China fixates on Florida condo collapse as disasters unfold at home

Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution specializing in China, said he has been taken aback by how insensitive top Chinese officials have been in their remarks on the Surfside disaster. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Chinese leaders were among the first to offer condolences to the United States, he said. The reaction from Hua and others, he added, appears to reflect the country’s broader transition to a more aggressive foreign policy.