China erupted in amusement at the United States' troubled democracy after supporters of President Donald Trump derailed the US Capitol. Beijing denounced the "sharp contrast" between Washington's response to the siege and the 2019 Hong Kong anti-government demonstrations.
China on US Capitol Chaos: 'Beautiful Sight'
Tabloid Global Times on Thursday posted an image of Twitter about comparisons of Hong Kong protesters occupying the city's Legislative Council Complex in July 2019 with Wednesday's Capitol riot.
Global Times compared the security breakdown, which remarkably delayed the certification of Biden in Congress as the next president to recent anti-government unrest in Hong Kong, for which Chinese officials have recently come under Trump government sanctions for suppression.
Reminding American leaders they formerly called the often brutal Hong Kong independence protests as "a beautiful site to behold," as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once did, the tabloid used her words for trolling with a photo of a protester occupying her office and sitting in her chair in the midst of Wednesday's mayhem.
China's foreign ministry derided the storming of the mobs of the US Capitol. In a daily press briefing on Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying stated although the scenes in Washington "looked familiar," United States politicians and media provided a contrary response.
According to Hua, "Radical protesters violently stormed the Legco Complex, but the Hong Kong police were highly professional and exercised a high level of restraint, and thus did not cause any deaths. The incident in Washington was not as serious, but still a few protesters died. US mainstream media used 'violence' and 'rioters' while reporting on the incident, but glorified protesters in Hong Kong as democracy heroes. The reasoning behind this is definitely food for thoughts," reported The Standard.
Russia and Iran have also mocked the US after the mayhem at the US Capitol.
According to Konstantin Kosachyov, the chair of the Russian upper house's foreign affairs committee, the appalling events in the US capital displayed that Washington had no right to lecture other countries regarding democracy.
Beijing often leaps at the opportunity to underscore when liberal democracies fall and use such moments to bolster its claims that its authoritarian model is superior. The mob of Trump supporters storming the US Capitol on January 6 proffered the most suitable opportunity.
The demonstrators were eventually discharged, and police officials said they discovered two pipe bombs. One woman who attempted to break through a barricade was gunned and later died due to injuries.
Pro-Trump protesters rampaged through the US Capitol to protest against the election defeat through scuffling with security, taking selfies, and raiding parts of the building.
According to the Global Times, "@SpeakerPelosi once referred to the Hong Kong riots as 'a beautiful sight to behold'," citing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's June 2019 comment regarding Hong Kong's mass pro-democracy protests, which at that time were mostly peaceful, reported NDTV.
Global Times further stated on Twitter, "Even though the US has boasted itself as a beacon of democracy, it has never been a paradigm of global democracy. US democratic system has been vandalized, demonstrating how fragile the system is."
