The Current Discussion: The U.S. State Dept. says China's no longer one of the world's worst human rights offenders. Are they right?

Does it matter, one might ask, whether the U.S spills tons of ink accusing China of all kinds of human rights violations or absolves China of any wrongdoing at all? For many years, the U.S. State Dept. was criticizing many countries, including China, for their human rights records. Most of these countries, however, knew that the U.S. human rights reports were just like the boy who cried wolf. Leveling criticism without accompanying it with punitive action makes such reports meaningless.

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