Photo: CFP
By calling the novel coronavirus the "China virus," playing blame-shifting games to distract attention from his administration's failures in handling the epidemic and sluggish economy, while at the same time touting a twisted reality with augmented rhetoric about his personal achievements, President Donald Trump delivered his GOP nomination speech to run for a second term as president on Thursday local time, one week after Joe Biden accepted the Democratic Party's nomination, marking the "official" opening of the fall election season in the US.
Experts told the Global Times on Friday that playing the "China card" in his speech is a timeworn tactic that Trump also adopted four years ago in his first election campaign; in fact, antagonizing China is his way of creating an enemy in an attempt to appease his base of supporters.
"He created conflict both within and outside the US four years ago, which brought him a somewhat surprising victory. So, this time around, he wants to replicate such success," Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday.
"Trump wants to reinforce his loyal supporters and impact swing voters by his repeated warnings of 'fear' in relation to China. But, this has so far not impacted those swing voters," Diao Daming, a US politics expert and associate professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday.
Currently, Trump lags behind Biden by 9 percentage points, according to August's Wall Street Journal pool.
Addressing more than 1,000 audience members (without nucleic acid tests conducted and mostly mask-free) from the White House South Lawn, Trump mentioned China more than 10 times — including calling COVID-19 the "China virus," touting his efforts to contain China and claiming China wants Biden to win. In comparison, Biden only mentioned China once in his speech.
Analysts pointed out that no matter the result of the US election, there is an consensus in Chinese society that neither of the candidates would be soft on China.
"Being tough on China won't change no matter who wins. The difference is whether relations will turn into confrontation between civilized people or confrontation between civilized people and barbarians," Li said.
Over the past four days of the GOP convention, Trump's cronies portrayed him as empathetic, caring for women and black communities; however, the country has continued to wrestle with a deadly racial division. The convention also amplified the threats of lawlessness and violence under potential Democratic leadership.
In Thursday's speech, Trump even claimed he has done "more for the African American community than any other president since Abraham Lincoln."
In Biden's speech last week, which he delivered to a virtual audience, he attacked Trump's failures in handing the COVID-19 crisis and racism, saying the US was in a "season of darkness."
"The US is still strong, but it's now pathetic and miserable. The country will be mired in deep confrontation for many years. This situation will possibly continue no matter who wins," Li told the Global Times.