For the powers that be in Beijing, it doesn’t matter who wins on the presidential campaign trail.
It was an unlikely source but just like China’s Olympic Games gold medal tally, the other big news of the day was an opportunity for some tangential points of national pride.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s platform X is banned in China but his interview with former US president Donald Trump made it onto various online platforms.
Internet users posted audio excerpts of the interview and video-sharing platform Bilibili, China’s version of YouTube, even ran the full audio video with English and Chinese subtitles.
The posts did not make the carefully curated lists of top searches but they did set off animated discussions.
In many cases, commenters highlighted minor points in Trump’s remarks and used them to boast of China’s achievements.
One of the most frequently cited quotes was Trump’s bemoaning of the lack of high-speed trains in the United States – despite claims that his administration was the one to cancel US$1 billion in funding for just such a rail service in California in 2019.
China’s vast high-speed rail network is an immense source of national pride and the attention given on the mainland to Trump’s remark reflects this.
Mainland internet users were also quick to point out the power bank that Trump used for his phone during the interview, saying it was made by Chinese company Anker Innovations.
