China has questioned the validity of a U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission report which said that human rights violations and a general disregard for the rule of law has increased under President Xi Jinping's tenure.

The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) serves as a watchdog for human rights and the progress of the rule of law in China. This week the bipartisan committee published its 2015 annual report, which provided details and analysis on 19 human rights and rule of law issues affecting China.

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The CECC report highlighted 10 priority areas in China including human trafficking, civil society development, press and Internet freedom, ethnic minority rights, Hong Kong, religious freedom and China's controversial population control policies.

The report says U.S. national interests and U.S.-China relations could be compromised due to the deteriorating rate of human rights and the rule of law in China.

US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the co-chairman of the CECC, said "China today is more repressive and more brutal - this is true for the disappeared human rights lawyer, the imprisoned Christian house church pastor and the silenced Tibetan song-writer."

"Millions of Chinese people yearn for the same basic rights that we as Americans enjoy, but their aspirations have been met with intimidation, imprisonment, torture and even death," Rubio added.  "These realities must not be sidelined in the context of broader US-China relations. There is both a moral and strategic imperative to prioritize advances in human rights and democratic governance. A government that does not respect the rights and basic dignity of its own people cannot be assumed to be a responsible actor in the global arena."

China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Friday that the report is biased and follows the usual American prejudicial rhetoric against Beijing. She added that Chinese people are in the best position to make accurate remarks about the domestic conditions of China.

"This kind of report has nothing new but groundless accusations against China's domestic affairs based on usual prejudice. More than 1.3 billion people in China are in the best position to talk about China's human rights situation," she said.

Hua stressed that U.S. officials should travel and conduct further research in China so as to better inform the American public objectively about China.

The co-chairman of the CECC, US Rep Chris Smith, was not pleased with Beijing's criticism of the report. He has invited the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. to testify before a human rights panel.

Smith said the facts of the report are correct and we stand by the conclusion that this year saw a 'disturbing deterioration' of human rights."

Human rights has been a thorny issue between both countries since the U.S. imposed sanctions on China after the 1989 bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

The two largest economies in the world have questioned each other's human rights record over the past few months. In June, China published a paper criticizing the human rights record of the U.S. in 2014.

The report said civil rights in the U.S. is threatened by frequent violent crimes caused by the widespread possession of firearms. China also cited racial discrimination in America and the use of excessive force by police officers, which has led to the deaths of several citizens.

TagsU.S. Congressional Human Rights Report China, China human rights, U.S.-China relations