The U.S. calls itself "the examplar of freedom and a beacon of hope," but allowing people to cause harm to others in the name of personal rights hinders instead of defending freedom, according to a research report released by a Chinese think tank in Beijing on Monday.

Titled "Ten Questions for American Democracy," the report was released by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.

Laying bare the deficiencies in the American version of democracy, the report underlined the harm caused by a considerable number of Americans who were led to believe that not wearing masks, opposing stay-at-home orders and refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 were matters of personal freedom. 

Citing an article titled "There's a Word for Why We Wear Masks, and Liberals Should Say It," the report said the "liberty" announced in the Declaration of Independence should not include the "freedom" that causes others to get sick or even die.

The current cultural war caused by "overloaded freedom" has held back the country's pandemic response, said the report, citing "The Right's War on COVID Vaccine Mandates Is About to Get Scary."

Taking former U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign practices of using social media as an example, the report said false information and social media have a lot of room to play in politics.

Lee C. Bollinger, a law professor at the University of Michigan, writes in his book "The Free Speech Century" that "once a defense of the powerless, the First Amendment now serves racists and misogynists, Nazis and klansmen, pornographers and corporations buying elections."