Chinese call Minneapolis ‘a beautiful sight’
US double standards to backfire: expert
As the protest in the US state of Minnesota resembled Hong Kong riots last year in protesting means and police response, Chinese netizens who referred it as “a beautiful sight to behold,” as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Hong Kong demonstrations, mocked US double standards and wished more “beautiful sights” of this kind in the US.
Angry crowds in Minneapolis smashed their way into stores and set businesses and other buildings on fire, after the death of a black man on Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer put his knee on his neck for about eight minutes.
On Thursday, they set fire to a police precinct and police fired tear gas at the protesters, US media reported.
US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened the use of “shooting” and announced the army supports the governor in a tweet calling the protesters as “thugs.”
Photos and videos of fires and the police deployment of tear gas have circulated on Chinese social media since Thursday.
Many Chinese netizens cracked sarcastic jokes about US double standards in treating Hong Kong mobs and protests in its own soil, saying China should do what the US has done to criticize China over Hong Kong affairs.
“China has not deployed any military force a year after the Hong Kong turmoil, but Trump has threatened to resort to military force just four days into the protests. Hong Kong mobs, take a better look at the country you are begging for help,” one netizen said.
In a live report of the protests on Friday, a CNN team was arrested. CNN later issued a statement demanding the release of its employees.
Chinese netizens compared it with foreign reporters’ performance and Hong Kong police’s tolerance to them during the Hong Kong unrest, and called on Hong Kong police to tighten law enforcement to foreign reporters.
Referring to the protests as “a beautiful sight to behold,” many netizens showed their support to the protesters.
Some Chinese netizens said, “We should express our serious concern, immediately summon the US ambassador in China to warn the US over its human rights issue, come up with a US human rights bill to sanction the US police chief and certain entities, bring the issue to the UN for global condemnation of the US!”
“Five demands from Minnesota: release US citizens arrested during the protests; establish a supervision team to investigate US police; disband US ‘black cops;’ abolish US law on national security and the US presidential election system,” read one comment which aped the five demands listed by Hong Kong protesters.
Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that Chinese netizens’ comments reflect US politicians’ hypocrisy and double standards, and they will be abandoned by their countrymen if they go further to play political games instead of caring about Americans’ lives.
The US is resorting to double standards to secure its global hegemony, but it undermines other countries’ security, and ultimately the US will lose its security, Diao said.
Domestically, the racist prejudice, unprotected basic rights of life and soaring unemployment will further split American society, worsen social conflicts, and the US will move backwards, experts said.