Across the world, people are learning different lessons from #BlackLivesMatter.

In some countries, developments in Ferguson and Staten Island are leading opinion makers to question the United States and what it stands for. Their judgment, in other words, is focused outwards. Elsewhere, the opposite is true, as some use this moment to raise uncomfortable questions about their own imperfect democracies.

We have picked five opinion pieces from around the world that capture some of the diverse reactions that #BlackLivesMatter has elicited.

“Irony of America’s finger-pointing at China,” China Daily

Context: China was recently upbraided by the U.S. State Department for “eroding” its commitment to the “One Country, Two Systems” model in Hong Kong. The United States has frequently called out Beijing for its human rights record..

From the op-ed: “The practice of finger-pointing is always tainted with a touch of irony. When you point the index finger at someone, inevitably you have three fingers pointing right back at yourself.

“So when America’s top diplomat for East Asia Daniel Russel expressed on Wednesday concerns about China’s internal affairs, he was apparently not aware of the bitter irony.

“After examining America’s staggering racial disparity, one cannot help wondering whether the U.S. accusation of the Chinese government this time was another political tactic of shunning criticism at itself. No one would be surprised if the assumption is true.”

Take away: Ferguson and Eric Garner cases reveal U.S. hypocrisy.

“Obama sets examples of police state, not democracy,” Hürriyet

Context: Turkey has also been accused of frequent human rights abuses. During the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in 2013, 11 people were killed by clashes with the police. President Tayyip Recep Erdogan defended the police’s actions by suggesting that, had the U.S. police been faced with a similar situation, they would have responded in a similar way.

From the op-ed: “Such examples [Ferguson and Eric Garner cases] damage and devalue the U.S.’s democracy and rule of law recommendations to other countries with democratic problems, which is bad for improving democracy and human rights standards around the world.”

The writer then shows how Erdogan has used the U.S. example to defend police brutality in Istanbul.

“If you dare, try to throw a stone at police in America,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan challenged main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies who criticized police brutality against protesters. “You cannot.”

Take away: Police brutality weakens the U.S. ability to pressure foreign governments on human rights questions.

“Ferguson in Toulouse: when the license to kill and repression commonplace,” Le Monde

Context: A 21-year-old environmentalist activist in France, Rémi Fraisse, was fatally wounded by a police grenade during a protest in October near Toulouse. His death sparked protests and riots across the country, as protesters demanded an “end to the license to kill.”

This op-ed, which was co-signed by leading intellectuals across the world, sounds an alarm about police brutality and repression. Signatories include Etienne Balibar, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek and others. They lambast the government for Fraisse’s death, and for restricting anti-police protests.

Speaking about the United States, the authors write “the police and military repression launched against the protests reflects the collapsed illusions about a ‘post-racial democracy.’” They note that things aren’t better in France.

From the op-ed: “But the defense of democratic freedoms, the right to express oneself, protest and condemn police violence are not negotiable. It is intolerable that a protester should be arrested and convicted only because he protests, but it is even more intolerable that this happens without creating mass indignation.

“We who sign this forum are “intellectuals” as the saying goes. But as Sartre at the time of the war of Algeria reminded us, there aren’t intellectuals on one side and the masses on the other. Both are people who want things and fight for them, and they are all equal. Today the situation is serious, the most basic democratic rights are in danger, and the revolt rumbles legitimately.”

Take away: Protests are justified by eroding freedoms, both in France and the United States.

“What the conflicts in Ferguson and Israel have in common,” Haaretz

Context: Israel has seen a dramatic increase in unrest and violence recently. Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to protest proposed changes to the status quo of the Temple Mount last month. November also saw a bloody attack in a West Jerusalem synagogue, in which four Israelis were killed by two Palestinian men.

From the op-ed: “What does this [Ferguson and Staten Island deaths] have to do with Jews and Palestinians? Actually, quite a bit.

“The challenge is to put aside your fury long enough to investigate the different experiences that might lead an African American in Ferguson to loathe the cops or a Palestinian to loathe Israel. That doesn’t mean justifying violence.”

“Travelling through Ben-Gurion Airport as a Jew is vastly different from travelling through it as a Palestinian, just as getting stopped by the police can be vastly different depending on whether you’re white or black. But very few American Jews, and very few white Americans, have been told, face-to-face, what that alternative experience is like. America’s discourse about race, and the American Jewish community’s discourse about Israel, would be much better if they had.”

Take away: Like white Americans, Israelis should learn about how their life experiences are privileged compared to those who accuse them of discrimination, oppression and worse.

“#DeconstructingFerguson and lessons for black South Africa in black America,” Africaisacountry.com

Context: South Africa struggles with its own unique set of complex race relations. The author of the op-ed, T.O Molefe, points to the fact that “racist attacks [are] on the rise,” “affirmative action is often decried as ‘reverse racism’” and “only 53% of white South Africans believe apartheid was a crime.”

From the op-ed: “I confess envy. The ease, conviction and singleness of purpose with which the young black Americans in the circle [I was in] spoke about their social realities and the imperative for justice made me reflect on similar conversations I’d attempted with young black South Africans and my peers in the middle class.

“While many of those I spoke to are able to break down the social realities of being black in a supposedly post-apartheid South Africa, many more are insular and believe assimilating into structures and practices forged in the country’s colonial history will protect from its inherent anti-black biases.”

“Black America’s already learned, or is at least learning, that this is not true, and is conceptualizing ways to organize against it. Well, most of black American anyway, excepting for people like Pharrell, Bill Cosby and Don Lemon who preach respectability as the savior of blacks.

“Thus, by my assessment, black America presently is in the throes of a conversation that, without a radical intervention, black South Africans will be having in another 20 to 30 years, maybe more.”

Take away: Black South Africans can learn from Black Americans about their open confrontation with racism.

PHOTO: A police officer holds a shield outside the Berkeley Police Department headquarters as protesters march against the New York City grand jury decision to not indict in the death of Eric Garner in Berkeley, California, Dec. 8, 2014. REUTERS/Stephen Lam