China prefers Harris over Trump as US president, says top Chinese official

'From China’s point of view, US Vice President Kamala Harris, who has worked under President Biden, represents the continuity,' a senior member of the Chinese national advisory body said.

Beijing: China will prefer Kamala Harris to Donald Trump as the next US presidential considering that bilateral ties deteriorated sharply during the latter’s presidency leading to serious confrontation, a senior member of the Chinese national advisory body said on Thursday.

The Chinese government prefers not to comment on the US presidential election because it doesn’t want to be accused of interfering in American domestic politics, Jia Qingguo, member of the Standing Committee of the national advisory body CPPCC said.

The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a key component of the state governance system and a distinctively Chinese political institution.

The views of the Chinese general public are divided over Harris and Trump, but “I would prefer Harris because of the bad experience with Trump. We don’t want to have that experience again,” he told BBC in a rare comment voicing Beijing’s preferred choice in the US presidential election.

During Trump’s presidency, the relations declined sharply and the two countries ended up in serious confrontation. “From China’s point of view, US Vice President Kamala Harris, who has worked under President Biden, represents the continuity,” he said.

Trump, during his Presidency, was quite emotional and spread a lot of bad information about China, said Jia, who is also the Director of the Institute of Global Cooperation and Understanding of the Peking University.

“We have problems with the Biden admiration too,” but Biden inherited a lot of tough measures initiated by Trump against China for the reasons of domestic politics and perhaps out of his ideological conviction, he said, adding, “Under Biden, the US policy towards China is more stable, predictable.”

“We are re-engaging with each other. Officials are meeting with each other, talking about issues,” which he said is stabilising the relations.

While following a tough policy towards China, including firming up US policy to challenge Beijing’s claims over the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan, and restricting China’s ambitious move to export its electric vehicles, Biden, however, has maintained regular dialogue with President Xi Jinping to keep the tensions under control.

The relations between the top two economies nosedived under Trump, especially after COVID-19 broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and led to a pandemic which had a devastating impact all over the world.

Trump has alleged that the virus responsible for the pandemic was leaked from a bio lab in Wuhan, prompting China to mount a massive propaganda offensive to counter Trump’s allegations.

The former president had levied tariffs on the flourishing Chinese exports to the US to force Beijing to provide more access to the American goods.

The Biden administration is continuing with the tariffs on Chinese exports to the US, which last year amounted to over USD 500 billion compared to around USD 148 billion American exports to China.

Trump's threat to impose 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, if he gets elected, is worrying Beijing as it may have a severe impact on China’s economy which is bogged down with a slowdown.