Thomas Watkins, Agence France Presse

PARIS — Usually, it is the United States that doles out rebukes over human rights abuses to the troublesome country of the day.

However the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager and subsequent crackdown on protesters in the Midwestern state of Missouri has America's foes crowing about the flaws in the land of the free.

Teargas, arrests of journalists, racial tensions and footage of militarily equipped police training their weapons on protesters.

These are images more easily associated with one of the nations regularly chided by Washington than the small town of Ferguson, rocked by days of violent protests.

Many of the countries at the stinging end of these criticisms have seized upon the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the ensuing clashes to scold the United States for hypocritically lecturing the world on human rights while ignoring the plight of its own people.

They also say the shooting underscores how far America has to go to resolve its racial tensions.

In China, which Washington regularly accuses of human rights abuses, the Ferguson story has been getting prominent media coverage.

In a commentary entitled "Ferguson riot reveals US racial divide, human rights flaw", the official news agency Xinhua berated America.

It said the Ferguson shooting "once again demonstrates that even in a country that has for years tried to play the role of an international human rights judge and defender, there is still much room for improvement at home."

While China censors reports of local unrest in its domestic media, state broadcaster CCTV has covered the Ferguson riots. On Tuesday, it showed National Guard troops on the streets, with a reporter taking advantage of the greater access available to media in the United States, describing tear gas and other weapons used by police.

On Chinese social media, some echoed the state media line.

But others noted the repression was light compared to that meted out to protesters by the Chinese government. In 1989, hundreds were killed during the armed suppression of protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Iran also latched on to the Ferguson story as evidence of the racial divide in America and what it called double standards on human rights.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted: "Today like previous years, African-Americans are still under pressure, oppressed and subjected to discrimination."

Even Egypt -- where at least 1,400 people, mostly Islamist protesters, have been killed in clashes with security forces -- weighed in.

Interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Lattiff, said the US police were using "excessive" force.

Egypt's foreign ministry said Tuesday it was "closely monitoring" the situation in Ferguson and echoed a UN call for restraint.

Russia, which has been under fire for months over its intervention in Ukraine and is a favorite target for allegations of authoritarianism, has also given the Ferguson story wide coverage.