The Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times mocked leftist American President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will run for reelection this week, describing a potential rematch between Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, as proof that America is a “decaying country.”
The Global Times‘ condemnation of America’s presidential race was largely a commentary on the age of its top contenders, particularly Biden, who turned 80 years old in November and was the oldest man ever to become president when he took office in 2021. Trump would be 78 years old on his inauguration day should he win the 2024 election.
“A possible sequel to the Biden-Trump competition [of 2020], when both have been mired in criticism and failed to fix US problems, lays bare a decaying country that is deprived of vitality, and the political rigidity will eventually lead to a decline in US influence worldwide,” the Chinese government publication proclaimed, citing “experts.”
One such “expert,” a pro-regime research fellow identified as Lü Xiang, described America as “an unsolvable melee which features the tussle of two old men; one is claimed by insiders as ‘too old to travel,’ and the other is mired in a morass of lawsuits and scandals.”
A scandalized Lü declared that “under no circumstances should candidates with such backgrounds be chosen to compete for such an important job.”
Another such “expert,” professor Li Haidong, predicted a “rapid decline of American power globally” as a result of any potential Biden-Trump showdown. Li particularly cited ongoing scandals surrounding the president’s son, Hunter Biden, as detrimental to America generally.
Biden announced his candidacy for a second term as president on Tuesday in a video in which he condemned alleged “MAGA extremists,” an apparent concession that his campaign expects Trump to be the Republican nominee, and did not celebrate any achievements under Biden’s first term.
“Let’s finish this job. I know we can. Because this is the United States of America. And there’s nothing, simply nothing we can’t do if we do it together,” Biden asserted.
Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms. I believe this is ours.
That’s why I’m running for reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job. https://t.co/V9Mzpw8Sqy pic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2023
Trump announced his candidacy for a second term in November in a speech that identified specific struggles America is facing under Biden, including inflation, a worsening border crisis, and the deterioration of American influence abroad.
“Our country is being destroyed before your very eyes,” Trump warned at the time.
Biden’s first week as a formal candidate for president has already faced several setbacks, including hesitancy from the White House on whether the octogenarian would complete a second term or not (the White House ultimately told reporters Biden aspired to serve eight years) and challenges from the left.
“I think an entire younger generation would stay home in droves in response to what that video is advancing as the administration’s pitch to the American people,” Marianne Williamson, who is running in the Democrat Party primary against Biden, lamented following Biden’s reelection bid announcement.
A poll published by the firm CIVIQS this week found that 67 percent of American respondents believed that, under Biden, the country is heading in the wrong direction, 59 percent said they believed the economy was deteriorating, and only 39 percent said they approved of Biden’s performance in office.
Another poll by Rasmussen Reports published this week found that 35 percent of Democrats believe it is likely that they will vote for a third-party candidate instead of the Democrat nominee, widely presumed to be Biden.
The Global Times omitted in its coverage of the U.S. election that, under its totalitarian communist system, the Chinese people play no role in selecting their own leaders. Genocidal dictator Xi Jinping has been the supreme ruler of the country for a decade and reached the traditional retirement age for Communist Party leaders, 68, last year, with no successor or plans to step down in sight. On the contrary, Xi used last year’s Communist Party Congress to purge any potential dissidents or competitors for the top titles of president, chairman of the Party, and head of the armed forces.
The Global Times, like other Chinese government propaganda outlets, regularly touts the communist system as superior to the “chaotic” process of choosing political leaders in free states.
“Regardless of electoral democracy’s advantages, including transparency and competitiveness, it has flaws that should not be ignored. The biggest problem is that it cannot truly reflect the essence of democracy,” an alleged Chinese regime-approved “expert” told the Global Times in a 2019 article.
The state newspaper declared a year later, during the 2020 race, that American democracy was “dying,” citing the government response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. At the time, the Chinese government – whose mismanagement of the situation turned the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan into a pandemic – was openly destroying critical evidence of the virus’s origins in Wuhan, reporting epidemic death tolls that did not align with local funeral home body counts, and admitting to silencing medical experts recommending health precautions to prevent the spread of the disease.
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