WASHINGTON: China has fast become a top election issue as President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden engage in a verbal brawl over who’s better at playing the tough guy against Beijing.
The Trump campaign put out ads showing Biden toasting China’s Xi Jinping, even though Trump did just that with Xi in Asia and hosted the Chinese leader at his Florida club. Spots from the Biden campaign feature Trump playing down the coronavirus and praising Xi for being transparent about the pandemic, even though it’s clear China hid details of the outbreak from the world.
“I think it’s going to be absolutely critical, but I don’t know who is going to have the advantage,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz. He has been reviewing the ads and thinks China is one of the three leading issues along with the economy and the handling of the coronavirus.
China is not just a foreign policy issue in the November election. It’s an issue that runs deeply through the troubles with the virus, which tanked the US economy.
Voters also will be asking themselves whether Trump or Biden can best defend the US against China’s unfair trade practices, theft of intellectual property rights, rising aggression across the globe and human rights abuses.
“Which person looks more subservient to the Chinese leaders is the person who’s in more