and cooperation,” he added.
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Asked about criticism of China’s human rights record from the U.S., Shuang said the U.S. overlooked facts and noted that China had made significant progress on human rights, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced the U.S. would withdraw from the council, saying that the international body was “not worthy of its name.”
Haley argued that the council acted as a “protector of human rights abusers and cesspool of political bias” and accused the body of “politicizing and scapegoating countries with positive human rights records.”
China’s top anti-graft watchdog said on Wednesday that the U.S. withdraw from the council “has put the American peoples’ boastful image of being a defender of human rights on the verge of collapse,” Reuters reported.
It added that the Trump administration’s current policy of separating migrant children from their parents shows the U.S. is hypocritical and said the U.S. “cannot and should not” criticize the human rights records of other nations, Reuters reported.