In the name of so-called human rights, religion, ethnicity, democracy and freedom, the United States has been pushing the internationalization of secessionism in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, a report said.

It has also provided support to separatist forces in Taiwan, the Tibet autonomous region and Hong Kong to contain the development of China, which it sees as a "strategic rival", according to the report published on Tuesday by the Institute for Central Asia Studies, part of the Center for National Security Studies at Lanzhou University.

The US has frequently exploited human rights as an excuse to distort separatist issues in other countries, including China, and even to obstruct and undermine other states' anti-secession actions, the report said.

Since 2017, the US administration and legislature have enacted the "Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019", the "Hong Kong Autonomy Act", the "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019", the "Equal Entry into Tibet Act" and the "Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020" in collusion with different separatist factions overseas, the report said.

China has strongly opposed the passage of those acts, saying they are packed with inaccurate information and lies and interfere in China's internal affairs.

"It doesn't matter to the US whether the facts in those bills were accurate or not," said Zhang Yonghe, executive director of the Human Rights Research Institute at Northwest University of Political Science and Law in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

"The content of the so-called 'Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020' is carefully put together. All it wants to do is to create the impression that counterterrorism measures in Xinjiang were designed to target the Uygur people so it can justify its actions to support separatist forces."

The US's interference in separatist issues and its support for overseas separatist forces has nothing to do with ethnicity, religion, freedom or human rights, according to the report, which is entitled "Between inside and outside, the Double Standard of the US on Counter-Secessionism". It said the US's purpose is to take every opportunity to obstruct and undermine China's anti-secessionism struggle and contain China's peaceful development.

The US's decision to support separatist forces in other countries depends entirely on the consideration of its own interests. The so-called issues of ethnicity, religion, human rights, democracy and freedom are nothing but tools used to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, it said.

The US government usually supports the territorial integrity and unity of its allies and opposes secessionism. But when confronting secessionism in rival countries, the US often takes up ethnicity, religion, human rights, and freedom causes in support of such efforts, the report said. In some cases, Washington even directly initiated military intervention to contain an adversary, it added.

Labeling China as its "strategic rival", the US is adopting a containment strategy toward China, the report said. In an effort to contain China's development, the US government has passed a series of laws targeting Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and other issues concerning the core interests of China. It has also initiated provocative actions and sanctions against China, which have interfered with national unity.

Those actions, coupled with the US's public support for secessions within China, have not only paralyzed consensus between the US and China but have also greatly challenged and undermined the core interests of China in maintaining national unity, the report said.

It's clear that the US government has adopted a double standard strategy to maintain its global hegemony, the report said. On the one hand, it uses its own laws and forces to handle domestic secession issues. On the other hand, in sharp contrast, Washington utilizes secession to target its opponents.

The US will ultimately suffer from its opportunism and egoism on secession issues, it added.