Fuming over accusations that orphans in state institutions are deliberately allowed to die, China issued a lengthy report Wednesday to show that it has improved the lives of its children.
The report acknowledged that much more needs to be done to help the children living in this still-poor, developing nation, particularly for disabled children."There is much difficulty in the work for children and therefore much room for improvement," said the report carried by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
But it indignantly refuted reports by international human rights groups charging that state-run orphanages routinely allow children to die as a way of preventing overcrowding.
The charges of deliberate abuse and neglect have shocked many Chinese, most of whom treat their children like the little "baobao," or treasures, they call them.
The report reiterated China's outrage at being accused of intentionally allowing children to suffer.
It charged that a report by Human Rights Watch/Asia in January that documented the deaths of nearly 400 children between December 1988 and October 1992 at a Shanghai orphanage - many from deliberate neglect and abuse - was "cooked up based on distorted and exaggerated matters."
Children at the Shanghai facility are given nutritional food, good medical care, rehabilitation and appropriate education, it said.
Human Rights Watch/Asia, in a recent followup report, noted that although the Chinese government has repeatedly denied maltreatment of children at its welfare facilities, it has not provided evidence to disprove the allegations.
Wednesday's government report also took aim at a British television station, which has broadcast two documentaries on "dying rooms" at other orphanages - rooms in which children were tied to potty stools and left to die.