While other nations have offered their condolences to the victims of the subway attack in Brooklyn, China has seized it as an opportunity to slam the United States for being hypocritical as the attack took place the same day that Washington issued a report criticizing the human rights record of other governments, including Beijing.

During a daily press conference on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that China “always opposes and condemns acts of gun violence, and expresses our sympathies to the injured and their families.”

Zhao further urged “Chinese citizens in the U.S. to raise security awareness and protect their safety,” as violence in the United States continues to skyrocket. 

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“Tragedies like the shooting at the Brooklyn subway station have been happening time and again, which has to do with the endemic of gun proliferation and gun violence in the U.S.,” Zhao said.

“Gun violence is a grave, persistent human rights problem in U.S. society,” he added. 

Bashing the State Department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that was released just hours before the subway shooting, Zhao said how the United States made “groundless accusations about other countries’ human rights conditions throughout” without any “mention of the deteriorating human rights situation at home,” which include “systemic racial discrimination, violent law enforcement and other serious issues.”

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Citing the Gun Violence Archive website, the Chinese spokesperson counted a figure of over 10,000 people killed in the United States due to gun violence, including 131 mass shootings. Zhao then went on to question, “Aren’t the numbers staggering enough to alert the U.S.? Isn’t the life and security of its own people worth the attention of the U.S.?”

“The U.S. is undoubtedly a country of shooting. We sincerely hope such tragedy as shooting at the Brooklyn station will not happen again, and the American people can truly live without gunshots, discrimination and fear,” Zhao said. 

“The U.S. government can by no means lecture others on human rights. What it should do is stop passing judgment on other countries’ human rights conditions and do something concrete to improve the poor human rights conditions within its borders,” he added.