US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US has seen evidence of Chinese attempts to “influence and arguably interfere” with the upcoming US elections, despite an earlier commitment from leader Xi Jinping not to do so.
Yeah no shit. Every major power is trying to influence their rivals' elections, it's the most cost effective way to try and destabilize a country like the U.S. or China. What's more interesting is which side they're interfering for. We know the Republicans are firmly in Moscow's pocket, we know that Trump considers China an enemy, but that doesn't necessarily mean China wants a Democrat either. It could be that the geopolitical gains China made during Trump's administration outweighed all the trade war tariff nonsense, and they want the idiot to drag us further backwards so they can expand their hegemony.
China's funneled almost as much money into Donnie's pockets as Russia.
He's also not keen on maintaining alliances with Japan and South Korea. It's an easy choice for them.
This article basically just repeats my speculation in significantly more detail. Sure Trump said the words "I love China," but the man is a pathological liar who started a trade war with China after saying that and plans to start another one if elected. In his own special way, he even recognizes that the Chinese hegemony is slowly replacing the American one with his rambling on the yuan. They're certainly not friends, and the article's conclusion just indicates that the author thinks Beijing wants a useful idiot.
Trump’s anti-China stance is largely performative, and mostly self-defeating; think domestic tariffs etc.
Sure, that may hurt China’s export potential to the US - but it’s a price the CCP is gambling would pay off in the long-term as Trump’s isolationist stance would weaken regional allies spheres of influence, and provide China the ability to step in and fill the vacuum (best case) or further invade territories they deem theirs (Taiwan, islands within the 9 dashes - worst case).
In situations like this, it’s very much better to side with the devil you know.