Rival China sees opportunities and risks from ‘divided’ U.S.

Chinese observers say U.S. Presidents tend to be more active in foreign affairs after midterm elections.

A closely contested midterm elections in the United States has been seen by strategic experts in rival China as underlining an increasingly divided country.

If divisions in America might ostensibly appear to pose benefits to Beijing amid its all-encompassing geopolitical rivalry with Washington, experts in the Chinese capital also fear escalating tensions given a broadly bipartisan consensus on a tougher approach to China.

“As can be seen from the experience of recent U.S. Presidents, after midterm election setbacks, they tend to be more active in foreign affairs, so the Biden administration is highly likely to do something that they think is in the vital strategic interests of voters to attract attention,” the Communist Party-run Global Times quoted an unnamed strategic expert as saying.

Noting that the Barack Obama White House had, a year after midterm setbacks, announced the killing of Osama bin Laden, while the Donald Trump administration released its Indo-Pacific Strategy report a year after its midterm woes, the expert said President Joe Biden “would also follow this route, perhaps further pushing the Indo-Pacific Strategy and solidifying the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework at the upcoming APEC summit” in Thailand next week.

Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University in Beijing, described the political contest in the U.S. as “a bitter rat race”.

“We are likely to see Republicans in Congress pushing for investigations into the incumbent Joe Biden, while at the local level Democrats continue to push for probes into Trump”.

“Divergences between China and U.S. may be further amplified, while cooperation may weaken,” Mr. Diao added, suggesting that “the Taiwan question a more prominent stumbling block in bilateral ties.”