In a strongly worded note, China hit back at the US' "Annual State Department report on human rights around the World" that criticised Beijing's severe clampdown on lawyers. This report published by Washington discussed human rights violation and policies in 199 countries, with specific focus on serious right violation in the Middle East countries.

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This year's report on China focused on the suppression of civil society. The report said that repression and coercion has markedly increased. It criticized China's crackdown on lawyers, adding that this gives a sense of government's insecurity in the face of popular aspiration for the rule of law.

Hundreds of Chinese lawyers and law associates have been interrogated, investigated and in many cases detained in secret locations for many months without charges or access to attorneys or family members, the report claimed. The report also condemned the enforced vanishing of five men working in Hong Kong's publishing industry, alleging the involvement of Chinese security officials in the issue.

In response, Beijing has criticised the US for human rights violations outside its borders and perpetrating civilian casualties in Syria and Iraq, extreme use of force by police, and eavesdropping on foreign nationals. A report issued by China's Cabinet's State Council Information Office also mentioned gun crime and excessive use of force by the police, as well as other issues including fraud in the prison system; racial conflict, homelessness, and gender pay disparity.

China releases a report every year in response to the U.S. State Department's annual report on China's human rights situation.

The issue of human right violation have been a source of conflict between these world's two largest economies since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest.

TagsUSA, china, Human Rights