«…the decision-makers in Beijing don’t like the Trump administration that much»
NPR published a story Monday about how China is viewing the U.S. election this year. The story leads with the idea that Trump has been good for China: Trump being good for China has been, perhaps surprisingly, a common refrain among Chinese policymakers, who see the U.S. president as accelerating America’s decline while aiding China’s rise. “Another four years of Trump would further divide the U.S. This is beneficial to Beijing,” says Deng Yuwen, a Chinese political commentator. But halfway through the story we get back to reality: The CCP would prefer a Biden win. Still, nearly four years of Trump and a coronavirus pandemic that he blames on China have left Beijing anxious about a second term. Trump’s gone from calling leader Xi Jinping a “friend” to putting sanctions on senior Communist Party officials and the country’s biggest technology firms. His administration has expelled Chinese journalists, made it harder for Chinese students to stay in the U.S. and even closed the Chinese Consulate in Houston. “I think the decision-makers in Beijing don’t like the Trump administration that much because of this unpredictability; you never know what it’s going to do next,” says Zou Yue, an anchor for China’s state broadcaster… “I think the agreement here in China is that America is going to be more critical of China and the policies will be more aggressive,” Zou says.
