China should not be the focus of 2020 US presidential elections
Foreign policy would not normally dominate the campaign of US presidential elections since the public pays much more attention to domestic policies like economic plans, healthcare reform, tax and immigration policies. Therefore, China has seldom become the focus of the campaign season in the past.
But this year is different. After calling the COVID-19 the "Chinese virus," US President Donald Trump along with his campaign team are attempting to use China as a weapon to attack his major rival, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The direct reason for Trump to bash China is to find a scapegoat for his failure in tackling the pandemic. After the initial "rally round the flag effect" that boosts Trump's public support during the national crisis, his approval rating is dropping while coronavirus pandemic drags on.
According to the average poll released by RealClearPolitics, Trump hit his all-time high of 47.3 percent on March 31, but has dipped to 44.9 percent on April 13. Trump needs to find an external excuse to distract the public from the domestic uneasiness and frustration.
Although the White House still needs to maintain a relatively benign climate to cooperate with China on combating the pandemic, out of fear of alienating a country that helps supply medical equipment to America, Trump's Republican allies in the Congress never cease to make waves on the China issue. Some hawkish Republicans have made groundless accusations and asked the US government to hold China accountable for its "cover-up and negligence."
Trump understands that he can play nice with China while Democrats will feel it difficult to fight Republicans in the Congress. Criticizing China has long become political correctness with even some Democrats joining Republicans. What most Democrats could do is warn Republicans that to deliberately connect COVID-19 with China will stimulate racism in the US and downplay the real threat of the virus.
Because of COVID-19 and the previous aggressive rhetoric by US senior officials towards China, China has become a more visible issue in this year's presidential elections. By playing the "China card," Trump also intends to brand Biden as "soft" on China since Biden once attacked Trump's China travel ban, criticizing Trump's use of the words "Chinese virus" and said China was "not competition" for the United States.
It is clear that Trump would not easily miss any weak points of Biden during the campaign process. But domesticalizition of the China issue at the expense of the bilateral relationship will be extremely dangerous.
First, it might distort the perception of the US public towards China and endanger the future reinvigoration of people to people exchanges between the two countries. Recently, some Republican congressmen called for cutting the number of Chinese media staffs and Confucius Institutes in America.
Second, it will speed up the US' change in its strategy with China. The Trump administration has labeled China as its strategic competitor in 2017, arousing heated debates in US strategic circles. While some moderate Democrats like Biden do not agree that China is purely a competitor or rival to the US But now, the situation is changing rapidly and Democrats might have to be more hawkish on China to win the election.
Third, it would poison the climate for China-US cooperation to combat COVID-19. China and US successfully cooperated in the past to deal with global challenges, such as fighting against terrorism after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and handling the 2008 financial crisis.
As the two leading economies, China and the US need to cooperate and help other countries get through the crisis as soon as possible, but Trump's political tactics will only make the collaboration harder to achieve.
