Beijing:
China will prefer Kamala Harris to Donald Trump as the next US president, given that bilateral ties have deteriorated sharply during the latter’s presidency, leading to a major confrontation, a senior member of China’s national advisory body said on Thursday.
The Chinese government prefers not to comment on the US presidential election because it does not want to be accused of meddling in US domestic politics, said Jia Qingguo, a member of the Standing Committee of the national advisory body CPPCC.
The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a key component of the system of government and a distinctive Chinese political institution.
The views of the general Chinese public are divided on Harris and Trump, but “I would prefer Harris because of the bad experience with Trump. We don’t want to have that experience again,” he told the BBC in a rare comment expressing Beijing’s preferences in the US presidential election.
During Trump’s presidency, relations deteriorated sharply and the two sides entered into a serious confrontation. “From China’s perspective, US Vice President Kamala Harris, who served under President Biden, represents the continuity,” he said.
Trump, during his presidency, has been quite emotional and spread a lot of bad information about China, said Jia, who is also director of Peking University’s Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding.
“We also have problems admiring Biden,” but Biden inherited very tough measures initiated by Trump against China for reasons of domestic politics and perhaps because of his ideological conviction, he said, adding: “Under Biden, US policy toward China is more stable, predictable.” “We’re re-engaging with each other. Officials are meeting with each other, talking about issues,” which he says stabilizes relations.
While pursuing a tough policy toward China, including strengthening U.S. policy to challenge Beijing’s claims to the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan and curbing China’s ambitious move to export its electric vehicles, Biden has nevertheless maintained regular dialogue with President Xi Jinping on keep the tension under control.
Relations between the two leading economies have soured under Trump, particularly after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 led to a pandemic that had a devastating impact around the world.
Trump has claimed that the virus responsible for the pandemic leaked from a biolab in Wuhan, prompting China to launch a massive propaganda offensive to counter Trump’s claims.
The former president had imposed tariffs on booming Chinese exports to the US to force Beijing to grant more access to US goods.
The Biden administration is continuing with tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S., which last year totaled more than $500 billion, compared to about $148 billion in U.S. exports to China.
Trump’s threat to impose 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods if elected worries Beijing as it could have a severe impact on China’s economy, which is mired in a slowdown.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated channel.)
