Chinese social media users react to the Texas school shooting: 'Is this the price of America's freedom?'

[beijingwalker]

Chinese social media users react to the Texas school shooting: 'Is this the price of America's freedom?'​

Waiyee Yip
May. 25 2022

• The Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas was a trending topic on China's Twitter-like Weibo.
• The Weibo hashtag "21 dead in Texas elementary school shooting" got more than 140 million views.
• Many users in China wondered about the seemingly heavy cost of American democracy and freedom.

"Is this the price of America's freedom?"

That's what one user wrote on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo, in response to Tuesday's Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The shooting was a trending topic on the Chinese social platform Wednesday morning, with the Weibo hashtag "21 dead in Texas elementary school shooting" receiving more than 140 million views.

Among the thousands of comments on the platform related to the shooting, many had to do with the seemingly heavy cost of freedom and democracy in the US.

"Having the freedom to carry guns and killing elementary school students — if this is what it means to have democratic freedom, I don't want it," one person wrote.

"They had freedom. But they also lost their lives," another wrote.

Other users called for gun control in the country. "How many more deaths do American need before they ban guns? Those poor children, this is too cruel," one Weibo user said.

China has some of the world's "strictest gun control laws," per CNN,allowing only a few groups of people to own guns, including law enforcement and government-approved sport shooters.

Gun crime is so rare in the country that when news broke that a man had shot dead a lawyer in Wuhan city last year, Chinese social media users thought they were reading about an American shooting, the outlet said.

The Robb Elementary School shooting is the deadliest elementary school mass shooting in the US since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, which left 27 people dead in Newtown, Connecticut. Each of the 20 child victims was aged 6 and 7.

Chinese social media users react to the Texas school shooting: 'Is this the price of America's freedom?'

The shooting was a trending topic in China, with a hashtag related to the incident getting more than 140 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo.

www.insider.com

 

[Beast]

Chinese feel so blessed living in China and not terrible US. If China opened the floodgate of immigration. Surely millions of american will migrant the China.

Unfortunately, our criteria to accept migration is very strict compare to US loose acceptance of migrants.

@Hamartia Antidote @gambit

 

[beijingwalker]

Chinese public had seen through US lies and schemes for quite a long time.

 

[Beast]

It's a big joke those frog in the well brag about superior US system and how terrible China government is. You mean getting shot on street or school is a superior life u wanna life in? That is the American dream?

 

[dbc]

It's a big joke those frog in the well brag about superior US system and how terrible China government is. You mean getting shot on street or school is a superior life u wanna life in? That is the American dream?

you do know there have been mass stabbing incidents all over the world including in China, the most recent one in the city of Anqing in 2021. So is China going to ban kitchen knives?

If guns are banned troubled souls will find other means to lash out. With knives, motor vehicles or acid. As tragic as this incident is, the root cause I suspect is mental health related as was the case in the Sandy Hook mass shooting incident of 2012.

The system in the US, China and elsewhere needs to be improved to identify individuals with mental health issues early enough for medical intervention.

33 Dead, 130 Injured in China Knife-Wielding Spree

<p>State officials blame the attack in Yunnan province on separatist 'terrorists.'</p>

www.nbcnews.com

China mass stabbing: Deadly knife attack in Kunming

An attack by knife-wielding men at a railway station in Kunming, south-west China, has left at least 29 people dead, the state news agency says.

www.bbc.com

As America struggles with gun violence, China faces its own public safety threat: mass stabbings | CNN

Editor's note: CNN will be launching the Meanwhile in China newsletter on June 21, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country's rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

www.cnn.com

Seven killed in knife attack in China's Liaoning province

At least seven people are killed in a stabbing frenzy in the city of Kaiyuan, with a suspect in custody.

www.bbc.com

 

[beijingwalker]

you do know there have been mass stabbing incidents all over the world including in China, the most recent one in the city of Anqing in 2021. So is China going to ban kitchen knives?

If guns are banned troubled souls will find other means to lash out. With knives, motor vehicles or acid. As tragic as this incident is, the root cause I suspect is mental health related as was the case in the Sandy Hook mass shooting incident of 2012.

The system in the US, China and elsewhere needs to be improved to identify individuals with mental health issues early enough for medical intervention.

33 Dead, 130 Injured in China Knife-Wielding Spree

<p>State officials blame the attack in Yunnan province on separatist 'terrorists.'</p>

www.nbcnews.com

China mass stabbing: Deadly knife attack in Kunming

An attack by knife-wielding men at a railway station in Kunming, south-west China, has left at least 29 people dead, the state news agency says.

www.bbc.com

As America struggles with gun violence, China faces its own public safety threat: mass stabbings | CNN

Editor's note: CNN will be launching the Meanwhile in China newsletter on June 21, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country's rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

www.cnn.com

Seven killed in knife attack in China's Liaoning province

At least seven people are killed in a stabbing frenzy in the city of Kaiyuan, with a suspect in custody.

www.bbc.com

”March 2, 2014, 1:22 AM CST ”

The very fact that you have to quote something about China almost decade ago tells volume, we see US mass shooting on daily basis and you list some crimes in China on decade basis, see the difference now?

 

[Chat SAMOSA]

If we don't ask this question about "is that the price of freedom" then we are stupid.

America has to get rid of guns among civilian population. Constitution cannot be the excuse - it must be changed.

China gave up communistic economic policy and greatly benefitted.

Saudi Arabia is trying to breakaway from its shackles of interpreted religion.

US is stuck in the mentality of 1700s in this respect.

The other day I read (in PDF) somebody wrote about how pragmatic Chinese have become - this enables them to minimize structural faults and not be chained to bad decisions. They'll keep calling it communism but do what the situation warrants. Recent example : every parent in US UK India etc have been complaining about destructive effects of online games and unlimited social networking time. Only China did someone about it.

 

[ThisUser]

So did these americans call him terrorist or mental retard?

 

[dbc]

”March 2, 2014, 1:22 AM CST ”

The very fact that you have to quote something about China almost decade ago tells volume, we see US mass shooting on daily basis and you list some crimes in China on decade basis, see the difference now?

has the political system in China changed since 2014? I don't think so. So your objection is overruled. Also, I literally posted a link to another mass knifing incident in 2021 in my earlier post -so try harder.

 

[beijingwalker]

has the political system in China changed since 2014? I don't think so. So your objection is overruled. Also, I literally posted a link to another mass knifing incident in 2021 in my earlier post -so try harder.

We are talking about crimes and terrorism, not political systems. I never said China had no crimes at all, but comparing with daily US mass shooting? are you for real?

 

[DF41]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1529253898967392257

 

[dbc]

We are talking about crimes and terrorism, not political systems. I never said China had no crimes at all, but comparing with daily US mass shooting? are you for real?

Beast talked about the political system in the US, I replied to hist post and then you butted in and completely missed the context.

 

[Beast]

Beast talked about the political system in the US, I replied to hist post and then you butted in and completely missed the context.

Lol... US mass murder occur almost every week, compare to Chinese once in a while knife attack every 5 years and some troll want to claim it's comparable? That means Japan is also consider a very unsafe country.

Are you desperate to save face for broken USA system? Must be too ashame to admit US is a failed state and system.

has the political system in China changed since 2014? I don't think so. So your objection is overruled. Also, I literally posted a link to another mass knifing incident in 2021 in my earlier post -so try harder.

The political has changed in China and better. No serious terrorism or mass murder for many years, unlike US mass murder every week.

Thanks to Chinese strict law and surveillance system that protect lives of ordinary Chinese. Remember a dead man has no freedom!

 

[beijingwalker]

Chonese are habituated to be killed and hanged by CPC regime in mass execution in China. Individual doing it new for Chinese.

Lol, but how come we Chinese have much longer life expectancy than you poor Indians?

 

[MultaniGuy]

It's a big joke those frog in the well brag about superior US system and how terrible China government is. You mean getting shot on street or school is a superior life u wanna life in? That is the American dream?

Pakistanis would rather work with Chinese Communists than say with Americans. At least the Chinese are not murderous idiots.

Personally, I wish Pakistan would copy the Chinese one-party system.

Democracy or democrazy is kind of stupid.