WASHINGTON – United States branded strategic rivals China and Russia”forces of instability” on Friday, grouping them with Iran and North Koreaas countries whose rights abuses amount to a global threat.

The charge was made by acting secretary of state John Sullivan as helaunched Washington’s annual global human rights report, which this year isfocused on destabilizing abuses by state actors.

Human rights groups were quick to criticize the report, saying PresidentDonald Trump’s Republican administration had stripped the document ofreporting on assaults on sexual and reproductive rights to focus onstate-driven abuses.

But Sullivan insisted the report must focus on threats to US andinternational security.

“The 2017 US National Security Strategy recognizes that corrupt and weakgovernance threatens global stability and US interests. Some governmentsare unable to maintain security and meet the basic needs of their people,while others are simply unwilling,” Sullivan wrote, in the report’s preface.

“States that restrict freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly; thatallow and commit violence against members of religious, ethnic, and otherminority groups; or that undermine the fundamental dignity of persons aremorally reprehensible and undermine our interests,” he wrote.

“The governments of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, for example,violate the human rights of those within their borders on a daily basis andare forces of instability as a result.”

Global watchdog Human Rights Watch was unconvinced.

“This year’s US State Department human rights report guts the analysis ofsexual and reproductive rights, reflecting the Trump administration’shostility toward these issues,” the group’s Washington director AndreaPrasow told AFP.

“In doing so, the administration is undermining a document that has longbeen relied upon by the Congress, foreign governments and activists aliketo assess human rights conditions around the world.

“This is unfortunately only one facet of the administration’s efforts todownplay human rights as an element of US foreign policy.”

Last year’s “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” was prepared fromresearch conducted by US embassies around the world under the previous USadministration of president Barack Obama.

Trump’s first secretary of state Rex Tillerson was much criticized forrefusing to publicly present the document himself, as his predecessors hadtraditionally done.

Tillerson has since been sacked — despite championing Trump’s “AmericaFirst” agenda and warning that sometimes America’s interests trump itsvalues when dealing with foreign powers.

His nominated successor, CIA director and foreign policy hawk Mike Pompeo,has yet to be confirmed in office by the Senate. – APP/ AFP