An overseas Chinese woman living in the United States has been praised as a “hero” for successfully using a gun to protect herself during an attempted home invasion. Grocery store manager Chen Fengzhu, 38, fired off six shots to scare away a trio of armed robbers who had broken their way into her Gwinnett County residence in Georgia in the early morning of September 16.

Surveillance video footage of the shootout had been released by the police in hopes of identifying the suspects. Widely shared online among overseas Chinese communities, the video showed a pyjamas-clad Chen racing after the armed robbers while quickly discharging her gun with just one hand.

The robbers had left in such a hurry that one of them broke through a glass door to escape.

Two suspects are still on the loose, described by police as “extremely dangerous”. A third suspect, 28 year-old Antonio Leeks, was shot dead at the scene.

Gwinnett County Police Department Cpl. Deon Washington said Chen was well within her rights to use a gun in this way. “She exercised her right to defend her livelihood and property,” said Washington.

Chen said she did what needed to be done without letting anything get in the way. “I wasn’t scared (when I heard a noise in the house); I was just thinking how to handle it,” she said, adding that “If I didn’t attack them, they would have attacked me.”

Chen told CCTV that she had called 911 emergency services, but wasn’t able to reach them.

Chinese pexpel have responded to this news by criticizing US police for not adequately protecting its citizens. The lack of police response was even summed up by Chen, who explained that’s why she had “a gun in one hand, and a phone in the other.”

However, CBS 46 reported that a Chinese woman with an accent not only contacted 911 emergency services, but had a conversation with a dispatcher describing a home invasion, saying, “Yes somebody come in my house, I don’t know how they come in.”

Violent crimes targeting Chinese living in the USA has become a concern for overseas Chinese.

This past January, a Chinese exchange student at Arizona State University was gunned down in a road rage incident. As well, American-Chinese groups have launched a campaign to ban the song Meet the Flockers which they say targets them as victims of crime and violence.

Overseas Chinese social media have lauded Chen as a “hero”, calling her the “pride of the Chinese” and telling others not to allow themselves to be “pushovers”. However, Chinese authorities and official government newspapers have voiced support for US gun control that may influence the ability of US residents like Chen to protect themselves.

In the 2011 report on the human rights record of the USA, the State Council Information Office lashed out at the proliferation of gun ownership in the USA:

The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens’ lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership.

And in wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, Chinese state-run newspaper Xinhua published an editorial urging US politicians to reign in its gun problem, saying “Their blood and tears demand no delay for the US gun control.”