China Blasts US Report on Human Trafficking, Says It Protects Victims

"The US government publishes such reports every year, making irresponsible accusations against other countries. The Chinese side never found this constructive and resolutely opposes it," Lu Kang, the ministerial spokesman, said at a briefing.

The spokesman added that the Chinese government is determined to fight human trafficking and has achieved obvious results.

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Lu urged the world community to deepen cooperation and jointly combat crimes related to kidnapping and trafficking in persons, rather than "making groundless accusations" against other countries.

On Thursday, the US Department of State published an annual report on the situation with trafficking in persons. The document listed China among the so-called tier 3 countries "whose governments do not fully meet the [the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s] minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so." Tier 3 also includes Russia, Belarus, Syria, Iran and North Korea, the report said.

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According to the US report, the Chinese government took some steps to address trafficking, including by international cooperation to address forced and fraudulent marriages in China, prosecuting officials complicit in prostitution and maintaining training for officials on victim identification and assistance. However, state-sponsored forced labor continues to be an area of concern in China, the report said.