China's internet exploded in fun at America's troubled democracy after supporters of President Donald Trump burst into the US Capitol Hill Building, comparing the chaos to the Hong Kong anti-government protests of 2019.
On Thursday morning, state media tabloid Global Times tweeted side-by-side photo comparisons of Hong Kong protesters occupying the city's Legislative Council Complex in July 2019 with Wednesday's Washington disturbances.
Comparing the images from the two protests, Trump hardcore followers can be seen attacking the US Capitol showing their disagreement of the election defeat, taking selfies, scuffling with security and ransacking parts of the building.
The tweet by the Global Times said, "@SpeakerPelosi once referred to the Hong Kong riots as 'a beautiful sight to behold'," the Global Times said in the tweet, referring to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's June 2019 comment about Hong Kong's mass pro-democracy demonstrations, which were mostly peaceful at that time.
"It remains yet to be seen whether she will say the same about the recent developments in Capitol Hill."
China's Communist Youth League also expressed the US crisis as a "beautiful sight" on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
The hashtag "Trump supporters storm US Capitol" spread across Weibo on Thursday, reaching up to 230 million views, as users compared the global support for Hong Kong's protesters with the outpouring of condemnation for the pro-Trump mob.
"At present, all European countries' leaders have shown double standards and condemned it (Washington rioting)," read one Weibo comment which gained over 5,000 likes.
"I don't know what kind of double-standard reports will be carried by Hong Kong or Taiwan media this time."
Another user wrote, "What happened in the Hong Kong Legislative Council last year is being repeated in the US Capitol," which got with over 4,500 likes.
Hong Kong protesters had stormed the legislature to demand democracy -- a battle they appear to have lost as China smothers the territory with a national security law, sweeping opposition figures and activists up in mass arrests.
US President-elect Joe Biden said the US rioters were undermining democracy by trying to overturn Trump's defeat in November's election.
US-China hostile relations
The US and China’s relationship has always remained hostile but turned sourer with the arrival of Donald Trump. The two countries relations deteriorated in 2020 with Trump holding China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic and accusing the World Health Organization (WHO) of being Beijing’s puppet.
It further escalated when in May, last year, the U.S. Commerce Department tightened the noose on Huawei, cutting the telecommunications manufacturer off from critical semiconductor suppliers and expanding restrictions on U.S. technology which had a severe attack on China’s 5G business. Banning of Chinese apps like TikTok, WeChat etc, also put an immense loss on the Chinese tech market.
Also Read: 4 dead in US after angry Trump supporters raid Capitol Hill Building
Trump's administration has been involved in a clash with violation of human rights in Xinjiang rule, and its aggressive responses in other issues.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will have to wrestle with all these challenges from day one in office.
It will be interesting to see what’s China’s government has to further say on this latest chaos in the US while what’s in store for Trump after him being criticised across the world for the democratic crisis.