On Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the United States should reflect on why it adopted different positions on the two events. She said the storming of the Hong Kong legislature was more “severe” than the events in Washington, but there were no fatalities among the protesters.

“In … 2019, radical demonstrators [in Hong Kong] violently stormed the city’s Legislative Council building, wantonly damaged facilities, used toxic powders and liquids to attack and beat the police, and even [allegedly] bit a police officer’s finger off,” Hua said. “Facing a situation like this, Hong Kong police had kept a high degree of restraint and no demonstrators died.

“Now the US mainstream media had unanimously criticised violent Trump fans in [Washington], saying it’s a violent event and those protesters are mobs, extremists … But what description did they use on the Hong Kong protest? ‘Beautiful sight’.” Hua was referring to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comments about mass demonstrations in June 2019 in Hong Kong as a “beautiful sight to behold”.