A US report was released on Thursday that accused China and Russia for not making more concerted efforts in the fight against human trafficking-and naturally, the two nations are not very happy about it.
Both countries responded with curt, indignant statements against the claim.
"We believe that the US side should take an objective and impartial view of China's efforts (in fighting human trafficking) and stop making unilateral or arbitrary judgments of China," Hua Chunyung, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said at a Beijing briefing on Thursday. "The Chinese government always attaches great importance to fighting all crimes of human trafficking."
A Russian government official spoke of his nation's exasperation with the United States' claims.
"As far as the application of unilateral sanctions against Russia is concerned...the very idea of raising this issue causes indignation," human rights envoy Konstantin Dolgov said in a foreign ministry statement released on Thursday.
According to the Agence France Presse, the U.S. State Department shoved China, Russia and Uzbekistan-three countries that were once on the Tier Two Watch List-down to Tier Three, after years of promises to try combatting human trafficking more diligently.
The State Department's report uncovered that "trafficking is pronounced among China's internal migrant population" and "forced labor remains a problem, including in brick kilns, coal mines and factories."
Due to China's one-child law, the nation has experienced "a skewed sex ratio of 118 boys to 100 girls...which served as a key source of demand for the trafficking of foreign women as brides for Chinese men and for forced prostitution."
The report went on to say that Beijing did not "demonstrate significant efforts to comprehensively prohibit and punish all forms of trafficking."
President Barack Obama is slated to speak on whether or not his government will put further waivers on the three nations in September.
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