China quotes WaPo: U.S. used to be known for Coca-Cola, Levi’s, now gun violence
China’s official media closely and diligently follows, gathers, and reworks any negative news coverage in the American media. In this issue, we look at their effort on the topics of gun and political violence in the U.S., in the duration of one month: September 2022.
Sept. 4: CCTV (China Central Television) News had a story on its website titled “Violence, visible or invisible, is spreading in this country.” It borrowed from a number of stories in U.S. media including this one from the Washington Post of Aug. 29, “The world is taking America’s decline seriously. We should, too” along with this quote:
“The United States' most famous exports used to be Coca-Cola, Levi’s, and jazz — not to mention such ideals as freedom, civil rights, and the rule of law. Now, we're best known for rampant gun violence and gruesome school shootings.”
The Washington Post piece also told of someone who changed her mind about living in the U.S. because she couldn’t imagine her children had to practice “active shooting drills.”
Sept. 6: People’s Daily Overseas Edition carried a piece titled “American survey: U.S. society is seriously torn and majority of people worry escalation of political violence.” It was a translation of this New York Post story of Sept. 5, “Most Americans concerned about escalating political violence: poll,” which was about an Aug. 2022 CBS News/YouGov poll where 64% of respondents believed the prospect of political violence would increase, up from 57% in Dec. 2021, 80% believed the U.S. was more divided now than during their parents’ generation, and more than half said for the next generation the U.S. would be less of a democracy than today.
Sept. 8: People’s Daily reprinted a story from its Overseas Edition titled “Over 30,000 people in U.S. died from gun violence this year. Average of 1.8 mass shootings happen a day.” It was a partial translation of a report in The Hill with this title, “16 killed in mass shootings over long holiday weekend: watchdog.” The Hill story used data from Gun Violence Archive including 16 people killed and 47 people injured in mass shootings during Labor Day weekend and more than 30,000 deaths from gun violence to date in 2022.
Sept. 14: People’s Daily Overseas Edition posted a story with the title “21 years after 9/11, American society even less safe.” It included data from several American sources, such as Gun Violence Archive, a CNN poll, National Shooting Sports Foundation, etc. It used statistics from GVA, for instance, of the numbers of gun-related deaths of 2020 and 2021, and statistics from NSSF of the numbers of guns sold in those two years. It also quoted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in an interview on MSNBC that domestic extremism was now “the greatest terrorist-related threat we have in the homeland."
Sept. 20: People’s Daily Overseas Edition ran another In-Depth story titled “Is America entering ‘Era of Political Violence’”? It was based on stories from U.S. news outlets such as CBS News, the Atlantic, the New York Times, etc. It translated in length a story in Los Angeles Daily in August titled “Politically, Americans are feeling the heat,” quoting and expanding on the statement “the United States was conceived in violence.” It also quoted a poll published in Science that one in five Americans believed violence motivated by political reasons was—at least sometimes—justified, and nearly half expected a civil war.
Sept. 26: China Daily published a piece titled “American media calling for abolishing Second Amendment and joining civilized world. Gun violence so severe it is like ‘battling your own people.’” It was basically a translation of an article that appeared in Black Star News, with this title, “THE TIME HAS COME TO REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT,” especially this quote, “Without the Second Amendment, wrote Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, states and towns would be free to pass their own gun laws that wouldn't be overturned again and again by courts citing either the Second Amendment or other precedent reliant on the Second Amendment.”
Sept. 28: Global Times carried a piece titled “Harvard study: Gun violence costs the U.S. more than $500 billion a year! The economy, enterprises, and employees all bear a huge burden.” It was translated from a story carried by many news outlets on Sept. 27 including Bloomberg with this title: “Gun violence costs the US $557 billion a year.” It was about a study by Harvard Medical School researchers published in the journal JAMA that found that gun violence cost the US some $557 billion annually, or 2.6% of GDP.