By By IAN JOHNSON

BEIJING — China released a report on human rights on Sunday, highlighting the country’s willingness to deal with the highly contentious issue but also the differences between its perceptions of human rights and those of many other countries.

The report acknowledged that China suffers from large inequalities in its practice of human rights, and that “there is still much room for improvement in its human rights conditions.” But it said that the country had made large strides despite difficult economic times.

Published on the Internet in Chinese and English, the report lists achievements in a variety of fields, including the growing role of the Internet. It noted that many government agencies now routinely use the Web to gauge public opinion, and highlighted a new law passed this year to outlaw police brutality and torture after exposés in the local press about the abuse of detainees.

Outside human rights groups said that these steps were real and that China deserved credit for them, but they pointed to what they said was the country’s history of passing laws that are not enforced. “China deserves credit for taking that step of making new rules where they didn’t exist before,” said Joshua Rosenzweig of the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group in Hong Kong. “But that can’t stand for actual results. The legislation itself needs to be enforced before you can measure its impact.”

Assessing enforcement is difficult because the government outlaws independent human rights monitors.

Over all, the report contrasts sharply with outside assessments. This year, the United States State Department found in its annual review of human rights that the situation in China remained “poor and worsened in some areas.”

Part of the reason for these widely divergent opinions has to do with China’s definitions of human rights. Much of its report was taken up with a detailed discussion on the economic rights of the Chinese people and how the growing economy was raising living standards and providing better education. Many international human rights organizations consider these rights, while important, to be a separate category. For China, however, they are at least on a par with rights like free speech and the right to assemble and to vote without intimidation.

Despite those differing views, some critics were encouraged.

“It is positive because people will talk about it and it gets in the local media,” said Wan Yanhai, a public health activist who recently left China because of harassment. “But it is publicized by the government for outsiders.”