China is trying to use the Atlanta and Boulder mass shootings to undermine US criticism of its genocide of the Uyghur people
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
- The US has long criticized China's crackdown on the Uyghur Muslims, calling it a genocide.
- Top Chinese officials are now accusing the US of hypocrisy following two mass shootings.
- They suggested that the US should not criticize China as it has issues of its own.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
China is using the recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado to criticize the US criticism of its abuses of the Uyghur Muslims.
On March 16, eight people were killed at three Atlanta-area massage parlors and, on Monday, 10 people were shot dead at a grocery store in Boulder.
Over in China, top government officials and state media outlets have seized on the tragedy, and accused the US of hypocrisy.
The US has long criticized China's imprisonment of more than one million Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region, and in January said its actions amounted to "genocide." Last week, the US also sanctioned two Chinese officials over the abuses.
On Tuesday, Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times tabloid, accused the US of failing to address its own issues, calling the Boulder shooting a "slaughter."
"How ridiculous that Washington condemns [the] human rights situation in Xinjiang, a region that has regained peace and harmony from terror attacks when people in the US are massacred by COVID-19 and firearms," he wrote.
-Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) March 23, 2021
The post was retweeted by Zhao Lijian, a top spokesman at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, who in a tweet Tuesday said the US has made "lies of the century" about Xinjiang.
"They do not have qualifications to lecture on #China when so many lives are lost from #COVID19 & people like #GeorgeFloyd cannot even breathe," he said.
Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty
Hua Chunying, another senior foreign ministry spokesman, also hit out at the US on Tuesday regarding the rising number of attacks on Asians in the US. Six of the eight people killed in the Atlanta-area shootings were Asian women.
"End the #DOUBLESTANDARD," Hua tweeted. "Stop ganging up to point fingers at others while staying aloof from solving one's own problems."
-Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) March 23, 2021
The remarks are classic examples of China's "wolf warrior" diplomacy.
As Insider has previously reported, top Chinese officials like Zhao have with increasing regularity made aggressive statements about world powers outside of diplomatic settings.
On Wednesday, China also published a 15,000-word report on the human rights situation in the US, the Global Times reported.
Among the seven headings in the report were "Washington's incompetent pandemic control results in tragedies" and "Ethnic minorities suffer racial discrimination."
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3vVILEb
No comments