Читать книгу American Presidential Elections in a Comparative Perspective - Группа авторов - Страница 24

Any discussion of Chinese perceptions of the 2016 US presidential election has to begin with China’s views of the candidates. For the Chinese, American elections are always candidate-centered, and the election process is largely driven by a series of events and incidents that involve competition and elimination. In following this year’s election, the Chinese media and other observers focused on the major candidates’ images, rhetoric, and policy positions, while the ordinary Chinese were largely attracted to the candidates’ personality and scandals. The two candidates that have attracted the most attention from the Chinese are, of course, the Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton, and her Republican opponent Donald Trump.

Curiously, however, the Chinese were anticipating a different fight at the beginning of the election, that is, a “dynastic duel” as some experts put it, between Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton.¹⁶ Many Chinese pundits’ jaws dropped when the Republican primary took an unexpected turn and Donald Trump won the GOP nomination. China’s America watchers were equally surprised when Bernie Sanders, originally derided as a fringe candidate, took his fight to the final stage with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s heir apparent. While the populist movement spearheaded by Sanders received much less attention in China than Trump and Clinton, some Chinese scholars tracked the “socialist elements” in Sander’s campaign very closely, and construed them as evidence of the deepening crisis of America’s capitalist system and the revival of socialist ideas in Western countries.¹⁷ For other scholars, an important analogy could be drawn between the rise of Donald Trump and the popularity of Bernie Sanders, as both campaigns displayed strong populist sentiments and shared overlapping electoral bases.¹⁸