Opinion | Outcry over Chinese state media coverage of tragic school attacks
Two parallel incidents of mass violence occurred over the weekend: a shooting in Connecticut, in the United States, and a knife attack in Henan province, China - both involved men walking into schools and attacking scores of young children.
The biggest difference, however, was that 20 of the young US victims died. In Henan, 22 children were injured, but nobody died.
International media quickly picked up the Connecticut story. Topics such as "gun laws" and "NRA" immediately became trending topics on Twitter. Outside Chinese social media, the Henan knife attack barely caused a ripple. Even in China, state media outlets gave minimal coverage to the attacks, instead opting to cover the Connecticut story more intensively.
The contrasting casualty figures of the attacks left Chinese officials and state media swollen with pride about the country’s strict firearms laws. They moved in to lambast their American counterparts for their inability to garner political will to enact effective gun regulation.
A degree of nationalistic fervour also stirred up in the Chinese blogosphere.