Global Times: US should learn from China about gun control

Following yet another massacre at an American public school, China’s nationalistic Global Times tabloid has taken the opportunity to urge the US to learn from China and restrict gun ownership.

In an editorial published Thursday, titled “China can offer lessons to US in protecting human rights,” the firebrand paper says that the United States has witnessed “mad proliferation of guns and rampant gun violence” and urgently needs to “impose harsh restrictions” on gun purchases.

“The US has no other choice but to adopt gun control,” the article reads. “The right of life is the most fundamental human rights. The right to bear arms cannot overpower the individual’s right to live.”

“Washington has been pointing an accusing finger at other countries over human rights issue,” the editorial continues. “However, more Americans have been killed by gunfire in the country than American soldiers being killed in all US wars. It’s inhumane for the US, which boasts about its human rights record, to turn a blind eye to gun violence, snub increasing calls for gun control and risk more innocent lives.”

Chinese state media have frequently highlighted gun killings and mass shootings in the US, finding them to be an excellent way of crippling America’s soft power and perceived moral authority on issues like human rights.

Each year, China retaliates against the US State Department’s annual human rights report — which charges China with crackdowns against civil rights, political liberties, religious freedoms, etc. — with a report of its own focused on human rights violations that were committed by the US. Epidemic gun violence always takes up a substantial section of the report.

In the wake of the Parkland shooting, in which a 19-year-old gunman took the lives of 17 students and educators with an AR-15 rifle, the Global Times invites to learn from China where gun ownership is strictly regulated:

The US will have to adopt gun control in the future. It’s better to decide sooner rather than later. Gun ownership in China is strictly regulated, which helps reduce gun-related crimes and deaths. The US should learn from China and genuinely protect human rights. If the US does not control its guns, problems caused by firearms in the foreseeable future will continue plaguing US society.

Gun violence is exceedingly rare in China, a country with very strict laws against firearms — though many thousands are still bought online and smuggled in.

However, for a few years earlier this decade, China was plagued by a series of vicious stabbings at primary schools across the country. The highest death toll in one of these attacks was 8 children.

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