China: Donald Trump Indictments Show Americans Are Comfortable ‘Electing a Criminal’

China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday gleefully pounced on the indictment of former President Donald Trump, calling it further evidence that American democracy has become a “political farce” in which the U.S. electorate stands a good chance of “electing a criminal as president.”

Communist parties that would never have the courage to hold a multi-party election should probably refrain from commenting on democracy, but the Global Times plowed ahead, reveling in the misfortune of the former president who waged a trade war against Beijing:

[Chinese Academy of Social Sciences fellow Lu Xiang] pointed out one apparent impact of being involved in multiple lawsuits is that it has drained his campaign money. Trump’s political action committee, Save America, has spent more than $40 million on legal fees since the start of 2023, CNN said citing a source familiar with the matter whose name was not given.

The expert believes when the legal process does not influence much, Democrats can hardly use the impeachment process to thwart Trump. The 2021 riot in Congress led to Trump’s second impeachment in the House of Representatives – making him the first US president ever to be impeached twice – and ended up nowhere. 

The unfolding of the 2024 presidential election is dramatic enough but the political farce is far from conclusion. Since 2016, US democracy has entered an accelerated track of decadence and Americans have no alternative but to choose between the worse and the worst, Lü said.

The Global Times marveled that Trump was still allowed to run for president even with charges pending and a partisan Democrat impeachment behind him, the Chinese legal system having very different notions about civil rights and the presumption of innocence than America’s. In China, trials are such breezy affairs that the court might forget to invite the public, the media, the defendant, his family, and his legal counsel.

Lu Xiang offered a perceptive observation to the Global Times: even as the indictments appear to boost Trump’s popularity with Republican voters enraged by a politically motivated prosecution, they place an enormous drain on Trump’s campaign finances, which has the dual effect of making him the likely GOP nominee and leaving him without the funds needed to mount an effective campaign against an incumbent president whose party enjoys monolithic support from the American media.