How is the Chinese Communist Party leadership viewing the 2024 U.S. elections? Would Beijing prefer to deal with a President Kamala Harris or a President Donald Trump? In this clip from the latest episode of Correspondents, Emily Feng, international correspondent for NPR, and David Shen, a reporter for CommonWealth Magazine, chat to Louise Watt about how Chinese state media are reporting on the U.S. elections, and why the Chinese public thinks Elon Musk might have a role to play.
Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O1xAMWrqsw&list=PLu5MSnfNvpMblbCiclMnXoDkaofTae5NI&index=8
Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O1xAMWrqsw&list=PLu5MSnfNvpMblbCiclMnXoDkaofTae5NI&index=8
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00:00Would Beijing prefer to see a President Harris or a President Trump?
00:04I think that Beijing is ambivalent, as far as we can tell, of course.
00:07We don't get a lot of insight into what goes on in Zhongnanhai,
00:11the capital, where all the political leaders live and work in Beijing.
00:15But no matter who wins,
00:17there is going to be a China hawk in the White House next year.
00:20If it's Harris and Walz,
00:21they have shown themselves to be a continuation of Biden's policies on China.
00:26And Biden, in many ways,
00:28was continuing the policies of former President Trump.
00:31If former President Trump becomes president again,
00:34I think we expect to, we know kind of what we're going to get,
00:36because he initiated many of these very tough policies on China.
00:40So I think if you're sitting in Beijing,
00:42either candidate is not good news for your domestic policies.
00:46I think it becomes a question of who they think they can work best with.
00:49And in some ways,
00:50they might feel like they have a little bit more continuity with Harris and Walz,
00:54both of whom have traveled there in a private and public capacity.
00:57Whereas Trump is seen as much more unpredictable.
01:00But in that unpredictability,
01:02perhaps you can find some way to manipulate his behavior.
01:06So I really think it's a coin toss.
01:07I think that they see the US election as destabilizing for US-China ties,
01:12no matter who wins.
01:13Obviously, Beijing, you don't get to hear, as you say,
01:16what they're talking about in Zhongnanhai.
01:19But sometimes you can get clues from what academics say.
01:24Is there anything that's being talked about in academic circles, David,
01:28that gives us a little more of a clue as to what the leadership is thinking?
01:34There's a prominent scholar named Wang Qisi in Beijing.
01:39He published an article on foreign policy.
01:43What he wrote is also that he don't see the big difference
01:46between the Republican and the Democrats, their views to China.
01:51Just what is different is just their means to counter China,
01:56maybe by a tariff, but the different portion, the different percents.
02:01But generally speaking, there is no big difference between these two parties.
02:06And how is the Chinese state media reporting this election?
02:10Sometimes they go big on things that happen in Western democracies,
02:16often not elections, though.
02:17David, how are they reporting this election?
02:22What impressed me the most is when the former president, Donald Trump,
02:27experienced the two times assassination attempt,
02:31the Chinese media reported largely.
02:33And it's also made the audience feel that the democratic system is kind of chaos.
02:42And probably makes some of the people in China
02:45even more question about the democratic society.
02:52Are they going big on it in China?
02:53Do you think, Emily, given that it's US election, it's quite a pivotal election?
02:57There's a lot of coverage, but I think that the coverage is very quiet
03:02on whether or not they'd prefer a candidate.
03:05And as David pointed out, a lot of the coverage is often highlighting
03:07just how messy and uncertain the election is,
03:10rather than putting weight on who they think is going to win, who's up, who's down.
03:14That's not the focus of the coverage.
03:16And what insights are you getting, David,
03:19on how the Chinese public are viewing this election?
03:23When we look on the social media in China, like Weibo and Weixin,
03:28I found some of the interesting things is the netizens in China,
03:32they're really focused on what role Elon Musk plays.
03:37Because Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla,
03:40he also enjoyed the huge interest in China
03:45and also have the friendly relationship with Beijing.
03:50So some netizens just trying to figure out
03:53will Elon Musk will play any role like the mediator between China and America
04:00in the future if Donald Trump gets elected.
04:03I think it's quite interesting for me.