China’s state-run Global Times reported on Thursday that “pro-establishment elites from both the Democrats and the Republicans are working together to kick Trump out of the White House” while President Donald Trump is still pursuing legal challenges against ballot counting in several close states.

“Chinese analysts said on Thursday that although Trump might have to accept his defeat eventually, his legacy has already made irreversible changes to the U.S. — The U.S. society has become more conservative and polarized, and the U.S.-led international alliance has become divided,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) paper wrote.

The Global Times cited American media reports indicating Trump could be planning a comeback bid in 2024 as “an implied acknowledgment of Trump’s failure among Republicans,” who must now accept the victory of former Vice President Joe Biden if they have any hope of hanging on to the 72 million votes Trump received during the election. 

Expert Chinese analysts made the stunning prediction that Trump might not win the 2024 GOP primary if he runs again, because “Republicans such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Tom Cotton may seize the opportunity and have stronger influence by then,” and even Trump’s running mate Mike Pence could shoulder past him to run for the top job.

“Trump also knows that his four-year term has changed U.S. society profoundly, which is why he has confidence for 2024. But if he runs again, he might run as an independent candidate or establish a new party to unite the anti-establishment forces from the two major parties to challenge the establishment elites,” predicted Shen Yi, “U.S. politics expert” at Fudan University of Shanghai.

As for Joe Biden, the Global Times speculated that since the 2020 election “will very likely conclude with a GOP-controlled Senate,” the prospective incoming administration will have “huge difficulties” in “making reforms, such as raising taxes.”

As is frequently the case with Chinese media, the Global Times heaped scorn upon the United States for supposedly bungling its response to the Wuhan coronavirus:

Under the four years of Trump’s presidency, the anti-science sentiment and advocation of violence have been mobilized in the US, and even evangelicalism has had the tendency of being a political force, said Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, and this has cast doubt on whether Biden will be able to change this unhealthy atmosphere over the next four years.

Controlling the COVID-19 epidemic situation in the US is a very urgent task for Biden, and his team has also prioritized this mission, but the “red states,” which oppose city lockdowns and shutting down of public facilities, and are even strongly against wearing masks and social distancing, are unlikely to cooperate with the federal government, Lü noted. 

Those with anti-intellectual opinions on vaccines and are against scientists like Anthony Fauci will cause a series of headaches for the new administration, he said. 

On the foreign policy front, the Global Times said “many Western countries are desperately expecting Biden to bring the US back to normal and create more certainty,” but “anti-establishment forces” could grow even more powerful over the next four years, and Trump or someone like him could return to power “if Biden fails to heal the country with successful governance.”

Chinese analysts quoted in the article thought the U.S might even move to a “multi-party system” if “far-right conservative forces who support Trump” bail on the GOP, while “far-left forces who support [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-VT]” break away from the Democrats. This would supposedly make the United States even more unstable from the perspective of foreign friends and foes, a “superpower with increasing uncertainties.”

Third parties were seemingly even less of a factor in the 2020 election than usual, but the Global Times hinted at a scenario where Biden tacks to the center and alienates enough far-left Democrats to create a splinter movement, rallying behind Sanders or someone like him, and Trump either runs as a third-party candidate or makes such a strong bid to retain control of the GOP that Republicans who dislike him break away.