When a big fella falls flat on the face, the other small, big and middling fellas cannot help but feel secretly thrilled. Last Wednesday’s hurly burly at the United States’ Capitol Hill by Donald Trump supporters even as the Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory, did not so much elicit shock and horror as it did a smug satisfaction. In the global arena, this extended way beyond Bully Trump. In the global arena, this was actually about the self-righteous, sanctimonious, global busybody Uncle Sam taking a tumble.

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China did not mince its words. The foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, harked back to the US reaction at the time of the Hong Kong protests of 2019. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had called the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill demonstrations “a beautiful sight to behold” and remarked that Chinese President Xi Jinping had been “really taking China backward in terms of repression”. Russian President Vladimir Putin, for all his bromance with Trump, pretended nothing had happened --- he wished his constituency Merry Christmas instead on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas Day. But Konstantin Kosachev, who is head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s Federation Council, said in a social media post: “The celebration of democracy is over. America no longer forges that path, and consequently has lost its right to define it. Much less force it on others.”

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Iran President Hassan Rouhani said, “What we saw in the US last night and today really showed that first how brittle and weak western democracy is, and how weak its foundations are.” Iran and the US have had no diplomatic relations for the last three decades and since 1995 the US has an embargo on trade with Iran. And when Turkey urged its citizens in the US to stay away from crowded places and demonstrations, it was pointed out that this mimicked the tone of US government advisories for its own while visiting Turkey in view of the “terrorism risk”. Pakistan reacted with a rather emphatic congratulation to President-elect Joe Biden on the certification of his win by the US Congress. And in Jeune Afrique, the French-language pan-African weekly news magazine, columnist Damien Glez wrote, “We often look like those we snub.” PM Modi tweeted that he was “distressed”, adding something about how the democratic process cannot be allowed to be subverted through unlawful protests. When a big fella falls flat on the face, the smart fellas take notes from the margins.