The Chinese government had no official comment on President Joe Biden terminating his reelection campaign, but Chinese social media buzzed with reactions on Sunday.
Chinese state media rushed out an editorial that said Democrats replaced Biden in “desperation” and then, just as quickly, deleted it.
The deleted article from China’s state-run Global Times — still visible in online caches — quoted “Chinese observers” who said the decision to replace Biden with his vice president, Kamala Harris, was “made in a desperate situation.”
Those observers also said Biden’s withdrawal was “a difficult decision influenced by health reasons, age, and poor performance in the latest debate,” and possibly by the failed attempt to assassinate Republican candidate Donald Trump a week ago, presumably because Trump’s poll numbers rose afterward.
“Frankly speaking, it was a difficult choice for Biden, but given his poor performance in the debate with Trump, coupled with concerns about his age, health, and inappropriate behavior in public, Biden and the Democrats ultimately opted for a more rational and pragmatic approach. Although it came a bit late, it was the right decision,” China Foreign Affairs University professor Li Haidong told the Global Times.
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research fellow Lu Xiang suggested Democrats, worried about losing House and Senate races, pressured Biden into stepping aside.
“Harris, unlike Biden, does not have the leadership ability to unite party members, and some people question her leadership skills, believing that she lacks the experience and achievements to serve as president,” the Global Times added.
The article might have been pulled because the Chinese government wants to appear completely uninterested in the outcome of the U.S. presidential race. Chinese state media describing Democrats as desperately dumping Biden for the questionable alternative of Harris in a last-ditch effort to avoid a congressional wipeout could be interpreted as Beijing seeking to influence the election.
China Daily weighed in with a more blandly neutral editorial on Monday, describing Biden’s exit as sadly inevitable and predicting chaos for the rest of the 2024 election:
True, all signs show that the scale is tipping in Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s favor, judging from his performance last time on the post of US president and the far-reaching consequences that have caused and lasted till now in the US and beyond, the US, along with its close allies, must be fully prepared for continued political division and partisan fights in Washington in the foreseeable future of the country.
A quick reconciliation between the two parties after presidential election in the US for the common good of the country has been resigned to history. The political polarity and social division in the US are to some extent similar to what Europe is experiencing now, which together cast a shadow over the global governance system that calls for solidarity and coordination to resolve the hotspot issues and common challenges faced by the world.
“U.S. citizens should realize that the primary challenge confronting their country is the dominance of partisan politics,” China Daily lectured.
China solved its partisanship problem by having only one political party and imprisoning anybody who tries to launch another one. In China, top officials mysteriously disappear while shadowy power brokers make all the big decisions behind the scenes and elderly leaders are dragged offstage when they become embarrassing, so it is nothing like the current American political environment at all.
Chinese social media users felt no compunctions about discussing Biden’s exit in colorful terms, and regime censors apparently felt no need to silence them. Voice of America News (VOA) on Monday reported that a trending topic on Biden’s withdrawal “attracted more than 400 million views on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo and tens of thousands of comments.”
Weibo is China’s heavily policed alternative to the banned social media platform Twitter (which attempted to rebrand as “X”) — the very platform Biden’s office chose to announce his withdrawal, without even telling his own staffers.
Weibo users were reportedly rather pessimistic about the Democrats’ chances in the 2024 election after Biden’s campaign implosion:
Many Chinese netizens expressed the view that Biden’s decision ensures that Trump will win the election in November while some said things have suddenly changed for Ukraine, referring to Trump’s repeated criticism of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. “Tonight will be a sleepless night for Zelensky,” Chinese netizen “Yo-Huai-To-Bi” from northeastern Shandong province wrote on Weibo.
“We shouldn’t be too happy about this news because Trump will likely continue Biden’s strategies toward China and he might roll out harsher measures,” a netizen called “BIGTREE33” from China’s southeastern Fujian Province wrote on Weibo.
Some Chinese commentators said the Democratic Party will have very little chance of winning the presidential election in November without Biden.
Another trending topic on Weibo translated to “Could Harris Defeat Trump?” The overwhelming response from Chinese social media users translated to “no.” Many of them pointed to her awkward public appearances, lightweight foreign policy portfolio, and lackluster performance as vice president.
Ultra-nationalist pundit Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, said it scarcely mattered who the Democrat candidate was because the 2024 election is all about Donald Trump.
“Because Trump’s personality is so outstanding, American voters are now divided into two groups: Trump lovers and Trump haters. So the choice seems to be: Trump, or anyone,” Hu said on X. Most of the Chinese Communist Party’s subjects are forbidden to use outside social media platforms like X, but as a top regime propagandist, Hu is allowed to post there.
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