China is firmly opposed to a US State Department report criticizing China's human rights situation without any reason, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Wednesday in Beijing.

He made the remarks when asked to comment on the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the US in Washington Monday.

"Only the Chinese people themselves have the right to comment on the human rights situation in their own country."

"The Chinese government, sticking to a policy it calls 'putting people above everything else,' has made many efforts toward building a democratic country under the rule of law," Liu said. "As a result, the Chinese people are now enjoying an improved situation in terms of human rights."

Liu said he hoped the United States would put more focus on its own human rights problems and work harder to resume the China-US human rights dialogue and benefit bilateral exchanges.

China to issue human rights record of the United States

The Information Office of the State Council will issue on March 3 the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004, in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued by the United States, which irrationally condemns human rights in China.

It will be the sixth Chinese report in response to the annual country reports on human rights by the United States in six consecutive years.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004, based on plenty of facts, is divided into six parts, uncovering the bad records of the United States concerning the invasions into other countries and the mistreatment of foreign inmates, as well as the bad records in the aspects of life, freedom and personal security of the US citizens, their political rights and freedom, economic, social and cultural rights, racial discrimination, conditions of women and children.