Editor's note: Keith Lamb is a University of Oxford graduate with a Master of Science in Contemporary Chinese Studies. His primary research interests are China's international relations and "socialism with Chinese characteristics." The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The U.S. justifies its hard power by claiming to stand up for human rights. Unfortunately, for those who receive U.S. "aid," they become the victim to human rights violations. The quest to "save" the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya all led to unprecedented suffering and casualties, which continues to this day.

Despite the two-decade rampage inflicted on Muslim countries, there hasn't been any soul searching. Why would there be when the U.S. military-industrial complex profits from chaos? Resources are captured and geopolitical aims, such as keeping the Global South under-developed and Eurasia disconnected, are successful and profitable.

This gigantic recurring scam, i.e. war in the name of human rights, has gone for broke by falsely accusing China of "enslaving and genociding millions of its Muslims in concentration camps."

Before attempting to ruin China, in the name of trumped-up human rights charges, U.S. citizens should remain cognizant of its real home-grown human rights incarceration tragedy. The U.S. prison industrial complex has transformed the U.S. into the world's number one prison state, which exploits prisoners rather than rehabilitating them.

The U.S. has more than 20 percent of the world's prison population but it doesn't even have 5 percent of the world's population. This incarceration rate, just like U.S. military spending, is significantly higher than all others.

Like the U.S. ability to destroy other nations, this drive to be "number one" when it comes to incarceration has been driven by the forces of capital that have captured the governing apparatus. Under the banner of the "War on Drugs" from the 1970s, the U.S. prison population skyrocketed by 500 percent to around 2 million people today.

Nevertheless, this huge incarceration rate hardly makes U.S. citizens any safer. U.S. prisons are notorious for violence and the taking away of a parent from a family dooms that family to generational poverty. The majority of inmates are imprisoned for petit non-violent crimes, which is precisely what the prison business desires.

In the U.S., "crime does pay" for its capitalist class, which since the 1980s, has profited in a number of ways from the growing prison population. Companies such as CoreCivic and GEO run private prisons that operate for profit rather than for rehabilitating prisoners. There is an entire supply chain that cashes in on this "captured market" such as phone companies who charge exorbitant rates.

The inmates are not only heavily exploited through consumption but they are put to work under extreme exploitative conditions. Their meager salary disguises modern-day slavery. In private prisons, as reported in "Global Research," prisoners earn as little as 25 cents an hour. Refusal to work leads to being placed in isolation.

This profiteering is a goldmine for U.S. capital. IBM, Boeing, Microsoft, AT&T, Texas Instrument, Dell, and Compaq are just a few of the big names that profit from this exploitation. All major Wall Street investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, have a stake in private prisons. This shameful modern-day slavery and profiteering from incarceration are symptomatic of a system that acquiesces to the will of capital.

With open funding of electoral campaigns, the prison industrial complex has "legally bribed" politicians and the governing apparatus into making policies that will push up profits for this industry based on intensifying suffering and inequality.  In 2016, the two biggest private prison operators donated $250,000 each to Trump's election campaign. After Trump's election victory, he immediately overturned Obama's ruling on curbing the power of the prison industrial complex.

The private prison industry profits from longer incarceration periods along with the increased number of citizens serving time in prison. The industry has lobbied to increase sentences and incarcerated more citizens for non-violent crimes as well. The prison industrial complex was instrumental in bringing the "three strikes and you're out" law, which has seen some given life sentences for minor crimes, including for theft. Today, this business is getting its grubby hands into drafting harsher laws to detain more migrants in its private facilities.

Only under the conditions of corporate tyranny could a state lock up so many of its citizens. Behind the veil of democracy, which has legalized corruption, the U.S. faces the constant threat of incarceration and exploitation, along with the violence that follows.

Proud Americans who understand this basic contradiction must first put their own house in order before they come to the table of human rights lecturing others.

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