BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Wednesday conveyed China's sympathy for the people injured in the recent New York City subway shooting, as well as their families.
According to media reports, at least 29 people were injured in the subway attack in Brooklyn, New York City, on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a daily news briefing that the Chinese Consulate General in New York immediately activated an emergency mechanism for consular protection, and that it has not received any information about Chinese casualties in the incident to date.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Consulate General in New York will continue to follow the development of the incident closely," Zhao said, reminding Chinese citizens in the United States to raise their risk awareness level and ensure their own safety.
Zhao said that recurring tragedies like the Brooklyn subway shooting are a part of the chronic problem of the proliferation of guns and gun violence in the United States, which is in turn a part of the country's chronic human rights problem.
Coincidentally, on the same day of the shooting, the U.S. State Department released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of 2021, which criticized other countries' human rights situations while making no mention of its own deteriorating human rights situation. According to the Gun Violence Archive website, more than 10,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence in the United States so far this year, during which time the country has witnessed at least 130 mass shootings, the spokesperson said.
"The United States has become a veritable 'nation of guns.' We really hope that this kind of tragedy will not happen again, and that American people will be able to live their lives without shootings, without discrimination, without fear," he said.
Zhao stressed that the U.S. government should stop acting as "a lecturer of human rights" and pointing fingers at other countries' human rights situations. "Instead, it should take concrete measures to improve its own terrible human rights situation," he added. ■
