US democracy ‘in crisis’, say Chinese media
(AP) CHINESE state media outlets are casting the U.S. election as the embodiment of America’s democracy in crisis in contrast to China’s perceived stability under authoritarian rule.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency says the campaign has highlighted that, in its words, “the majority of Americans are rebelling against the U.S.’s political class and financial elites.”
The official Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily says in a commentary that the presidential election reveals an “ill democracy.”
On Tuesday, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV ran man-on-the-street interviews with unidentified American voters in which they expressed disgust with the system and dissatisfaction with both candidates.
Chinese state media and government-backed commentators are continuing to signal Beijing’s preference for a Donald Trump win in the U.S. presidential election.
Like Russia, China is seen as favoring Trump because he appears less willing to confront China’s newly robust foreign policy, particularly in the South China Sea. Clinton, by contrast, is disliked in Beijing for having steered the U.S. “pivot” to Asia aimed at strengthening U.S. engagement with the region, particularly in the military sphere.
Writing in the Communist Party newspaper Global Times, scholar Mei Xinyu says: “From a comprehensive view, it would make it easier for China to cope if Trump is elected. This is because under the policy line advocated by Obama and Clinton, the political and military frictions between China and the U.S. will be more frequent.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus says “the world’s most important relationship” between Beijing and Washington will remain stable regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.
Asked by a Chinese reporter about Trump’s proposal for a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods imported in the U.S., Baucus says that “people say a lot of things in the heat of a campaign that are not quite as feasible as they think when they’re elected.”
Trump has also pledged to withdraw U.S. support for the Paris climate change agreement that was reached largely through hard negotiating with China.
Baucus says he doesn’t believe the two countries would stop collaborating on issues already agreed to, including climate change, containing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and reaching a political settlement in Afghanistan.
In his words, “The issues are the same, the good faith is the same.”
