US election: how Trump and Biden compare on China

Ahead of the election next week, US President Donald Trump and his opponent, former vice-president Joe Biden, have clashed on their policy approaches towards China.

Here is what the two candidates have had to say in recent weeks.

Is China the biggest foreign threat to the US?

Trump certainly thinks so. In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes programme, the president described China as a “foe in many ways”, a “competitor” and accused it of having allowed the coronavirus outbreak to become a global pandemic.

Trump has frequently targeted China during his re-election bid, as he did during his successful campaign in 2016, in particular by trying to shift the blame for America’s coronavirus woes on to Beijing.

In contrast, Biden told 60 Minutes he believed the “biggest threat to America right now in terms of breaking up our security and alliances” was Russia. China was the US’ “biggest competitor” and that depending how the relationship was handled, it would determine whether the two would be in a “more serious competition relating to force”.

Business ties to China

Trump has repeatedly criticised Biden’s son Hunter over his business links with China, including his pursuit of a deal with a Chinese private energy firm after Joe Biden left office.

There is no evidence that Biden Snr was involved in negotiations for the deal but this has not stopped Trump from hammering in on the reports. On Wednesday he said Biden wanted to send American jobs to China “while his family rakes in millions from the Chinese Communist Party”.

“If Biden wins, China will own the USA,” he has said on many occasions.

Biden hit back saying records reported by The New York Times showed Trump had a bank account in China and had for years sought business deals in the country. According to the report, Trump’s China bank account paid out more than US$188,000 in local taxes.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka was also scrutinised over trademark approvals she received in China for her fashion brand in 2018.

Trade imbalance with China

Trump has lauded his phase one trade deal with China and the tariffs he imposed on Chinese products as part of their trade war as a success for his administration.

During the second and final presidential debate, he claimed he had given US$28 billion to American farmers, funded by money from his tariffs on China. Biden said the funding had come from US taxpayers.

The presidential challenger last weekend accused Trump of being “weak and chaotic” with China on trade, and said he would mobilise an international effort to “pressure, isolate and punish China” to strengthen manufacturing jobs in the US.

China and the coronavirus

Trump has repeatedly described the coronavirus, which was first identified in the central China city of Wuhan, as the “China virus”, the “plague” from China and even “kung flu”, and said Beijing would “pay a big price” for failing to contain it.

Biden has countered by saying that the Trump administration had its own failings in managing the Covid-19 crisis in the US, and that the president had sought to “deflect blame” by terming the virus the “China virus” despite the rise in racist incidents against Asian-Americans in the US.

Countering China on the world stage

During the second presidential debate, Biden accused Trump of embracing “thugs” like Chinese President Xi Jinping and alienating US allies. He has also said the US should work with other countries to make China “play by the rules”, and that he would hold Beijing accountable for its human rights abuses.

In an op-ed in the US’ largest Chinese-language paper, World Journal, Biden wrote that the US was a Pacific power that would stand with its friends and allies in the region, including Taiwan.

“Our approach to China will focus on boosting American competitiveness, revitalising our strengths at home, and renewing our alliances and leadership abroad,” he said.

“We’ll work to collaborate with China when it’s in our interest, including on public health and climate change.”

While Trump has been less vocal in criticising China’s human rights problems, his administration has taken a hard line in countering Beijing, including imposing sanctions on officials from the mainland and Hong Kong over their actions in the former British colony.

The US has also imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over Beijing’s repression of ethnic Uygurs in Xinjiang and on Chinese companies for their actions in the South China Sea.