The assassination attempt on Trump has shocked China as well, exploding in virality on social media. But it's also fed common narratives in China about the US, like the idea that it's a "Gotham City." The attack on Saturday has resurfaced usual criticisms of gun violence and political infighting.

A gunman's assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has flung the US back into the spotlight in China. The deadly shooting on Saturday, which killed one spectator at Trump's Pennsylvania rally and left the former president's ear bleeding, has dominated discussions on Weibo, China's version of X. Within one day, topics covering the shooting itself, Trump's response, and viral photos of the Republican nominee's fist-pump have received over 1.

7 billion total views on Weibo, per data seen by Business Insider. Many reactions closely mirrored the mood on international social-media platforms like X, with users expressing shock and rushing to decipher the details of the attack. Yet for the Chinese internet, a prevailing outcome of the shooting has been that it confirms a widely held bias of the US being poorly run and prone to internal strife because of its political system.

Gun violence and a narrative of chaos Gun access, one of the usual suspects in Chinese criticism toward the US, reemerged at the fore of discussion on Sunday. The FBI says the 20-year-old rally shooter , Thomas Matthew Crooks , used a legally purchased 5.56mm AR-style rifle to attack Trump.

"Free America, a.