Brendan Smialowski\/AFP\/Getty Images\/File<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, people in China have seen their economic prospects dim as the country has struggled to fully rebound following its stringent pandemic controls amid a wider slowdown and property market crisis, among other challenges. <\/p>\n
So, while the presidential campaigns are still playing across China\u2019s daily news coverage and online discussions, interest in the candidates and their policies appears muted compared with past US elections. <\/p>\n
\u201c(It) doesn\u2019t matter who it is (that wins),\u201d one social media user wrote in a popular comment on China\u2019s X-like platform Weibo. \u201cTheir containment of China won\u2019t ease.\u201d <\/p>\n
As the campaigns unfolded over recent months, Beijing\u2019s state media has honed in on social discord and polarization in the US. <\/p>\n
In recent days, the top post under the \u201cUS election\u201d hashtag on Weibo has been about American concerns over potential post-election violence. The post, by an arm of state broadcaster CCTV, cites survey data from US media. <\/p>\n
A recent cartoon from state-owned newspaper China Daily circulated in domestic media showed the Statue of Liberty being crushed in the jaws of a dragon labeled \u201cpolitical violence.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAll walks of life in the United States are highly nervous, and public opinion is in turmoil,\u201d reporters from state-run news agency Xinhua wrote in a recent dispatch, which also noted that \u201cas political polarization and divisions in public opinion intensified in this year\u2019s US election, political violence has also intensified.\u201d <\/p>\n
A magazine affiliated with Xinhua has alternatively portrayed the elections as \u201clacking hope,\u201d being ultimately decided by \u201cinvisible forces\u201d of power, like Wall Street. <\/p>\n
Some nationalist bloggers have published videos and posts at times gleefully playing up what they describe as the potential for a post-election American \u201ccivil war\u201d \u2013 rhetoric echoed in chatter on social media platform Weibo, which is heavily censored and largely dominated by nationalist voices. <\/p>\n
While picking up genuine concerns reported by American and international media in what has been a contentious and violent US election cycle, the coverage and conversation appears geared to telegraph the superiority of China\u2019s own political system. There, China\u2019s ruling Communist Party has an iron grip on political power and discourse. <\/p>\n
But despite the coverage, many in China have also keenly observed the democratic process \u2013 and pointed out the contrast to their own. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no perfect system, but at least they allow people to question them,\u201d one social media user said on Weibo. <\/p>\n
Candidate of choice?<\/h2>\n
Both Harris and Trump have been hot topics on Chinese social media platforms. <\/p>\n
Harris appeared to be relatively unknown to Chinese social media users prior to becoming the Democratic candidate after Biden\u2019s July withdrawal from the race. <\/p>\n
Since then, many posts and videos on Tiktok\u2019s sister video app Douyin have mocked the vice president, for example picking on her laugh \u2013 in line with what is often a chauvinistic tone on China\u2019s social media platforms and echoing comments made by Trump himself. <\/p>\n
Some posted clips of Harris\u2019 speeches have a positive spin, however. Those point to her middle-class background and rise to the second-highest American office, a contrast to today\u2019s China where the top echelons are stacked with men who often hail from politically elite families. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a true ordinary person\u2019s story,\u201d read one comment with hundreds of likes posted under a video with a clip of a recent Harris speech. <\/p>\n
Trump has at times captured tongue-in-cheek admiration across the Chinese internet. As president he earned the nickname \ufeffChuan Jianguo<\/em>, or \u201cTrump, the (Chinese) nation builder\u201d \u2013 a quip to suggest his isolationist foreign policy and divisive domestic agenda were helping Beijing to overtake Washington on the global stage. <\/p>\n But after the tumult of the past eight years, Trump fever appears to have cooled. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are not optimistic about these two candidates \u2026 as their image and abilities can\u2019t compare to those of past figures,\u201d said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai\u2019s Fudan University. That\u2019s one reason why the level of Chinese public interest in this election appears lower than in the previous two votes, he said. <\/p>\n
Whoever wins the US race, Communist Party leaders likely expect there will be little improvement in tense ties, analysts said. <\/p>\n
\u201cLooking to the future, regardless of whether Harris or Trump becomes the next US president, the continuity in US policy toward China will almost certainly outweigh any potential major shifts,\u201d said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing. <\/p>\n
Beijing is careful not to directly comment on any views of the election, but likely sees Trump as bringing more uncertainly \u2013 and thus risk \u2013 into the relationship. The former president has threatened upwards of 60% tariffs on all imports from China and is known for his volatile foreign policy. <\/p>\n
But Beijing could see benefit in that if it weakens US overseas partnerships, observers say. The Biden administration has sought to work more closely with allies in Europe and Asia to counter what it sees as the \u201cmost serious long-term challenge to the international order\u201d \u2013 China, while Trump has repeatedly questioned traditional US alliances. <\/p>\n
Chinese leaders will also be closely watching how a Trump presidency would handle the war in Ukraine \u2013 with Beijing likely wary of him taking steps to mend US relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, a critical ally for Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the global stage. The end of that war \u2013 which Trump has claimed he can quickly achieve \u2013 would also likely bring more US focus back to Asia-Pacific, which China doesn\u2019t want to see. <\/p>\n
But Trump is still seen in Beijing\u2019s policy circles as likely to drive a more fractious relationship with China than Harris would. <\/p>\n
The vice president is expected to tread a similar path to that laid by Biden \u2013 maintaining pressure on China to limit the development of its technology and military, but trying to keep some exchange and dialogue open. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat means it will be a mixture of tension, friction, and some limited degree of exchanges and cooperation \u2026 (while) Trump would present greater challenges to US-China relations. The main issue is that (Trump) handles US-China relations in an unconventional manner, lacking a sense of proportion and boundaries,\u201d said Wu in Shanghai. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe most you can say is that the challenges to the relationship will vary depending on who is in office.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n
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The winner of the US presidential election could have a sweeping impact on the contentious relationship between the world\u2019s two largest economies and rival superpowers. But in China, where election news is filtered through heavily censored state and social media, the focus has been more on spectacle than substance \u2013 with a sense that no <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}