If that isn’t the Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Bush: China must end detentions, ensure freedoms, the headline alone screams about the hypocrisy of Bush and his administration. Then you hit his quote, “America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists.” Let’s see… political dissidents held in prison by the US, check… raging a war for oil and religious reasons, check… spying on every single citizen without warrants, check… restricting freedom of assembly, check… lack of freedom of region (unless you belong to a Judeo-Christian based one, and some of the evangelical among them may say they don’t have as much freedom as they should), check… I don’t think the US has too much room to talk about China’s violations.
That’s not to say China isn’t bad, it is, it’s one of the worst in fact, but in today’s modern age, we are quick to forget the Olympics were held in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and the like (we did boycott the Russian games). But let’s look at a few things:
In terms of Press Freedom, the US ranks 48th. Behind Iceland (#1), Republic of Ireland (#8), New Zealand (#15), the UK (#24), Jamaica (#27), Australia (#28), Spain (#33), Italy (#35), Japan (#37)… in other words lots of countries are well above us. (The US also ranks #111, for “extra territorial” which I am guessing means war zones and the like.) China does rank #163 on that list, but still, we shouldn’t be talking until we are in the top 10 or so, especially since our First Amendment is all about Freedom of the Press.
The Human Development Index, a UN (I know, I know…) index measuring Longevity (life expectancy from birth), Education (literacy rate and combined gross enrollment ratio), and GDP (Gross Domestic Product). On that index, the US ranks 12th. Again Iceland wins at number one… number one in Press Freedom and number one on the HDI, they must be doing something right. Australia is #3, New Zealand actually trails the US here at #19 (but moving up while the US is moving down)… but still, we are all the way down at 12th. China is at #81 here, but far from the worst.
The Corruption Perceptions Index (a measure of “the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians”), puts the US at 20 (a higher ranking is better). Number one on this list is Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, Iceland, which does well on the others ranks #6 on this list. China ranks #72, far from the US, but far from the worst.
Even in terms of Economic Freedom, the US ranks #5, behind Hong Kong at #1, Australia #4… New Zealand ranks #6, and Canada at #7, but have the same score, both real close to the US score which isn’t as close to the #4 spot… Iceland here falls to #14. China is way down at #126, which is still a ways from the bottom of that list as well.
Anyhow, the point is, Bush shouldn’t be talking about freedoms when his administration rails against freedoms here. The Patriot Act alone is reason enough for him to shut the heck up…