Of the four presidential and vice presidential candidates, only Tim Walz failed to mention China in his convention speech − and he is the only one with personal knowledge of the country.
Speaking at the Republican National Convention in July 2024, Donald Trump invoked China 14 times. In the course of a 92-minute address, the former president recycled his widely criticized term “ China virus” for the COVID-19 pandemic, said China was stealing auto jobs, and touted how his administration had China beat on a variety of fronts.
Trump and his Republican allies have long mobilized the use of China to position themselves as anti-Communist and to burnish their “America first” credentials. For Trump, especially, it is a tried and tested electoral ploy. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump invoked China so frequently that The Huffington Post produced a mashup video of the candidate repeating “China” 234 times.
On Aug. 16, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee chair, Republican James Comer, opened an investigation into Walz’s “longstanding connections” to China. Walz’s apparent reluctance to highlight his knowledge about China also contrasts with the action of a previous Republican presidential hopeful, Jon Huntsman, who served as an ambassador to China and is fluent in Chinese. During his campaign in 2011, arguably a different time in U.S.-China relations, Huntsman repeatedly demonstrated his ability to speak Chinese and was often praised for doing so.
The same logic, I would argue, informs the GOP’s frequent invocation of China as a geopolitical and economic threat.
Democratic Party Donald Trump JD Vance Kamala Harris Project 2025 Republican Party Tim Walz US Election 2024 US Elections US-China US-China Relations
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