Criticism of China during U.S. presidential elections is nothing new; it was a fixture by 2012. (Additional cites for 2012 - CNN: election brings criticism of China and PRI: why are Obama and Romney attacking China? and Forbes: will criticism of China cost Romney the election?
But this 2020 election may be different yet. Right now, a strong majority of both Democrats and Republicans hold negative views of China (62 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of Republicans.) Pew Research Center notes that this is the most hostile percentage/rating against China that has ever been recorded since Pew began tracking this question many years ago. In such an environment, it will be very difficult for either Trump or Biden to win if they did or said anything that came across to the electorate as “China-friendly.”
NPR noted that both candidates are already accusing the other of going soft against China. Trump has already started a “Beijing Biden” campaign to attack his opponent, but Biden promptly hit back with an ad that characterized Trump as caving in to China, an ad that risks fracturing the political left. It led to criticism that Biden was trying to out-Trump Trump and was changing the nature of the Democratic Party.
Maybe I’m naive but I don’t think Chinese xenophobia is going to be a huge issue this time around. ‘I lost my job to China!’ plays well in a 3.5% unemployment race where those that lost jobs that aren’t coming back need a scapegoat.
Republicans aren’t even tying to use inflammatory names about COVID these days, those names are almost in Freedom Fries territory.
But, I freely admit, I could be wrong. Nothing in 2020 makes sense.
I think it is guaranteed that neither can be seen as “soft” on China.
If I were Biden, I would emphasize the need for a global coalition to take on the legitimate issues about China not living up to WTO obligations, closed markets, IP infringement, etc. VS the Trump “trade wars are easy to win” BS.
As with most issues Trump has flipflopped all over the map with regard to China. There are sound bites of himpraising China for their Covid 19 response, for Xi Jinping’s election for life, and forhis response to trade.
Biden needs to play these clips over and over.
Yep. Every debate should just be listening to a Trump response, then playing a video clip of him saying the exact opposite.
Good New York Times article yesterday.
For those for whom it may be paywalled, the author says:
- China would prefer that Trump be reelected because his style drives American allies away from the U.S. and keeps the U.S. in turmoil
- But no matter what, the US-China relationship has been majorly damaged and “divorced.”
- China became unpopular because of its aggression, but the US has performed badly - botched handling of Covid, etc.