China slams US's 'inaction' on gun violence and 'growing racial hatred' after Charleston church shootings
China, which is often the target of United States human rights accusations, has wasted little time returning such charges following the shooting at a historic black church in South Carolina.
Elsewhere around the world, the attack renewed perceptions that Americans have too many guns and have yet to overcome racial tensions.
Some said the attack reinforced their fears about personal security in the US - particularly as a non-white foreigner - while others said they would still feel safe if they were to visit.
In Australia and northeast Asia, where firearms are controlled and gun violence is almost unheard of, many were baffled by many Americans' determination to own guns despite repeated mass shootings, such as the 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
Australia had a similar attitude toward firearms prior to a 1996 mass shooting that killed 35. Soon after, tight restrictions on gun ownership were imposed and no such incidents have been reported since.
In Britain, the attack reinforced the view America has too many guns and too many racists. newspaper's page one headline said simply, "America's shame".
It said in an editorial that America seemed to have moved backward in racial relations since Obama's election, and that the "obscene proliferation of guns only magnifies tragedies" like the church shooting.
The leftist Mexico City newspaper said the US had become a "structurally violent state" where force was frequently used domestically and internationally to resolve differences.
In China, the Xinhua news agency said the violence in South Carolina "mirrors the US government's inaction on rampant gun violence as well as growing racial hatred in the country.
"Unless US President Barack Obama's government really reflects on his country's deep-rooted issues like racial discrimination and social inequality and takes concrete actions on gun control, such tragedy will hardly be prevented from happening again."
On China's Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service, some users compared the US to lawless Somalia and said racial discrimination was fuelling violence and high crime rates. Many reflected the official view that gun ownership and violent crime were byproducts of Western-style democratic freedoms that were not only unsuited to China, but potentially disastrous.
