China, Iran, Russia, Egypt scold U.S. on Ferguson protests
Say U.S. should fix own problems first
Countries long the targets of U.S. scoldings for humanrights abuses revel in the opportunity to call out Americans for the angry protests that have convulsed Ferguson, Mo., after the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
State-run media in China air extensive and often critical coverage of the events in Ferguson. Editorials have pointed out the hypocrisy of the United States criticizing China for its treatment of Tibetans and ethnic minorities while apparently committing similar abuses at home.
“It’s ironic that the U.S., with its brutal manner of assimilating minorities, never ceases to accuse China and countries like it of violating the rights of minorities,”
Global Times wrote last week. The popular tabloid, published by the People’s Daily, is the main mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party and often takes a stridently nationalistic tone.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency noted that police in the USA used rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters — tools Xinhua says are used only “under extreme caution in other countries, where police usually use riot shields and batons instead to reduce damage.”
China does not permit coverage by domestic or international media outlets of its own protests, but it did allow coverage of the protests in Ferguson. Both Xinhua and China’s state broadcast- er, CCTV, sent reporters to Ferguson.
Other countries usually at the pointed end of U.S. criticism, including Russia, Egypt and Iran, also condemned the police response in Ferguson.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement last week that the United States needs to clean its own house if it wants to call itself a “bastion of human rights.”
“I would like to advise the American leaders to pay more attention to restoring order in their country before imposing its dubious experience on other states,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and religious authority, has tweeted regularly in English with the hashtag #Ferguson to chide the United States about human-rights abuses.
“Today the world is a world of tyranny and lies,” he wrote. “The flag of #humanrights is borne by enemies of human rights w/US leading them! #Ferguson.”
A spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. last week to exercise “restraint” and to respect the rights of people who wanted to peaceably assemble in Ferguson. The U.S. has repeatedly criticized Egypt for cracking down on protests.