One of China’s most popular state-owned tabloids, the Global Times, believes Donald Trump’s election campaign, with its fist fights, its “abusive racism and extremism”, is a perfect illustration of the flaws of the democratic system.
China is sensitive to international criticism of how it shuns western-style democracy, its shortcomings on free speech and its poor human rights record, but Mr Trump's controversial campaign to win the Republican nomination has given state propaganda organs a golden opportunity to engage in a bit of Yankee, and democracy, bashing.
“At the beginning of the election, Trump, a rich, narcissist and inflammatory candidate, was only treated as an underdog,” ran a commentary in the Global Times, which is published by the same group that prints the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s chief organ.
“His job was basically to act as a clown to attract more voters’ attention to the GOP. However, knocking down most other promising candidates, the clown is now the biggest dark horse,” it said.
The commentary points out how fist fights between voters from opposing camps is a common feature in developing countries, but how Mr Trump has brought such scenes to “one of the most developed and mature democratic election systems . . . Trump’s mischief has overthrown a lot of conventional norms of US political life.”
The article then turns to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini through the electoral process, described as a “heavy lesson for western democracy”.
And while it believes that Mr Trump will not become president, the process will be “scary but not dangerous” and the Global Times reckons the rise of Mr Trump has opened a Pandora’s box in US society.
“Big-mouthed, anti-traditional, abusively forthright, he is a perfect populist that could easily provoke the public. Despite candidates’ promises, Americans know elections cannot really change their lives. Then, why not support Trump and vent their spleen?”
Mexican wall
In another commentary in the China Daily on Mr Trump’s plans to build a wall along the border with
Mexico
which would rival the Great Wall in China,
Chen Weihua
wrote: “His plan for a great wall has been perceived by the Chinese largely as a joke by a comedian-type politician.”
Earlier this month, state broadcaster CCTV ran a documentary with "evidence that the US was trampling on the human rights of its own people in all walks of life", accusing the US of double standards because of how it criticised China at the UN Human Rights Council.
“Even if Trump is simply a false alarm, the impact has already left a dent. The US faces the prospect of an institutional failure, which might be triggered by a growing mass of real-life problems,” the Global Times said.
“The US had better watch itself for not being a source of destructive forces against world peace, more than pointing fingers at other countries for their so-called nationalism and tyranny.”
The fascination clearly cuts both ways. Aware that comments about how Chinese low-cost manufacturing has cost American jobs are popular among poor and lower middle-class voters, Mr Trump makes regular negative references to China in his speeches.
One of the most popular videos on YouTube, with 4.75 million clicks, is of Donald Trump saying "China" over and over again.
