One of Donald Trump’s main topics of interest in this presidential election has been China. Many people might even have seen the three minute YouTube mashup of Trump saying “China” over and over1. Criticism of China’s protectionist economic practices and “stealing American jobs” have both been major points in Trump’s rhetoric. At the last presidential debate with his contender Hillary Clinton on September 26th 2016, Trump said during his opening statement that China was using the US “as a piggy bank to rebuild [their own country]”.
In the meantime, both the New York Times and Time magazine have covered the Chinese fascination and support for Trump, citing various reasons for it, ranging from “his business success”, “strongman politics” and his direct manner of speech. Along with Chinese netizens, China’s biggest privately-owned commercial newspaper Southern Weekly [Nanfang Zhoumo]2 also supports Trump. My qualitative media analysis of this newspaper’s coverage of the US presidential race between October 2015 and May 2016 shows how Trump is portrayed as the natural step away from liberal democratic values. It seems to indicate that the paper believes the “Trumpphenomenon” to be the birth of American authoritarianism by popular demand.
China’s media landscape
Hand-in-hand with the Founding Fathers
Southern Weekly’s journalists ask an important question throughout their coverage: “How can a system where neither of the parties run a candidate that got more than 40% of the public vote be legitimate?” Donald Trump has held considerable support among republican voters during this election year, but support from the political establishment of the Republican party, has been lacking. Southern Weekly credits this to Trump’s simple “American-ness” in politics: going against the ‘big government’, the establishment, and featuring a rhetoric that is appealing to the American people, by promising jobs and a more stable economy.
Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote “If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all” is at the center of Southern Weekly’s perspective on Trump as on the same stage as one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. A reference to the father of the American constitution, James Madison, and his “Federalist papers”, further underlines the newspaper’s point of view that the Trump is a typical American in his vigilance of the government. In “Federalist 10” Madison wrote of the role of the people to be vigilant when dealing with the government, and watch out for factionalism in politics.
Southern Weekly’s authors are well on their way to calling the system dysfunctional and “factionalist” by pitting Trump against the political establishment. In today’s America, one article says, a “political party” is no longer a strict and disciplined organisation, but more likely a mob that can display sufficient collective power in an electorate competition. Public support for Trump’s presidency is, therefore, irrelevant as long as he doesn’t follow the strict party line.
"Trump isn’t afraid to admit that democracy isn’t always better than authoritarianism"
Southern Weekly frames Donald Trump as the sign that America’s democracy is deeply flawed domestically and supports his stance against the establishment. But it is their analysis of his foreign policy that indicates their view of him as the ‘natural authoritarian turn within a democratic system’.
In an article from May 16th 2016 entitled “Make America Great Again - Trump” the author discusses Trump’s foreign policy, and his views on the American intervention in the Middle East. It quotes Donald Trump in saying: “We went from mistakes in Iraq to Egypt to Libya, to President Obama’s line in the sand in Syria. Each of these actions has helped to throw the region into chaos […]. It all began with a dangerous idea that we could make western democracies out of countries that had no experience or interests in becoming a western democracy.” By focusing on this side of his foreign policy they indicate that Trump is a man who “is not afraid to admit that democracy isn’t always better than authoritarianism”.
Trump, according to the the article, wants to make America great again first, while the rest of the world comes second. At the same time, his going against spreading “western democracy” to countries that were under authoritarian regimes is central in this particular article’s conclusion that Trump might be the candidate in the US election who is more open to authoritarianism. Americans are tired of military interventions in conflicts that do not concern them, democratising the Middle East being in focus here, and Trump’s willingness to wholly focus on domestic issues ring true in many American’s ears, according to the paper. This would echoe China’s long-standing policy of self-determination, and unwillingness to intervene in internal conflicts of other nations, as well as China’s rejection of other nations’ interventions in her own internal affairs.
The birth of "American authoritarianism"
Southern Weekly’s analysis of Trump shows him as “unconventional” in the political sense, compared to other American politicians, but sees him also as very “American”, culturally, in his rejection of automatic trust the current political system. The reasons for the support expressed in these articles differs entirely from those that are usually used to explain why Chinese netizens admire Trump; strongman style and business success. For Southern Weekly Trump is the authoritarian candidate. From his unfavourable standing with the established political system and the media to his complete distrust in the voting system altogether by calling it “rigged”, he is the man along the lines of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, according to Southern Weekly.
Their coverage of the presidential election this year has one striking red line, which is that Trump is the ‘product’ of the biggest democracy in the world, and by extension the democratic system in general: an authoritarian candidate who rejects many of the established ideas of the American democratic system. Southern Weekly, is seemingly portraying Donald Trump as “The Chinese candidate in American politics”.
One question remains from reading their coverage of Donald Trump. “Is authoritarianism a natural step forward from a democratic political system?” According to Southern Weekly, chances are high that on November 8th it will be.
Footnotes:
1 Huffpost Entertainment (2015, August 28th). ”Donald Trump says ”China””. Online video clip. Youtube. Available
at: https://youtu.be/RDrfE9I8_hs.
2 陈斌 [Chen Bin] (2016, May 16th) “⼤美复兴“特朗普? [Make America great again- Trump?] 南 ⽅周末 [Southern
Weekly]. Available at: http://www.infzm.com/content/117045.
3 Rosenthal, E (2002, March 24th) Under pressure, Chinese Newspaper Pulls Exposé on Charity. New York Times.
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/world/ under-pressure-chinese-newspaper-pulls-expose-on-acharity.
html.
Alex Khudyakov is a graduate student at the Chinese Society and Politics programme at UiO’s Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages. He specializing in content analysis of Chinese news media. He conducted an extensive study in the spring semester of 2016 upon which this text is based