BEIJING - China accused the US of hypocrisy in a report critical of US human rights on Sunday.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 was released by the Information Office of China's State Council in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 issued by the US Department of State on Friday.

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The US reports are "full of distortions and accusations concerning human rights in more than 190 countries and regions, including China", China's report said.

The US has taken human rights as "a political instrument to defame the image of other nations and seeks its own strategic interests", the report said.

While illustrating the dismal record of US human rights, China's report said the US could not be justified in posing as the world's supreme arbiter on "human rights justice".

"However, it releases the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year to accuse and blame other countries over their human rights practices," the report said. This fully exposes US hypocrisy and double standards on human rights and its malicious design to pursue hegemony under the pretext of human rights, it said.

The report advised the US government "to improve its own human rights, check and rectify acts, and stop the hegemonistic deed of using human rights issues to interfere in other countries' internal affairs".

Xinhua