US President Joe Biden and Donald Trump sparred mostly over domestic issues but China was also a contentious topic. - PHOTO: NYTIMES via The Straits Times/ANN
BEIJING (The Straits Times/ANN): Chinese media has engaged in an all-out mockery of the first Biden-Trump presidential debate that took place on June 27, calling the event a “variety show”.
Short videos have appeared on popular social media platforms such as Douyin, WeChat and Xiaohongshu, playing up the two men’s gaffes, bickering and physical attributes.
Chinese social media is heavily scrutinised by the country’s censors, which routinely promote or scrub certain content to push particular narratives favourable to China’s official policies.
Videos and posts that took aim at the two presumptive presidential candidates’ ages, the episodic personal attacks and name-calling, as well as their blame game, were allowed to flood Chinese social media.
So, too, were clips of US President Joe Biden fumbling over his words and losing his train of thought.
On Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok, the debate hit the trending chart, chalking up 5.5 million views as at June 30.
Chinese netizens showed no interest in the topics being debated, instead choosing to ridicule the US political system for pitting one geriatric against another.
“This is democracy,” mocked one commenter.
Some of the short videos posted online, including by state media such as China Daily, homed in on the two men trading barbs about each other’s golf handicap, with comical music laid over the clip and superimposed text describing the scene as “like children fighting”.
“This is the kind of bickering you see in nursing homes. Two oldsters quarrelling, and then they forget who the other person is,” said a commenter.
The edited clips circulating on social media appear to reinforce certain Chinese views of the US’ decline and growing political polarity.
“You all keep bickering, while we all keep going to the Moon. We’ll have a bright future,” said another commenter.
China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft on June 25 brought home samples from the far side of the Moon, the first time rock and soil from this lunar region have successfully made it back to Earth.
Many Chinese netizens also lamented the lack of choice candidates for the upcoming US presidential election in November.
“The US is doomed. And you want to rule the world like this? Isn’t there anyone else in this world?” said one netizen.
A blogger on Xiaohongshu sarcastically called the debate “outstanding”.
“Otherwise, we won’t be able to see an old man who has one foot in the coffin and a chatterbox who is constantly spouting nonsense compete to be president,” said the blogger from Zhejiang province.
The debate, organised by US news network CNN, cannot be accessed in China except in international hotels, as well as through illegal streaming boxes.
Professor Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar, said the general response the Chinese displayed to the debate “reflects a kind of mutual antagonism between the two countries’ netizens”.
He cited a Pew study released in July 2023 which showed that half of the more than 10,000 Americans polled named China as the greatest threat to the United States. No similar research has been done in China to adequately capture Chinese sentiments about the US.
“It’s like a mirror of the two sides. China dislikes the US, so we have negative opinions of certain things that happen in the US, including the presidential debates. Likewise, American sentiments towards China are also negative,” he told The Straits Times.
State media has also disparaged the debate, liberally citing the US media’s own criticisms of how the face-off went down.
Well-known nationalistic commenter Hu Xijin, who has more than 550,000 followers on social media platform X, described the debate as “very entertaining for many Chinese people”.
“Objectively speaking, the low-quality performance of these two old men was a negative advertisement for Western democracy,” said the former editor-in-chief of the hawkish Global Times.
While both President Biden and Donald Trump sparred mostly over domestic issues such as the US economy, immigration and abortion rights, China was also a contentious topic since both candidates are under pressure to be tough on the East Asian giant.
Asked about the country’s opioid crisis, Trump said China was “killing us” and accused Mr Biden of letting it happen. The US has said that China plays a major role in the flow of illegal fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug, into the US.
Trump, whose trade tariffs against China have remained throughout Mr Biden’s term, also pointed out that fact while defending his proposed tariff hike of 10 per cent on all imports, including a 60 per cent increase for Chinese goods.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has proposed a 100 per cent tariff hike on all Chinese electric vehicles.
A video analysis by the state-run Defence Times on Douyin centred on the two men’s “attack” on China.
“This is a stark reminder to China that whoever becomes president will continue to be tough on China. China-US relations may also not change course,” the analysis said.
“China doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, but it also has to be prepared for the actions the US may take against us.” - The Straits Times/ANN
