If this prejudice is patriotism, forget it

Residents gather near the site of an attack in the 18th district in Paris, on Jan 7, 2016. Police in northern Paris shot dead a man armed with knife trying to enter the police station in the French capital 18th district, according to local media. [Photo/Xinhua]

Jiang yue, a 19-year-old Chinese student in the United States, was shot to death by a local woman during a road rage incident over the weekend. While many in China have mourned her death, some "patriots" have claimed she deserved to die because she was being "unpatriotic" by staying in the US. It is time to give up the irrational mentality, says Qianjiang Evening News on Tuesday:

Some people love their own country in a rather weird way - by imagining Western countries as enemies and attacking anybody who holds a different opinion.

Driven by that prejudice, they attack drivers of Japanese cars during "patriotic" riots, and smash shops that sell US goods. Now they have turned their "patriotism" on the 19-year-old victim of a homicide.

That's a sick mentality. The US police investigation shows that Jiang drove legally and did not offend anybody on the road, including the woman who shot her. The killer was allegedly driving under the influence.

Nor is there any evidence showing Jiang comes from a wealthy family that might have funded her overseas study with illicit gains.

Therefore, she does not deserve any blame and she is the victim.

Yet these "patriots" do not care. They wrongly claim that Chinese should only study in Chinese schools and have even formed groups to badmouth Chinese students studying overseas.

If that's patriotism we'd rather give it up. It is a distorted value originating in a closed environment and lack of information about the outside world.

Such a mentality is destructive to the maintaining of common sense in society and should be stopped.