The U.S. presidential election opens on Wednesday (Beijing time), and Chinese people are showing rare interest in it. On chat platforms both inside and outside China, Chinese netizens are talking about the US election. Many of them are using the officially banned “wall climbing” tool to move the US election from “outside the wall” to “inside the wall”.
This Wednesday (4), the U.S. Embassy in China posted on Weibo a brief introduction of how the U.S. President is elected by electors. It attracted netizens hotly debated, someone left a message “the United States why so much trouble, all sit down to raise their hands to express their position is not good! There were also netizens who said, “Thanks to the United States, the Chinese people have been able to participate directly in the election again. However, many people left messages in support of Trump’s re-election, and also joked that Trump was anti-China, but helped China.
The Chinese are particularly concerned about the U.S. presidential election: “Biden, no matter what, as a representative of the Democratic Party, is more interested in reconciling the relationship between China and the U.S.,” said Zhou Tong, a Beijing scholar who is concerned about the U.S. presidential election, in an interview with the station that day. In terms of U.S. policy, the Democratic Party has always been focused on reconciling China and the United States. The Democrats are less willing to confront (with China), even if Joe. Biden wins, he will pull back from this current state of confrontation and seek a kind of common comfort zone for both sides.”
China needs to face pressure from the U.S.
According to Biden, Biden is instead seeking to ease tensions with China compared to Trump’s tougher approach to China: “What Beijing needs now is pressure to stimulate his development, and the more pressure the better. In this case, we may also need a stronger U.S. president. Because the current problem in China is a war between democracy and authoritarianism, and it’s not just a Chinese problem, it’s a problem for all of humanity.”
Mr. Gao, a Hubei netizen, said to this station that he supports Trump’s re-election because of his tough policies: “First of all, Trump’s main fight for the presidency this time is for the common people, so he has no one in the consortium to praise him and oppose his presidency. He (Trump) is the president who fights for justice. Trump’s offense in this draining of the swamp must be the powerful and the consortium in cahoots with some interest group. It’s too powerful. I hope Trump is re-elected.”
The Chinese public has never been more interested in the US election than they are today
In the chat groups both outside and inside the wall, most people support Trump’s re-election, but among the dissidents, some support Biden’s election to the US presidency.
Mr. Li, a Chinese lawmaker, said the U.S. presidential election has never attracted as much attention from Chinese people as it has today: “The Chinese people, especially the dissidents, are very divided over the race between Biden and Trump. It just goes to show that this election is very crucial, and it’s no longer about Americans choosing a future U.S. president between the two, but it’s about a lot of things.”
Mr. Lee, a scholar who hopes Trump will be re-elected, said, “After Trump wins, he can have a real deterrent effect on the Chinese Communist Party, and we know that Obama’s eight years in power as well as Clinton, they’re actually in a very hot relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. It’s not only Americans who want a change in the U.S., we as anti-Communist people, I also want a change in the U.S. in terms of our attitude towards the CCP.”
Official media cautiously cover US election news
The Global Times, an official media outlet, published an editorial on Tuesday, “Uncertainty over US election results is not just a technicality,” leaving untouched comments on the presidential candidates. On Wednesday, the Chinese media appeared cautious in their coverage of the US presidential election, seemingly intent on avoiding its political stance. On the contrary, the Chinese public is more concerned about the US presidential election than the media, and the propaganda department has not made any effort to control information about the US election online.
Gao Yu, an independent media personality in Beijing, said in an interview with the station: “Nowadays, everybody is paying special attention to the US election. This is because the past few years have seen Trump’s sanctions against the Chinese Communist Party. Now there is massive unemployment, which in this case is after all a fatal disaster for him.”
There is a public opinion in China that it doesn’t matter who is elected president
Some Chinese netizens who support Biden also believe that if Biden wins the US presidential election, he may cancel the high tariffs on Chinese imports, which would ease tensions between the US and China that have lasted for more than two years, and also reduce the chance of military conflict in the South China Sea. However, some netizens believe that no matter who is the new US president, his China policy will not change much.
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