Serious domestic US racial discrimination reflects global US injustice: FM spokesperson

BEIJING - The serious racial discrimination and injustice in the United States are reflections of the discrimination and injustice that the United States promotes around the world, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a press briefing when asked to comment on a report that Jayland Walker, an African-American citizen in Ohio, had been killed by eight police officers who fired more than 90 shots, sparking massive protests across the United States.

Zhao noted that it is not uncommon for American police to enforce the law more harshly when dealing with racial minorities. He said that since 2020, there have been 2,563 deaths caused by police enforcement in the United States, with 565 of that number being African Americans, accounting for more than 22 percent.

"This year alone, 49 African Americans have been shot and killed by American police," he said.

From the evils of the slave trade and the expulsion and slaughter of indigenous peoples to the ongoing abject situation and tragic suffering of African Americans and other ethnic minorities, white supremacy and the promotion of white "replacement theory" in the United States are rampant, and systematic and universal racial discrimination is intensifying, Zhao said.

He said the United States, as a State Party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, has failed to take effective measures to address systematic racial discrimination, which constitutes a grave violation of its obligations under the convention.

"How many George Floyd or Jayland Walker deaths are needed before the US government truly reflects on itself and takes practical actions to shed its arrogance and prejudice and achieve fairness and justice?" Zhao said.