Opinion | Fury over Rittenhouse verdict, 'sign of US decline'?
By Augustus K. Yeung
Introduction
Do you believe it? It is totally unbelievable: Ever since US President Joe Biden moved into the White House starting January 2021, his administration has not stopped bashing Beijing. So unfailing is this unmistakable act of global aggression, even the Times, one of America's authoritative newspapers, finds this act of barbarism newsworthy enough to report about it.
"As relations deteriorate, China's leaders seek a strategy to push back," reports Steven L. Myers et al, "From China's perspective, the blows from the United States just keep coming. Sanctions and export controls over the crackdown in Xinjiang. A warning to international businesses about the deteriorating climate in Hong Kong. The rejection of visas for students and researchers suspected of having links to the People's Liberation Army."
"Now the United States has rallied a broad array of nations to accuse the Chinese Military of State Security not only of cyber espionage but also of hacking for profit and political intrigue."
"The torrent of attacks has infuriated Beijing, but six months into the tenure of President Biden, the Communist Party leadership has yet to find an effective strategy to counter the American moves." ("Frustration in Beijing at U.S. accusations." The New York Times, July 24-25, 2021.)
Therefore, China's state media outlets have seized on the polarization in the United States over the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict as a sign of "decline" and "disintegration" of American democracy and governance.
Fierce debates about race, gun rights, and self-defense erupted in the US after a court in the state of Wisconsin on Friday cleared the Rittenhouse, now 18, of all charges over the fatal shooting of two men and the wounding of another during racial justice protests in Kenosha in August last year.
CCTV, the State Broadcaster on "Rittenhouse"
The mainland's state broadcaster CCTV, which has reported on the case and its fallout since Saturday, said yesterday the "Rittenhouse incident is like a macroscope, revealing all the divisions and contradictions in American society".
"The verdict has also pushed Biden into a political dilemma," an anchor said, referring to President Joe Biden who has publicly voiced his anger over the verdict but urged the public to abide by the jury system.
The anchor said Republicans were trying to use the Rittenhouse case to stir up public anger towards Democrats.
China Daily Also Play Up the Divisions
State-run China Daily, an English-language newspaper, also played up the divisions, publishing an article in Chinese on NetEase new platform 163.com about former US president Donald Trump congratulating Rittenhouse, as well as clashes between riot police and protesters at the weekend after the verdict.
(The coverage is part of a broader messaging campaign by the mainland's state media to present the American system as chaotic amid a growing rivalry between the two countries.)
Relations between Beijing and Washington are at one of their lowest points in decades, marked by a wide-ranging conflict and competition on human rights, technology and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, "a box of chocolates" (as Forest Gump puts it) with trumped-up-incidents manufactured in Washington.
State News Agency, Xinhua's Comment
State media also seized on the unrest in the US in January, touting the strength of its authoritarian system and the turmoil in Washington when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 16.
At the time, state news agency Xinhua called it the collapse of "the American beacon" for Western liberal democracy, proving the system was a "failure".
Columns and reports in various media outlets on the mainland have continued the theme in recent days, saying the Rittenhouse case was a tipping point of further "division" in the US.
The Perspective from the Global Times
"The US is one firm step towards breaking into two nations," tabloid Global Times said in a headline on a column published under the pseudonym Gengzhi Ge on Sunday.
"The follow-up analyses in US media and the polarized views between Republics and Democrats have again demonstrated how divided American society is," the column said.
"This has pushed for more Americans to think—if our values and understanding are so different, why are we in the same country making each other's lives difficult? Why don't we split up?"
(The article was read more than 100,000 times on WeChat by yesterday.)
("Fury over Rittenhouse verdict 'sign of US decline." South China Morning Post, Wednesday, November 24, 2021.)
Another opinion piece published on the social media account of Niu Tanqin mocked the divisions exposed by the Rittenhouse verdict, saying they were, "yet another beautiful sight to behold".
Conclusion
Have China's major official news outlets hit the nail on the head? Or they have missed out on the more lethal rivalry, leading to eventual decoupling between the Republican Party and its rival the Democratic Party.
This could have been the result of a Chinese gun trained at the wrong American target, the US justice system, missing the growing bipartisan bickering that is damaging to the United States constitution now and for the days and years to come.
One thing for sure: The United States, not precisely the "Rittenhouse" but the White House—a symbol of power---in Washington is collapsing within sight. For the readers' first-hand information, a synopsis is listed as follows:
"As two closely watched murder trials played out in two states in the past week, juries heard strikingly similar stories: Men took up guns in the name of protecting the public, and when they wound up killing unarmed people [and] they claimed self-defense.
"In one case, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded a third in the unrest following a police shooting in Kenosha, Wis. In the other, Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was shot after a pursuit by three white men who said they suspected him of a series of break-ins in the neighborhood.
"In both cases, the defendants claim they were entitled to start shooting because the victims were trying to take their guns.
"In other words, their own decision to carry a gun became a justification to use it, lest it be wrested away from them," said Eric Ruben, an expert on the Second Amendment at Southern Methodist University in Dallas."
For legal experts like Mr. Ruben and others, these two cases expose deep fault lines in the legal and moral concept of self-defense--a doctrine that is particularly cherished in America, but ill-equipped to handle an era of expanded gun rights, growing political extremism, violent threats and a strong vigilante strain--all in a country where the perception of threat is heavily influenced by race. ("Trials expose fault lines in U.S. concept of self-defense." The New York Times, Monday, November 15, 2021.)
(NOTE: For the interest of our readers, the details of this court case and its social significance will be revealed in my next article.)
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
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