China is more focused on trade talks than Donald Trump’s attack on Joe Biden, observers say

Despite US president’s call for Beijing to investigate a political rival, China is more concerned about making progress in the next round of negotiations, analysts say

China also keen to maintain its position of not interfering in other nations’ domestic affairs, academic says

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China has more to worry about than Donald Trump’s allegations against Joe Biden, analysts say. Photo: Washington Post

Published: 12:00am, 5 Oct 2019Updated: 7:14am, 17 Oct 2020

China is unlikely to heed US President Donald Trump’s call to investigate his political rival Joe Biden before Chinese top trade negotiator Liu He’s trip to Washington next week for the latest round of trade negotiations, analysts say.

Trump said on Thursday he had “tremendous power” and a “lot of options” going into the trade talks. But the negotiations are set to be overshadowed by the impeachment inquiry into his requests for Ukraine to investigate Biden, the former US vice-president in the race to challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Also on Thursday, Trump repeated his call to the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden – and his son, Hunter – and also looped in Beijing in a winding response to reporters.

“[Ukraine] should investigate the Bidens, because how does a company that’s newly formed, and all these companies if you look at – and, by the way, likewise China should start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said outside the White House.

Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He will travel to Washington soon for another round of trade negotiations. Photo: EPA-EFE

But analysts said Beijing would be unmoved by calls to wade directly into US domestic policies to investigate Joe Biden.

Christopher McNally, a professor of political economy at Chaminade University in Hawaii, said that although the impeachment inquiry would “certainly overshadow” next week’s trade talks, the negotiations were likely to achieve some breakthroughs given the slowdown of the US economy and the political pressures on Trump.