China’s government-run Global Times newspaper observed American Independence Day on Sunday by claiming Americans have nothing to celebrate, as their country has become “selfish,” failed on “the race issue,” and is currently “in its least confident stage.”
Chinese propagandists on social media used the Fourth of July as an excuse to disparage America based on a jumble of unrelated news stories from the country — from Chinese coronavirus vaccination rates to the collapse of a condominium building in Miami. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also joined in by sharing a video of leftist American students stating they did not feel proud of their country, a sentiment the analog of which is illegal to express under the Communist Party in China.
An editorial by Global Times staff published to mark July 4 featured a political cartoon depicting a party at the White House to celebrate Independence Day that included among the guests what appeared to be a Chinese coronavirus cell enjoying a glass of champagne. The text of the piece questioned why President Joe Biden had organized a Fourth of July celebration at the White House — a tradition that nearly every president has upheld — when coronavirus infections continue in the country.
The Communist Party organized hundreds of mass gatherings — including a 70,000-person assembly in Tiananmen Square, Beijing — last week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Party’s founding, despite the fact that coronavirus infections remain largely out of control there and vaccination rates remain low. Chinese authorities revealed the discovery of yet a new outbreak, in southern Yunnan province, Monday.
“The Biden administration has been desperately searching for US achievements today like trying to sift bronze from a pile of dirt. However, the US is facing many uncertainties on the arrival of Independence Day,” the Global Times, which covered the Yunnan outbreak, nonetheless asserted. “After being established as a nation for 245 years, now the US is in its least confident stage.”
“The malpractice of party politics has seriously eroded the efficiency of the US democratic system. The race issue is almost unbridgeable, and its escalation shows certain irreversibility,” the state propaganda outlet continued, without elaborating. “Washington’s inability to deal with a public crisis has been exposed in the epidemic, and it now can only rely on vaccines. But this policy is a gamble, because scientists generally believe that at least for now, vaccines alone cannot end the epidemic.”
The editorial went on to accuse Biden of being callous for organizing the annual July 4 party in light of the fact that recovery operations continue at the former Champlain Towers South in Miami. The Global Times condemned Biden for not taking a more active personal role in the efforts, despite the fact that, under a federal system, local incidents like the tower collapse do not fall under Washington’s control. Similarly, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping has taken no significant role in responding to the many infrastructure disasters in China during his tenure, from the 2015 Tianjin chemical explosion to the allegedly intentional flooding of entire villages to protect the Three Gorges Dam last summer.
“The fact that the White House party for a thousand people will be held in the absence of progress or definitive conclusions about the rescue effort in the Miami building collapse shows the real indifference of the US disguised by its humanitarian rhetoric,” the Global Times claimed. “The country enters a season of joy spearheaded by the president when it is not even conformed [sic] whether the missing are alive.”
“The US still maintains certain power to rally countries internationally, but such rallying power is realized through coercion, even intimidation, rather than through convincing allies and developing countries,” the Global Times concluded. “But now the US has become increasingly selfish, openly using international tools that it controls to expand American self interests.”
On social media, the Global Times‘ top editor Hu Xijin joined in personally on attacking Biden for celebrating Independence Day, questioning Biden’s description of the holiday as being meant for “special celebration” in light of modest festivities in 2020, the product of China’s poor handling of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in 2019.
Is it so? Does the Republican Party agree? Do those black who call for Black Lives Matter, and those poor Americans agree? Do families of the missing in Miami building collapse agree? pic.twitter.com/LmwtAAMSJo
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) July 5, 2021
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not issue any official statements on American Independence Day during its regular briefings on Friday or Monday. One of the ministry’s top spokespersons, Hua Chunying, shared a video Monday of a leftist student describing America as “embarrassing.” The student in the video, unlike critics of China within China, has not faced any police action against her person for her remarks.
"Are you proud to be #American?" "No… I think a lot of things about this country are really embarrassing…racist history, colonization, and even…politics the cops"—an interview at the neighborhood around Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. on July 4. https://t.co/49gPXIBhzZ
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) July 5, 2021
Chinese government outlets have made disparaging America on July 4 an annual tradition. Last year, the Global Times called the holiday “dark” and “confusing” in light of coronavirus limits of mass gatherings.
“This year’s Independence Day celebration is indeed unusual. The superpower has become one of the most fragile countries during the [Chinese coronavirus] pandemic,” the propaganda outlet claimed. “Its ability to control the pandemic and its adherence to humanitarianism have both fallen to the lower limits of human society. No matter how the US government explains the situation, it will seriously harm Americans’ sense of pride and the world’s respect toward the country.”
The Global Times concluded that, due to then-President Donald Trump, America was “being hijacked by a radical political culture and has lost the calmness and stability of a superpower in formulating policies.” It claimed there was “no way out” for the country, less than a year after Biden became president on a radically different ideological agenda than his predecessor.
In 2019, prior to the pandemic, Chinese propaganda outlets similarly lectured Americans.
“Living with admiration … of the U.S. is not the way to go,” an Independence Day editorial in the Global Times warned.
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