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In the days following the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., Chinese state media maintained a relative silence on the case, even as large protests and what many critics say was a heavy-handed official response attracted international attention.

Many observers had speculated that the Chinese government and state-controlled media would rush to play up Michael Brown’s killing on Aug. 9 and the unrest that followed as an example of how the United States, which frequently criticizes China over its human rights record, has deep problems at home.

Last week Chinese media coverage of the death of Mr. Brown was limited to short items that relied on foreign news agencies to spell out the bare essentials of the case. That changed late Sunday when the state-run Xinhua News Agency issued a commentary in Chinese, later published on Monday in English with the headline, “Ferguson riot reveals U.S. racial divide, human rights flaw.”



The piece quotes Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech and notes that the slain civil rights leader’s vision remains unfulfilled more than 50 years later. It lists the 1992 Los Angeles riots as an example of how racial inequality can “jeopardize social peace and security” in the United States.

It continues:

The Ferguson incident once again demonstrates that even if in a country that has for years tried to play the role of an international human rights judge and defender, there is still much room for improvement at home. In its annual human rights report issued in February, the United States assaulted almost 200 countries across the world for their so-called poor human rights records. However, the U.S. human rights flaws extend far beyond racial issues. As revealed by famous whistleblower Edward Snowden, the U.S. government has hacked into emails and mobile phones of ordinary Americans as well as leaders of other countries, including traditional U.S. allies. What’s more, Uncle Sam has witnessed numerous shooting sprees on its own land and launched incessant drone attacks on foreign soil, resulting in heavy civilian casualties. Each country has its own national conditions that might lead to different social problems. Obviously, what the United States needs to do is to concentrate on solving its own problems rather than always pointing fingers at others.

While Chinese state news outlets can be highly critical of problems in American society and its government’s actions abroad, they can be slow to comment on events in the United States that may provoke discussion of similar phenomena in China, such as violent crackdowns last spring on protests against a planned chemical plant in the southern city of Maoming. That’s particularly the case with breaking news in which the tenor of coverage can turn, as when the assignment of the state highway patrol to take over security temporarily eased tensions last Thursday in Ferguson.

Chinese media are often vocal in response to American fault-finding with China. The annual human rights report from the United States State Department, which has long been highly critical of China, can trigger indignant responses from China, and an annual report that documents injustices in the United States.

With the publication of Xinhua’s discussion of Ferguson, the Chinese public has gradually begun to take up the subject on social media.

“How can the ‘paradise of freedom’ implement a curfew? This is a naked infringement of American’s human rights,” wrote one Beijing-based commenter on Sina Weibo. “We can’t help but ask, what power do police have to shoot pedestrians without reason?”