Why China-bashing dominates U.S. presidential elections

For many years, China has always been a heatedly-discussed topic in U.S. presidential elections. The three rounds of presidential debates between Obama and Romney made no exceptions. In the first debate, Romney referred to China for three times in regard to domestic economy and trade, advocating that the United States should bash China in trade and not balance expenses and deficits through Chinese loans. In the second debate, Obama asserted that the U.S. could not fall behind China in development of new energy, accusing Romney of investing the company which produces the equipment for China to monitor Americans. In the final debate, how to cope with challenges brought by China’s rise has become a separate topic. All presidential candidates have debated over China and took a tough stance in the past 30 years. However, no matter how tough they are, the China-bashing remarks in the elections are “irresponsible”. No matter who wins the election, every U.S. president unexceptionally attaches great importance to the China-U.S. relations. In other words, China-bashing is nothing but a topic which aims to attract the public attention. Recurrence of the topic indicates the dramatic elements of foreign relations in the U.S. presidential election. Therefore, analysts believe that instead of taking too seriously what candidates say during the election about China, we should pay more attention to how they cope with the China-U.S. relations after the election. It is against the background of universal concern for livelihood and economy among the voter that the candidates pay close attention to China and its influence on the U.S., demonstrating that China has an increasing impact on the U.S. politics and economy. According to the opinion poll by a U.S. organization, two-thirds of the U.S. citizens believe that the U.S. and China maintain good relations and 55 percent advocates that the United States should establish strong and stable relations with China. Therefore, given the importance of China-U.S. relations, whoever becomes the U.S. president cannot execute negative China policies and the complexity of bilateral relations determines that the U.S. will never be too close to China.