Editor's note: Human rights diplomacy is supposed to be at the core of American foreign strategy, but does the United States really care about human rights? Or is it just using it as a weapon to expand its influence and interfere in other countries' internal affairs? The answer lies in numerous historical facts.

Today, let's look at human rights, the red flag the U.S. so famously waves to attack other countries, accusing them of violations. It is doing exactly that on its own soil.

It's double standard and the U.S. has mastered it to attack human rights worldwide.

This is not an empty accusation. Historical facts prove it.

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations (UN) document that sets out the rights and freedoms of all human beings, everyone is "born free and equal in dignity and rights" regardless of "nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status." The principle is expected to be followed by all UN member countries, including the U.S.

In fact, human rights diplomacy is supposed to be at the core of American foreign strategy. In 1976 then U.S. President Jimmy Carter said the U.S. would rekindle the beacon of human rights, which was not a decoration to polish up the U.S. image or the discredited policies of the past. It was "part of a broad effort to use our great power and our tremendous influence in the service of creating a better world, a world in which human beings can live in peace, in freedom, and with their basic needs adequately met."

However, since the Cold War, the U.S. has taken human rights as a weapon to expand its influence and interfere in other countries' internal affairs.

Kyrgyzstan is a prime example. After Kyrgyzstan became independent in 1991, it welcomed American NGOs and the two countries enjoyed a period of honeymoon. But in 2001, when the Bush administration built the Manas air base near the capital of Kyrgyzstan to support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, American soldiers at the base often had disputes with the locals. Then Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev expressed concerns, which angered Washington. In 2005, American NGOs started to accuse Akayev of human rights violations. Eventually, there was a so-called Tulip Revolution that overthrew Akayev. It is widely acknowledged to be the result of U.S. intervention. It's reported Washington funneled its support for the opposition parties in Kyrgyzstan through American NGOs.

Another prime example is the war on Iraq. In 2003, the Bush administration accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction. Then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell even presented a test tube with some powdery substance at the U.N. Security Council, alleging it contained biochemical weapons that could cause great damage. It was never disclosed what the test tube actually contained. When the U.S. military invaded Iraq, they couldn't find any WMD, so they changed the narrative and said the attack was to protect the human rights of the people of Iraq.

The war in Afghanistan was started in the name of countering terrorism; one of the targets is Taliban. However, the Taliban is said to be originally supported by the U.S. to counter the USSR when the latter invaded Afghanistan. And now that U.S. troops are finally withdrawing from Afghanistan, they are leaving behind a war-torn country suffering massive humanitarian disasters, and a stronger and anti-U.S. Taliban.

Closer home, in China, we have a very similar story. Donald Trump started a trade war with China, banned Chinese companies, prevented Chinese students and scholars from getting a U.S. visa and sanctioned Chinese officials. He violated the basic principles of free trade the U.S. had agreed to follow as a member of the World Trade Organization.

The U.S. lost the moral high ground internationally. So then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his State Department started a propaganda war, creating fake news about so-called human rights violation in Xinjiang. "Forced labor," "genocide," "concentration camps" – such fake headlines began to mushroom overnight. But in fact, the U.S. has never stopped destabilizing China by fomenting unrest with the Uygurs of Xinjiang. Clearly, this is how they gain leverage at the negotiating table, by using human rights as a bargaining chip.

If America cares so much about human rights, how come it treats its own people without any consideration for their human rights? Have you heard about the Tulsa race massacre, one of the worst racial massacres in U.S. history? For decades, what happened there was willfully buried in history. In 1921, the thriving African-American community in Tulsa, Oklahoma was nearly destroyed in a series of attacks by white mobs. They even used aerial bombing, killing hundreds of residents and erasing years of Black success.

U.S. Department of Labor statistics indicate the U.S. has about 500,000 child agricultural workers, which is a violation of child rights. The U.S. is the only country that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Appearing on Global Arena, a CGTN debate on human rights, former Singaporean Ambassador to the UN Kishore Mahbubani said what matters is not only where a person is born, but how low one is in the social ladder.

"When you talk of freedom, if you're born in the bottom 10 percent, even in a wealthy country like the United States, especially if you are black, your chances of going to jail and spending decades in jail… will be almost 50 percent."

Last year, in the United States, more than 600,000 people died in the pandemic, more than 40,000 people died in shootings, and there were more than 500,000 homeless people. Were their human rights protected?

Human rights should not be a red flag or a political tool. In the U.S., the wealth gap is widening, society is getting polarized and the pandemic is exacerbating inequality. The U.S should give up using human rights as a weapon, and instead focus on giving Americans a better life.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)