China’s state-run Global Times gloated Thursday over this week’s violence at the U.S. Capitol, calling it a harbinger of the death of “freedom and democracy” in America.
In one op-ed, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief asserted that the fact that “Trump’s supporters were able to storm Congress in this way is the result of a deeply fractured US society where rule of law is no longer able to effectively manage this fragmentation.”
“Trump still has many supporters with wild emotions that still pose a serious challenge to the authority of Biden’s administration and undermine its legitimacy,” the editor declared.
Those who still believe in America’s strength and constitutional loyalty “overestimate the power of the US political system,” the piece states. “There is no doubt that the US system is degrading and showing signs of worsening as cancer.”
The editor also compared the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters to those on Capitol Hill, recalling that Nancy Pelosi “once praised the violence of Hong Kong protesters as ‘a beautiful sight to behold.’”
“People should ask her not to be dumb, and let her describe how beautiful the chaos on Capitol Hill is,” the editor quipped.
In a separate, unsigned piece, titled “Chinese netizens jeer riot in US Capitol as ‘Karma,’ say bubbles of ‘democracy and freedom’ have burst,” the Global Times drew a further comparison between U.S. violence and that of Hong Kong, calling Wednesday’s riots “the latest episode of the US’ real version of House of Cards.”
“Chinese web users still remember the distress and anger they felt when they saw rioters in Hong Kong storming the Legislative Council Complex, scrawling graffiti, smashing and robbing items,” the article states, “and, instead of condemning the violence, US politicians hailed the ‘courage’ of these mobs, Western media praised the ‘restraint’ of the rioters, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even called it a ‘beautiful sight.’”
“For such a long time, US politicians called rioters ‘freedom fighters’ in other countries. Now, they finally have retribution!” the article states, citing an unnamed “Chinese netizen.”
For the Chinese, the scene in Washington was “like watching a thrilling action movie!” the Global Times declared.
“Many Chinese netizens ‘confessed’ in their comments that they saw the ‘chaos in the US’ as revenge,” the article asserts. “After inciting so much chaos around the world under the pretext of ‘freedom and democracy,’ the US finally tasted the ‘karma’ of its double standards.”
“Many Chinese netizens found it hilarious that US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account had been suspended for 12 hours,” the article heckled.
“For a long time, US politicians criticized China for its efforts in cleaning up online rumors and disinformation and defamed us for ‘hurting freedom of speech.’ What are you doing right now? President Trump enjoys his right to freedom!” the article stated, allegedly citing another unnamed netizen.
The storming of the U.S. Capitol is a “symbolic moment” clearly demonstrating the “falling of the beacon of democracy,” said Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University.
“What happened in the US Capitol and the US’ response to it have burst the bubbles of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ and ‘universal values’ that the US has long used to coax others,” Shen said.
The Global Times also said it was “hypocritical” of Americans to criticize Hong Kong “for using police to deal with rioters!”
On Friday, the anti-communist online journal Bitter Winter noted that Chinese Communist Party ideologues “believe the United States will collapse as the Soviet Union did.”
Bitter Winter founder Massimo Introvigne observed that the anti-American comments posted time and again on Chinese social media were generated both by “genuine supporters of the CCP and an army of trolls paid to post the Party’s propaganda.”
China’s leaders believe that “Donald Trump’s presidency was ‘the United States’ Gorbachev Era,’ and that the end of the United States is at hand,” Introvigne wrote.
“The CCP also believes that the American ‘ideals and beliefs have been shaken,’ just as it happened in the Soviet Union,” Introvigne continued, “that there is no longer a national narrative and consensus uniting American citizens, with the results that ‘counter-powers’ alternative to the state grow like tumors and are not kept in check by law enforcement.”