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Donald Trump Is A Joke To China

By Paul Austin
Published on: 06:53 PST, Mar 17, 2016

Donald Trump has been taking some serious shots from China’s party-controlled media. Trump, who is currently the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, has recently been labeled a racist, a big mouth, and a narcissist clown by the popular Chinese news outlet Global Times.

“The rise of a racist in the US political area worries the whole world,” the Chinese news site reported after Trump’s recent surge in the GOP race. “Usually, the tempo of the evolution of US politics can be predicted, while Trump’s ascent indicates all possibilities and unpredictability. He has even been called another Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler by some western media.”

That’s not the only news site in China to bash Trump lately.

In a different Chinese editorial, Trump was called a “bipartisan a**” and, quite simply, a joke.

So why is China bringing down the hammer on Trump?

According to Tom Phillips, the Beijing correspondent for the Guardian, China’s government officials are using the Donald Trump political circus to show their people that a democracy is essentially unstable and choosing their political candidates can lead to a mud-slinging farce. By making Trump look and sound like a fool, the gatekeepers of the Chinese media can convince the people that a democracy is ultimately chaotic and disruptive.

“They are relishing this moment,” said one of Phillips’ sources. “They are very happy. They are laughing over this. To them [Trump] is a good character to show the deficiencies of the democratic system, that such a person could become president. It is just unbelievable. Beijing is definitely gloating over this.”

To appease the narrative even further, the Chinese media has highlighted several instances where violent protests have erupted during Trump’s rallies, joyfully mocking that his supporters make up part of the world’s “most developed and mature democratic systems.”

Sure, China can use the Trump drama now for a strong example of how a democracy can turn into a circus, but what will their stance on him be if he’s actually elected president?

Nick Bisley, a professor of international relations and executive director of La Trobe Asia, says that Chinese officials should have very “mixed feelings” about Donald Trump.

Yes, in the short run, he is showing why their government model works for their country and keeps Chinese politics free of disruptive, nonsensical theatrics. In the long run, though, if Trump wins, then China has to deal with that same element for four years with one of the most important countries they deal with for trade.

“Like it or not, I think the Americans and the Chinese had worked out a reasonably sensible way of doing business with one another under Obama and the second half of the Bush administration,” Bisley says. “That playbook goes out the window if you have President Donald Trump. Whether it is trade wars, a significant trade contest, whether it is mercantilism more generally, whether is a much more combative militaristic approach – who knows what he will actually do? But I think that unpredictability unsettles everyone in the region.”

Chinese premier Li Keqiang says relations between the U.S. and China will continue to develop no matter who wins the presidential race.

In China’s eyes, the rise of Donald Trump’s political success is a sign of growing problems in America. In a very stark manner, the Global Times article ended with a warning that the Trump joke could quickly turn into a serious problem.

“The US had better watch itself for not being a source of destructive forces against world peace, more than pointing fingers at other countries for their so-called nationalism and tyranny.”

[Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP]

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