China tones down media rhetoric against US

The shift in the media coverage by Chinese agencies and outlets marks an unusual shift from the aggressive position and critical position they had assumed a year ago on Trump and Washington’s foreign policy. Since November 1, through detailed reports, interviews, editorials, and commentaries, the Chinese media not only scaled down their blitzkrieg against the US but even turned circumspective – with an analytical tone and factual reportage

New Delhi: In an incongruous move, the Chinese state-controlled media which was expected to hastily report on the developments shaping up in Washington, are being very cautious and mindful of their coverage of Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris’s victory in the US General elections. The sudden change of tone and mellowing of rhetoric by the media seems to be directed by Beijing’s leadership which also contrary to the expectations is yet to officially congratulate Biden or Harris.

Apart from a tweet, which was in response to US President Donald Trump’s statement on 7 November of him winning the election, by China’s largest newspaper People’s Daily. The rhetoric has remained balanced with all three forms of media – print, digital, and broadcast – carrying mostly factual reports that emphasize President Trump challenging election results over the victory marked by Biden.

The shift in the media coverage marks an unusual shift from the aggressive position and critical position they had assumed a year ago on Trump and Washington’s foreign policy. For two weeks, through detailed reports, interviews, editorials, and commentaries, the Chinese media have not only scaled down their blitzkrieg but also turned circumspective.

On November 8, the Xinhua news agency in a report said ‘Biden has made the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic a central issue of his presidential bid and put Trump on the defense in their debates over the public health crisis, which has infected more than 9.8 million people in the United States, with nearly 237,000 deaths.’ On the aspect of President Trump refusing to concede the elections, Xinhua quoted unnamed legal experts as saying that ‘election disputes would have to go through lower courts before they could reach the high court…Federal law sets what is called the ‘Safe Harbor’ deadline, falling on December 8, 2020, the day by which states must submit the winner of the presidential election if they are to be insulated from legal disputes.’

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Prominent Chinese broadcaster CCTV in a program on the same day said ‘Although the current US president and Republican presidential candidate Trump has yet to admit defeat, leaders of many countries have congratulated the Democratic presidential candidate Biden and his selected partner Harris.’

One of Beijing’s influential business news-portal Yicai, on November 9 in an article said ‘At the 2nd Bund Finance Summit held recently in Shanghai when international guests at the meeting mentioned the US general elections, they were almost overwhelmingly optimistic about Biden’s victory.’ It further read that ‘In the international arena, Biden is not a protectionist. He will restart multilateralism and strengthen the international community. Cooperation, especially cooperation with allies.’

State-owned media houses like the Beijing Television (BTV) and the CCTV released Weibo videos announcing Biden’s victory with the count of 268 and closing fast, they cited different media sources from the US for their report. A notable fact is that none of the government channels or media outlets, made did not make any direct or indirect comment on the strained US-China relation, trade war, or even US-Taiwan ties. The media house carefully avoided the allegations leveled by the US on China over the COVID-19 pandemic or even the South China sea developments.

Meanwhile, reports on China’s highly censored and closely monitors social networking platform – Sina Weibo – projected Biden’s victory. A major trending hashtag amongst the Chinese social media users, wishing President Trump goodbye from the Oval Office and White House was ‘#ComradeChuanJianguo’ which means nation-building Trump – a sarcastic remark on POTUS. Apart from this millions of users across the mainland carried out lengthy discussions on the developments shaping in the United States. The discussions also featured memes, cartoons, and short videos of Trump. According to a social media analytics report as of 1400 GMT on November 9, the hashtag ‘#Trump’ had over 143.7 million views and over 9,056 comments.