Читать книгу American Presidential Elections in a Comparative Perspective - Группа авторов - Страница 25

Among all the presidential candidates in 2016, no one was more familiar to the Chinese people than Hillary Clinton was, and no one had more China experience. Either as the First Lady lecturing Beijing on its human rights record or masterminding the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia during her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has earned a reputation among the Chinese for being tough and assertive. Not surprisingly, as Clinton frequently used her China record to bolster her foreign policy credentials on the campaign trail, the Chinese were highly alert to the prospects of a Clinton presidency.¹⁹ Since most Chinese pundits were betting on a Clinton victory, the focus of attention was on figuring out what kind of China policy Clinton would adopt once she was elected, and whether she would continue to engage China or choose to contain it.²⁰

For quite a few Chinese experts, doing research on Clinton’s personality and political psychology seemed a good starting point. Clinton’s character, according to one scholar, is active/positive, power-oriented, and cognitively flexible, while her value-oriented, rules-based political beliefs would drive her to constrain China if she became president.²¹ Based on an analysis of her personality traits and past behavior, another scholar predicted greater conflicts and more instability between China and the United States under a Clinton presidency.²² Because the candidates are under electoral pressure to fulfill their campaign promises once elected, many Chinese experts focused on Clinton’s campaign rhetoric about China as a useful guide to her future policy.²³ Taking a holistic approach, Chen Dingding argued that a Clinton presidency would likely present more challenges to China-US relations because of the convergence of three factors: Clinton’s past attitudes toward China, her identification with the Democratic Party, and increasing tensions between the two countries.²⁴ Despite widely shared skepticism and caution between the Chinese about Clinton’s potential policy, some experts were more optimistic as they pointed to the “rational and sensible” elements of Clinton’s foreign policy and contended that there would be continued cooperation between China and the United States under a Clinton administration.²⁵

While Hillary Clinton’s hawkish foreign policy image is firmly established in the Chinese’s mind, she is also commonly referred to in China as the perfect advocate for the Washington political establishment. For many Chinese, Clinton’s pro-establishment image impeded her campaign in an election widely perceived to be taking place at an anti-establishment moment. For example, Diao Daming, an established expert on American elections from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that Clinton’s policy positions had long lost their appeal to blue collar, working class Americans, while her establishment identity and countless scandals actually made her an unpopular choice for the 2016 election.²⁶ In particular, the Chinese media frequently brought up the Clinton’s email scandal as proof of hypocrisy among America’s governing elites.²⁷