US presidential election: China watches and waits for outcome, but how much does it matter anyway?

Growing uncertainty in the US may fuel domestic tension and raise possibility of cold-war type confrontation with China – regardless of who becomes president

Observers in China accused of failing to understand that Trump’s brand of identity politics appealed to voters ‘because that’s the America they want’

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Joe Biden and Donald Trump are battling it out for the White House. Photos: AFP

Published: 10:00pm, 4 Nov 2020Updated: 12:42am, 5 Nov 2020

With no clear winner emerging on US election day, Beijing is taking a wait-and-see approach while bracing for grave, long-term challenges for US-China relations, no matter who wins the presidential race, according to observers.

Beijing tried to stay clear of any looming controversies over the prolonged vote counting in the US.

“We noted that the US election is under way with no final result. The US presidential election is an internal affair and China takes no stance on it,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin during a regular briefing on Wednesday.

Many pundits in China were surprised that hours into Wednesday morning (US time), the contest for the White House between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden was still too close to call. An official tally, including millions of mail-in ballots in several key battleground states, could take days to finish.

Shi Yinhong, an expert on US affairs at Beijing’s Renmin University of China, said many Chinese academics specialising in American politics would have a hard time admitting they had got it wrong again, especially when it came to assessing Trump.