On the attack
Biden to hammer Trump’s ‘tough talk, weak action’ on China
President Donald Trump has seized on Americans' growing animosity toward China over the coronavirus outbreak to underpin his re-election pitch, arguing he will hit Beijing harder than anyone.
That is just tough talk hardly substantiated by action, says Jake Sullivan, a senior adviser to presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Biden's campaign is preparing to roll out policies on how his future administration would better deal with China and will continue to show how Trump is weak on America's top geopolitical and economic competitor, Sullivan told Reuters in an interview.
“The vice president intends to do two things: hold Trump accountable for a catastrophic set of failures in his approach to China, and a colossal gap between tough talk and weak action,” said Sullivan, one of several former Obama administration officials who comprise Biden's foreign policy team. Biden served as President Barack Obama's No. 2 for eight years.
On the coronavirus, Biden will keep criticizing Trump for repeatedly praising Chinese President Xi Jinping despite global concerns over a lack of transparency on the severity of the crisis, Sullivan said.
On global alliances, Biden's team argues that Trump is helping China by undermining U.S. relations with traditional allies, and reducing America's role and influence in international institutions.
On the years-long trade war with China, Biden's campaign will highlight its contention that Americans have paid a significant price while getting little in return.
“It's fine for the president to want to push China to make changes,” Sullivan said. “But you get judged not by the pushing, but by the changes.”
Both candidates are spending millions of dollars ahead of the Nov. 3 election on ad campaigns targeting the other's record on China, which has quickly become a focal point of the U.S. presidential race.
Trump's campaign contends Biden will not be as tough on China, the country the Republican president blames for the pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 people in the United States and saw 20.5 million Americans lose jobs in April. In an email to supporters on Tuesday, the Trump campaign called Biden the “China-loving candidate.”
“Joe Biden has a terrible record on China, having coddled them over his four decades in Washington,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said of Biden, who also served as a U.S. senator.
“President Trump will always hold China accountable for their actions, but Beijing Biden simply can't be trusted to fight for America's interests,” she added.
Trump in recent weeks has ramped up his criticism of Beijing and threatened new tariffs, and officials are considering retaliatory measures over the outbreak.
Negative views on China among Americans have grown to the highest levels in 15 years, with two-thirds of people holding an unfavorable opinion of the country, up 20 percentage points since Trump took office, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.