This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.
Russia and China seem to have voted with their own interests in mind yesterday in their controversial opposition to a draft resolution at the UN Security Council which calls on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to stop the killings in his country, a revision of an earlier draft calling on Assad to relinquish power.
China justified its decision to veto the draft resolution, saying it wants to promote peace in Syria, and Russia claims to hope for a diplomatic approach to resolving the conflict in the country. As FireDogLake writer David Dayen points out: “The fact that Russia still supplies arms to the Syrian security forces clearly weighed heavily on the vote today.”
US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, confronting Li Baodong, China. Image posted to Weibo.
Unrest in the country has led to an estimated 7,000 deaths since March last year, with more than 200 lives lost in a massacre earlier this week.
Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the People's Daily tabloid Global Times, made today what is perhaps one of the most vocal statements in support of China's decision to veto the draft resolution, ending up under heavy fire in the comments section. Taking offense at Susan Rice‘s reported “disgust” at China's vote, Hu confuses her [zh] with Condoleezza Rice but also writes:
美国代表不点名批评中俄“出卖了叙利亚人民的意愿”。骂去好了。美国多次在安理会涉以色列提案表决时搞“一票否决”，这次中俄是“两票否决”。叶利钦当年说的好：只要中俄联手，美国无论捣鼓什么，“都是手淫”。赞呵。
Almost as a sort of response, writer Ran Yunfei wrote [zh] shortly after that:
一个政府做一次错事可以原谅，不可原谅的是把做错事当成事业。我不是个民族主义者，但百年来的历史证明，中国与俄国的联手从来都没有对过。
One “verified” commentator on Sina Weibo wrote [zh] early Sunday morning Beijing time that Russia and China ought now to be removed the Security Council and China replaced by Taiwan; that post was quickly deleted.
Sorry world, sorry Syria, we Chinese have an evil government. —Michael Anti, on Twitter.
The horrific video below [WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT], however, purportedly of the massacre Thursday in Homs, has not yet been deleted and has gathered hundreds of comments across the different spaces on which it's been embedded. At Sina Video, where it's currently being hosted, the most recent comment reads:
尼玛的我们国家在干什么鸟呀
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.
