London residents have condemned the riots started by far-right protesters across the UK following the murder of three girls in Southport late last month.
The UK has been gripped by unrest and what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called "far-right thuggery" after three young girls were killed and several others injured in a stabbing by a 17-year-old boy on July 29 in the northwest town of Southport. The violence broke out after social media posts falsely claimed that the suspected attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
In interviews with China Global Television Network (CGTN), many Londoners expressed their opposition to the rioters.
"I mean it can be difficult when you're coming to work, because you don't know where things are happening. But so far, we've been really lucky and haven't seen anything," said Rich, a financial consultant.
"It's pretty... it's fine where I am, where we live. We're quite an accepting community, we're a good community. So, nothing has really changed. But obviously we're all quite aware of the situation everywhere else. A lot of people I know are getting involved in peace protests and that kind of stuff," said Oli, a company director.
"It's a bit sad because lots of my friends didn't want to go out this week. So, I think everyone's really angry about the riots. I think everyone wants to come together. But the general feeling is quite disappointed, in the way that people have acted," said a lawyer named Natalie.
Oli said people are "disgusted by" the issue, meanwhile Natalie echoed that "the riots are disgusting, these people are awful".
The interviewees also showed their support to counterprotesters who have been fighting racism, and expressed their concerns on the UK's image to the rest of the world.
"I am very much against them. I was really pleased to see the news this morning that in so many different areas around the UK, anti-(racism) protesters and people who are welcoming asylum seekers and people who are not from this country who need help [have] outnumbered a lot of the far-right protesters. I was really pleased to see that because actually I think the majority of English people, or people who live in the UK, do feel that way," said a PR consultant named Heather.
"All I would say is hopefully people across the world realize that it's the few that believe [in] these really hateful and horrible things, not everyone and not many, because we don't," said Oli.
Many interviewees believe the measures currently taken by the government are effective to quash the riots, while some others calling for more approaches.
"So, the government has cracked down against the protests and they've employed the police to make sure that areas are safe. And obviously put people in prison for where they have rioted. So, I think that's some really good steps of what they've done," Rich said.
"It's one of those situations, it's hard. You're not going to please everyone and everyone's going to criticize you. But I think in general that everything that could be done has been done," said Oli.
"I think they need to take more measures. And I think from what I've seen, it's mainly people in the public that are helping people, rather than the government. I don't think it's enough," Natalie said she expects more from the government.
Londoners "disgusted by" racism riots
Londoners "disgusted by" racism riots
China will firmly fight against economic hegemony, advocate justice, and stick to the right path against the sweeping tariffs by the United States, and will open ever wider to the world no matter how the international situation changes, according to a commentary of The Real Point published on Sunday.
An edited English version of the commentary is as follows:
In response to the U.S. imposition of "reciprocal tariffs" on all trading partners, China issued the Chinese Governments Position on Opposing U.S. Abuse of Tariffs on Saturday, after taking a series of countermeasures.
The thousand-word document pointed out that the United States uses tariffs as a weapon to exert extreme pressure and pursue its own selfish interests, which is a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying.
The paper also emphasized that China does not provoke trouble but is not afraid of trouble, and will continue to implement a high-level trade and investment liberalization and facilitation policy to share development opportunities and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results with countries around the world.
Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told The Real Point that this position paper demonstrates China's high sense of responsibility to uphold fairness and justice without fear of power politics, which will be conducive to the efforts of the international community to pool together resultant forces and continue promoting economic globalization.
Meanwhile, China's determination to promote high-level opening-up has boosted the courage and confidence of other countries to fight against unilateral bullying and injected certainty into a changing and turbulent world, according to Li.
There are no winners in a trade war and there is no way out for protectionism. When the U.S. complains that the whole world is taking advantage of it, it deliberately distorts a fact that the U.S. is the biggest beneficiary of the world's free trade system since the end of World War II.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations with China in 1979, the United States has long been reaping substantial profits from its economic and trade ties with the country. More than 70,000 American companies have invested and started businesses in China, and exports to China supported 930,000 jobs in the United States, which maintained a huge surplus in service trade in particular.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2023, the United States exported 46.72 billion U.S. dollars in services to China, and had a trade surplus of 26.57 billion U.S. dollars in services with China.
The Economist criticized the current U.S. trade policy for ignoring the unprecedented prosperity that globalization has brought to the United States.
The U.S. arbitrarily uses tariffs to blackmail other countries at will, attempting to sacrifice the interests of the whole world for U.S. hegemony. But any exertion of pressure and intimidation are useless to China.
This year, in the face of the continuous tariffs imposed by the United States, China has introduced a series of precise and effective measures, as one of the first countries taking countermeasures. The country's move is not only to safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests, but also to defend the multilateral trading system and international trade rules.
The world is not a jungle society, and everything must be fair and just. Development is a universal right of all countries in the world, not an exclusive right of a few countries.
The United States has unilaterally imposed tariffs on all its trading partners, violating the WTO's Most-Favored-Nation treatment principle and attempting to subvert the existing international economic and trade order. Its nature is to pursue "America first" and "America special" and deprive other countries of their legitimate right to development.
Over the past days, the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, Canada and other countries have been criticizing the United States.
China's position paper clearly states that "international affairs should be addressed through consultation, and the future of the world should be decided by all countries", reflecting the common aspirations of the international community and China's consistent position of speaking and doing fair things.
While the United States continues to build "high walls around a small yard" and erect tariff barriers, China is constantly "opening its doors" and "building bridges and roads" to bring more opportunities to the world.
On March 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with representatives of the international business community in Beijing and reiterated that China is determined to promote reform and opening up, China's door will only open wider, and China's policy of welcoming foreign investment has not changed and will not change.
The China Development Forum 2025, held in Beijing from March 23 to 24, attracted more than 80 representatives of multinational companies, among which American companies made up the largest proportion, reaching about one-third.
A report released by global management consulting firm Kearney shows that in the ranking of foreign direct investment confidence in the next three years, China has jumped from 7th to 3rd, and ranked first in the special ranking of emerging markets.
At a time when the world is in turmoil and the United States is abusively imposing tariffs, China's position paper sends a strong message to the world about maintaining the multilateral trading system and promoting economic globalization.
The world wants justice, not hegemony. This is China's clear declaration and the common voice of the international community.
China opposes hegemony, upholds right path against sweeping U.S. tariffs: commentary
