Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
- As the world woke up on Thursday, officials from China, Russia, Venezuela, and elsewhere took jabs at the pro-Trump chaos that erupted Wednesday in the US Capitol.
- Some government officials who had sparred with US interests overseas seemed to be gloating, if not outright happy, about what happened.
- “What we saw in the US last night and today really showed that first how floppy and weak the Western democracy is, and how weak its foundations are,” said Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, according to Al Manar TV.
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On Twitter on Thursday, Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, posted a 45-second video of protesters smashing their way into a Hong Kong government buildings in 2019.
She didn’t add a comment, but the implication was clear: America, which has long seen itself as a shining democratic beacon for the rest of the world, now had the same problems with unrest as other countries.
—Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) January 7, 2021
As the world woke up on Thursday, officials from China, Russia, Venezuela, and elsewhere took jabs at the pro-Trump chaos that erupted Wednesday in the US Capitol.
Many government officials who had sparred with US interests overseas seemed to be playfully gloating, if not expressing outright happiness, about what had happened.
The English-language account for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs retweeted a post by Dmitry Polyanskiy, a state UN representative.
Polyanskiy said the photos streaming out of Washington looked similar to those from Maidan, Ukraine. In 2013, Victoria Nuland, then assistant US secretary of state, had reportedly offered snacks to protestors there.
—Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) January 6, 2021
"Some of my friends ask whether someone will distribute crackers to the protestors to echo Victoria Nuland stunt. My guess is that chances are meagre, there is no US Embassy in Washington!" Polyanskiy wrote, adding a winking emoji.
Chinese social media users compared US rioters to the Arab Spring and the colour revolution, according to The Financial Times.
Officials from Venezuela and Turkey posted messages similar to those that US officials had posted about them in the past, as Poynter first reported.
Turkish officials said they "believe the U.S. will overcome this internal political crisis in a mature manner." But they added: "We advise Turkish citizens in the U.S. to avoid crowded areas and places where protests are taking place."
To Poynter, that warning sounded very familiar. The media watchdog noted that US officials had recently advised citizens "to exercise heightened caution in locations where Americans or foreigners may gather" in Turkey.
Venezuela's Jorge Arreaza, foreign minister, on Twitter posted a message saying in part: "With this unfortunate episode, the United States suffers the same thing that they have generated in other countries with their policies of aggression."
In Cuba, Presidente Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez posted a message with a quote that read in part: "...one who observes how in the United States, instead of tightening the causes of union, they loosen; instead of solving the problems of humanity, they reproduce..."
—Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) January 7, 2021
The quote was from José Martí, a Cuban philosopher-poet from the 1800s, who had been idealized by nationalists after his death, according to the Library of Congress.
In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani spoke about the "damages" caused by President Donald Trump, according to Al Manar TV.
"What we saw in the US last night and today really showed that first how floppy and weak the Western democracy is, and how weak its foundations are," he said on Thursday.
