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The Chinese state propaganda outlet Global Times lamented a riot in Brazil this weekend as somehow a “made in U.S.” phenomenon that exposed Washington as “phony” and “moralistic.”
The state outlet concluded that the South American riot was proof of the inevitable failure of American-style free societies.
Thousands of protesters attacked the headquarters of the three branches of government – the Congress, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), and Planalto, the presidential palace – in Brasilia, the national capital, on Sunday, causing damage deemed “irreparable” to some of the sites and historical artifacts housed there.
The protesters, opponents of convicted felon President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, are part of a movement demanding for months that the armed forces overturn Lula’s victory in October’s presidential election on the grounds that Lula was convicted of corrupt acts during his last terms in office. The STF overturned the conviction on procedural grounds in 2021, allowing Lula on the ballot. The STF’s role in both allowing Lula to run and censoring references to his conviction prompted widespread outrage in the country; the mob on Sunday damaged the STF headquarters the most of all its targets in response to these decisions.
Lula, a hardline socialist who greatly expanded ties to China during his first two terms in office, defeated conservative Jair Bolsonaro, who also maintained friendly ties with Beijing. A subset of Bolsonaro supporters argues that the Brazilian constitution’s provision to enact “federal interventions” when necessary allows the armed forces to remove an illegitimate president and claim their demand for a military ouster is not akin to a coup d’etat.
No images from the riot appear to indicate any connection to the United States, American politics, or the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot at press time.
Despite the lack of evidence for its case, the Global Times insisted that the American Capitol riot inspired the storming of Brasilia and was a moral defeat for the United States.
