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BEIJING: China made a comparison on Thursday (January 7) between the assault on the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump and last year’s often violent protests in Hong Kong, but noted that no one had killed when protesters took over the Chinese-ruled city legislature.
Clips of the chaotic scenes in Washington aired repeatedly on Chinese state television.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a daily briefing that while events in Hong Kong in 2019, when the city’s legislature was stormed, were more “severe” than those in Washington, ” no protesters died. “
READ: Four dead, 52 arrested after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
READ: Guns and tear gas on the US Capitol as Trump supporters try to reverse their loss
Relations between Beijing and Washington are at their worst in decades due to a variety of disputes, including China’s heavy crackdown on Hong Kong, and Chinese diplomats and state media often draw attention to news of violence or chaos in U.S.
Months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019 included the assault on the city’s legislature on July 1, in a campaign for democratic reforms that Beijing eventually overturned with new national security legislation. A man died falling from a parking lot during a protest in the city.
Washington police said four people were killed and 52 arrested after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
“We also want the American people to be able to enjoy peace, stability and security as soon as possible,” Hua said.
READ: China goes online to poke fun at ‘beautiful view’ of chaos from the US Capitol.
Hua also condemned US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comments, in which he said Washington could sanction those involved in arresting more than 50 people in Hong Kong and will send the US ambassador to the United Nations to visit Taiwan.
A comment with thousands of favorable votes on Weibo, similar to Twitter in China, said the protests in Washington were “more than 90 percent” the same as those in Hong Kong. European leaders were showing “double standards” by condemning one but not the other, he said.
“The response and words used by some in the United States to what happened in Hong Kong in 2019 were completely different than what they used for current events in the United States,” Hua said.
Around the world, leaders expressed shock and concern, condemning the attempted subversion of democracy.
READ: The world stunned by violence on the US Capitol as protesters try to reverse the elections
READ: ‘It’s an insurrection,’ Biden says, as Trump supporters storm the US Capitol.
“What happened today in Washington DC is definitely not American,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a video message on Twitter.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, compared the images to protests in Ukraine that toppled Russian-backed Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
“Some of my friends are asking if someone will distribute cookies to protesters to echo Victoria Nuland’s stunt,” he tweeted, citing a visit to Ukraine in 2013 when then-US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland offered food to protesters. .
