Elites in Beijing see America in decline, hastened by Trump

WHOM WOULD China prefer as America’s next president? That is a hard question, without an uplifting answer. In elite circles in Beijing, both President Donald Trump and his rival, Joe Biden, a former vice-president, are spoken of with distrust and condescension. Rather unusually, both candidates are known quantities. Each man has spent many hours with President Xi Jinping. During the first term of the Obama administration, when Mr Xi was heir-apparent to the leadership of China with the formal rank of vice-president, Mr Biden, as his opposite number, was tasked with taking his measure. Visiting China in 2011, Mr Biden hailed their numerous meetings in various countries and their “mutual respect”. Mr Trump has gone further, calling Mr Xi his “very, very good friend”. Few in Beijing are fooled. Mr Trump and Mr Biden may share a capacity for talking (and talking) in pursuit of a deal. But Mr Xi’s grim, security-first worldview leaves little room for foreign friendships, let alone with garrulous Americans.

Chinese disdain combines the political with the personal. In the unmarked villas, private dining rooms and scholarly retreats where—when it suits them—well-connected Chinese sometimes offer opinions to foreigners, Mr Trump is called ignorant, erratic and tiresome, but not without his uses. He is praised for an apparent indifference to ideology. He is complimented for his reluctance to condemn Chinese repression in such places as Xinjiang. People familiar with the thinking of Chinese generals assert, approvingly, that Mr Trump dislikes military adventures abroad.