The specter of China has entered the US election campaign rhetoric – significantly more so among the many Republicans than the Democrats

Donald Trump spoke on the Republican National Convention in July 2024 China mentioned 14 timesDuring his 92-minute speech, the previous president repeated his much-criticized term “China virusfor the COVID-19 pandemic, claimed that China was stealing jobs within the auto industry and boasted that his government had beaten China on several fronts.

China has also made it into the important thing speeches on the 2024 Democratic National Convention. On the primary evening President Joe Biden said When he took office, the final perception was that China would inevitably overtake the United States.

“Nobody is saying that now,” he added.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris repeated this opinion last night, claiming that if elected, she would make sure that “America, not China, wins the competition of the 21st century.”

As Expert on the portrayal of China in US media culture and politicsI feel it’s hardly surprising that China is getting used in campaign rhetoric – neither is it surprising that the country is being given unequal weight by Democrats and Republicans.

A proven election trick

Since Biden's exit from the presidential raceIn contrast to their Republican colleagues, the Democratic candidates appear to have limited their references to China in the course of the election campaign.

Trump and his Republican allies have long used China to position themselves as anti-communist and polish their “America first” References. It is a tried and tested election trick, especially for Trump. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump referred to China so often that the Huffington Post produced a mashup video of the candidate Repeat of “China” 234 times.

This has continued in the present election cycle.

Apart from the frequent mentions within the speeches of Trump and others, 2024 GOP Platform emphasizes as a central commitment the “securing of strategic independence from China” by restricting trade and investment and “confronting China” with the intention to “restore peace through strength”. In contrast, other supposed adversaries comparable to Russia and Iran will not be mentioned within the official Republican platform.

Meanwhile, Project 2025 – the conservative Heritage Foundation’s political plan that is commonly related to Trump, although his campaign refuses the connection – mentions China a minimum of 483 times in a 922-page document. The project official website even highlights the goal of “taking on China” on the “Info” page.

Neither “dragon slayer” nor “panda hugger”

It was due to this fact not surprising that Trump-supporting elements of the US media pounced on news that Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota who was chosen as Harris' running mate, has previously taught in China and has traveled there an estimated 30 times since 1989, including on his honeymoon.

Although Walz said he was “neither a “dragon slayer” nor a “panda hugger”“When it comes to China, conservative commentators painted Walz as a “Marxist” who would make communist China “very happy.” Fox News host Jesse Watters even demanded that Walz a background check by the FBI due to its ties to China.

On August 16, the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Republican James Comer, said launched an investigation in Walz's “long-standing connections” to China.

The great waltz of China? Hardly

Among the connections that some Republicans find suspect is that from 1994 to 2003, Walz co-ran Educational Travel Adventures together with his wife, Gwen Walz, an organization they founded that helped students from small-town America travel to China to study Chinese culture. History and cultureDuring his time as a member of the House of Representatives, Walz also served on the Congressional Human Rights Monitoring Commission on China.

While consistently critical of the Chinese governmentWalz also recognized that relations between the United States and China don’t necessarily need to be hostile, but that there are “many areas of cooperation.”

Despite his extensive China-related experience, the Democratic vice presidential candidate has not yet mentioned China in his major campaign speeches – China didn’t make it into his party conference speechIn contrast to the speeches of Harris, Trump and Walz Rival for Vice President, JD Vance.

Walz's apparent reluctance to flaunt his knowledge of China also contrasts with the behavior of a previous Republican presidential candidate, Jon Huntsman, who served as ambassador to China and is fluent in Chinese. During his campaign in 2011, arguably at a special time in U.S.-China relations, Huntsman repeatedly demonstrated his ability to talk Chinese and was often praised for.

Harris' big step forward, not back

One reason for the several emphasis on China for the 2 candidates, for my part, is the several focus of the election. For the Democrats, the upcoming election is about movement – they project the alternative between regression and progress. Headlines like Harris' “We will not be going back“They position the United States and its people as moving toward a way forward for unity, promise and opportunity that they imagine will leave behind the chaos, division and oppression of the past.”

In this context, China's role as a threat is anchored primarily in the world of ​​high-tech competition; Harris's references to China in her speech on the Congress concerned the Future in space and artificial intelligence.

In contrast, the Republican campaign is more focused on protecting an imaginary Americanism from foreign powers, which is why one expects more from Trump and Vance concerning the much-dramatized “Invasion” of immigrants crossing the border illegally the borders and produce drugs and crime with them.

The same logic, I might argue, underlies the Republican Party's frequent invocation of China as a geopolitical and economic threat.

After all, Trump has long attributed quite a lot of actions to the Chinese government, from calling it the creator of the “Wuhan virus“ to the point of blaming the “False report” of climate change. In his speech on the congress, Vance said China is directly linked to the illegal cross-border drug tradeAt a rally in Michigan on August 27, he also said: accused Harris claimed she used taxpayer money to “pay the Chinese Communist Party to build factories on American soil,” but didn’t mention that the Republican-led Congress had developed this system.

This characterization of China suits with what I called “The Racialization of the Chinese State” in my book.Disorienting politics.” The rhetoric portrays China as a robust agent committing nefarious acts that may only harm America.

“Everything revolves around China”

Over the past 20 years, parts of the American media have condemned the rule of the Chinese Communist Party with fascism and totalitarianism.

This rhetoric within the US concerning the “Chinese virus” in the course of the pandemic triggered an increase in reported anti-Asian racist attacks and showed that the fear created a few distant country like China may also sow hatred towards people who find themselves believed to come back from there.

In this sense, Walz's reluctance to say China may reflect a refusal to oversimplify China's complex society. “The best way to get to know people is to hear them tell what it's like where they live,” said the previous social studies teacher. in 1991while chatting with a neighborhood newspaper a few pen pal program between the United States and China.

As the election season progresses, the specter of China is more likely to resurface, at the same time as more pressing geopolitical conflicts proceed to dominate the headlines.

Finally, even certainly one of Walz's former students – a self-described “sleeping Republican” who tried to defend Walz against Republican attacks on his character – advised the Trump campaign to give attention to policy and “Make it a difficulty in China.”