China blasts US for ‘horrifying’ torture of inmates at ‘black sites’

China has blasted the US for horrifying torture of prisoners at its notorious "black sites" in allied foreign countries, insisting that Washington has no right to criticize any other country for human rights violations.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Friday US spy agency CIA has set up black sites in numerous countries under the pretext of its “War on Terror” and secretly holds accused “terrorists” and extorts confessions from them by torture.

"However, not a single US official has so far been held to account for devising, authorizing or implementing the secret detention and torture program," Zhao added.

"Facts speak louder than words," Zhao emphasized during his regular press conference, noting that the US black sites around the world clearly spell out that Washington has no right to point a finger at any other country in the name of democracy and human rights.

"What the US should do is immediately abolish its black sites all over the world, earnestly reflect on its crimes, apologize to and compensate for the victims, and hold those who authorized and carried out torture accountable," Zhao further underlined.

His remarks came after the UK-based Guardian daily cited a newly declassified US government report to unveil last month that a detainee at a secret CIA detention site in Afghanistan was used as a living prop to teach trainee interrogators, who lined up to take turns at knocking his head against a plywood wall, leaving him with brain damage.

Zhao went on to reiterate that the US government has gone even further to cover up and deny its crimes and violations of human rights, adding that in 2020, after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) noted that US troops and the CIA may have committed war crimes with prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, Washington leveled sanctions and imposed visa restrictions on several ICC officials, including its chief prosecutor.

During the briefing, the Chinese official also warned of the implications of Russia’s suspension from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) over its military operation in Ukraine.

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He emphasized that Beijing was opposed to “politicizing and instrumentalizing” human rights, warning against a “selective” approach toward the issue.

In 2021, meanwhile, after the United Nations Committee Against Torture found that the CIA black sites are rife with torture, the US government refused to disclose relevant information, claiming confidentiality.

"The notorious Guantanamo Bay, the Bagram prison in Afghanistan and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are caught up in prisoner abuse scandals, with the use of brutal and horrifying 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' including waterboarding and sleep deprivation," the Chinese Foreign Ministry official also pointed out.

Zhao further slammed Washington’s foreign-based black sites as "typical examples of the US trampling on the rule of law and violating human rights."

He said the 2022 report from the Costs of War Project of the US-based think tank, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, also noted that following the 9/11 incidents, American authorities orchestrated a system of black sites in at least 54 countries and regions across the world.

Over 100,000 people were held captive at the infamous sites, including Muslims, women and children, press reports have widely confirmed, noting that American taxpayers are spending nearly $540 million per year just to hold prisoners at the Guantanamo military base and detention center.

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