Chinese media and audiences pull out the popcorn as first Biden-Trump debate descends into chaos
Their shared animosity toward China, however, didn’t cause much of a stir on Chinese social media, where the general reaction to the debate was dominated by people’s astonishment over Trump’s “unhinged” performance.
China was barely mentioned in the first chaotic 2020 presidential debate, in which U.S. President Donald Trump yelled, interrupted and hectored Democratic contender Joe Biden.
But both Trump and Biden called on each other to be tougher on China, with Trump accusing Biden of not doing enough to tame China throughout his time as Vice President, and Biden condemning Trump for praising China’s coronavirus response.
Their shared animosity toward China, however, didn’t cause much of a stir on Chinese social media, where the general reaction to the debate was dominated by people’s astonishment over Trump’s “unhinged” performance, jokes about the experience of seeing “two elderly men brawling with each other,” and gleeful comments from people who saw the chaotic debate as “an indicator of the degradation of American democracy.”
Although most Chinese news publications and journalists completely ignored the debate, a small number published articles about the event. The China Daily, an English-language newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party, described the moderator as a party host “who was trying to keep the peace between two unruly guests.” Nationalist rag the Global Times covered the debate in its English edition, writing that Chinese political analysts thought it was “embarrassing” to watch and it largely reflected “the recession of U.S. national power.”
Hú Xījìn 胡锡进, editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times and a man who’s never short on opinions, took to social media to give his two cents. Hu wrote on Twitter that the debate “reflects division, anxiety of U.S. society and the accelerating loss of advantages of the U.S. political system.” On Weibo, he said (in Chinese) that he used to have “envy” for U.S. presidential debates, but how things went down on Tuesday night gave him “mixed feelings” about America in general.
Below, a roundup of what Chinese social media had to say about the Biden-Trump debate:
“The U.S. presidential election makes me feel like I’m good enough for the job.”
“Every debate turns into a squabble when Trump is part of it.”
“Two senile old dudes competing to be the leader of the U.S. I feel bad for American people.”
“As Trump tore into both Biden and the moderator, he still managed to tweet.”
“What a disgrace. This is more hilarious than fights at villages’ committees.”
“They talk a lot about ideologies. But deep inside they only care about their business.”
“Democracy is going back to the time of being kindergarten kids.”
“T grandpa and B grandpa got into an argument about who should be the head of the village. Young people all moved to big cities in search of jobs. Only the elderly were left behind for this.”
“Senile dementia vs. schizophrenia.”
“How did we end up having Trump as the president of the world’s superpower?”
