One of its editorials stated:
The rise of Trump has opened a Pandora’s box in US society. Big-mouthed, anti-traditional, abusively forthright, he is a perfect populist that could easily provoke the public. The rise of a racist in the US political arena worries the whole world…. Trump’s win has dealt a heavy blow to the heart of US politics. If such a person can be president, there is something wrong with the existing political order.62
Rather inappropriately, the same editorial also compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, both fascist leaders elected by democratic governments. As each of the candidates’ scandals and election controversies came to light, The Global Times was almost incessant in its efforts to persuade its readers that both Trump and Clinton were exactly the type of corrupted and undesirable leaders that American democracy produces.
As critiques became fashionable in the Chinese media, China’s experts on the US delivered their own verdicts on the state of American democracy. Yuan Peng, Vice President of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, argued that the 2016 US presidential election would go down in history as the “most dark, chaotic and negative [election] in the past two centuries,” and no matter who wins, “it will not be viewed as a victory of democracy.”63 For Yuan, the 2016 election was a “bad” election. The campaign process had lost its meaning and been “reduced to nothing more than a farce.” The chaos and disorder of the election, as far as Yuan is concerned, laid bare America’s economic, social, and political ills. Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based scholar of international politics, questioned the validity of US democracy as the “gold standard” of democratic institutions and argued that the election of a new president was meaningless because it only testified to the public’s stronger aversion toward the other candidate.64 In an article titled “Election game mirrors failure of US democracy,” Zhang Zhixin, a specialist in American politics at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, described the chaotic election as highlighting the dysfunction of American democracy. For him, “the 2016 presidential election has made one thing clear, the US needs political reform.”65
While the Chinese media and experts called the election and American democracy a joke, it is important to note that not everyone in China shares the same viewpoint. In particular, for those Chinese with more knowledge of the American political system and more exposure to the world, the 2016 US election, despite all its ugliness and divisiveness, has not eroded their enthusiasm for US-style democracy but rather highlighted the advantages of the American political system vis-à-vis some of the limitations of Chinese politics. For example, in a widely circulated Internet article titled “You Have No Right to Laugh at the U.S. Election,” the anonymous author eloquently defended American democracy.66 For all the ugliness of the US election and the candidates, the author argued, the American political system still enjoys certain advantages over the Chinese system, primarily in terms of the freedom of its press, the transparency of its politics, and the nature and degree of popular participation in the decisionmaking process. At the end of the article, the author asked, “Is a system where all decisions are made behind closed doors, where the people are deprived the right to know or the right to say no, really better at making decisions?”67
THE ELECTION’S IMPLICATIONS FOR CHINA
The 2016 presidential election certainly damaged the United States’ image in China. While American democracy might not have entirely lost its appeal and legitimacy as an exemplary political system, there are at least four important implications for China given that the election has markedly changed Chinese perceptions of the United States.
First, the unusual negativity and ugliness of the election, as manifested by the nasty campaigns of Trump and Clinton, will not only force Americans to reflect on their own political system, but also compel the Chinese to rethink their understanding of democracy (and American democracy) as it relates to China’s own political reforms. In particular, the chaos and disorder of the election has undermined the attractiveness of representative democracy for a nation that traditionally values stability above all else.
Second, as the election reinforced Chinese skepticism about the US-style democracy it also bolstered the Chinese government’s own narrative against the adoption or emulation of any non-Chinese political system in China. As the People’s Daily wrote in one of its editorials, “While for a long time the United States trumpeted the extraordinary excitement of its elections as a symbol of its superior institutions, it’s time for this ‘teacher of democracy’ to put away its super self-confidence and arrogance.”68
Third, since some perceive the failure of American democracy as China’s gain, the ideological competition between China and the United States will most likely intensify in the coming years as both nations strive more eagerly to prove to the world the values of their unique model of development. For the Chinese government, the 2016 election was perhaps the best opportunity for promoting the idea that the American model of democracy had nothing of value to offer China.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, as the only country widely seen as a possible challenger to the United States’ dominance, Chinese views of the United States are consequential because they serve as a point of reference in China’s foreign policy decision making. In the past, China-US relations were able to weather many storms because the Chinese government saw the United States as extremely influential in terms of the global structure of power and therefore chose to avoid confrontation with it. However, because of the United States’ internal weaknesses and divisions, which were exposed by this year’s election, changing Chinese perceptions of the United States might prompt Chinese decision makers to be more assertive in their dealings with the United States and there might be fewer reasons for China to avoid challenging American interests in areas that the two countries have major disagreements. After all, the Chinese, based on lessons from their own history, firmly believe that before an empire collapses it first erodes from within.
China’s Responses to Trump’s Victory: No Cause for Celebration
Donald Trump’s victory was both shocking and unsettling for the Chinese. While acknowledging that “neither the US nor the world” was ready for a Trump presidency, The Global Times quickly published an editorial defending the strong China-US ties and arguing that China, as “one of the quickest countries to adapt” would be capable of coping with the potential uncertainties of a Trump presidency.69 The Chinese government also quickly responded to Trump’s victory. Chinese President Xi Jinping reached out to offer his congratulations to Trump, first through a congratulatory message and later a telephone conversation, and expressed his desire to move ChinaUS relations forward from a new starting point. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs similarly expressed its hopes of working with the new administration to develop a steady and sound bilateral relationship.
Meanwhile, China’s pundits offered their own interpretations of Trump’s victory. Shi Yinhong points out that Trump’s election suggests that fundamental changes have taken place in US domestic politics. He cautions that while Trump’s China policy will surely have negative effects on Sino-US economic cooperation, the Chinese government will also grow more assertive in its dealings with Washington.
