(Bloomberg) -- Chinese social media users hailed Donald Trump’s stunning presidential comeback, while acknowledging the Republican’s political revival likely meant more turbulence for the world’s No. 2 economy.
The announcement of Trump’s election win was viewed more than 1 billion times on China’s X-like Weibo by Thursday morning, with admiration for his triumph after losing the last US election to outgoing President Joe Biden lighting up the comments section.
“‘The King who knows everything’ had a sweeping victory over Harris. That’s so cool,” one user wrote, referring to one of Trump’s affectionate nicknames within China. “All the media and polls were saying it would be a tie. Trump’s win shows the people don’t trust the elites.”
Others focused on his age. “Trump became a president at age 70, lost an election campaign at 74, and got re-elected at 78,” wrote one person, after the former real-estate tycoon became American’s oldest man ever elected president. “There are no absolute limits in life. We’re always young when chasing our dreams.”
The outpouring of appreciation for a politician whose first term triggered what Beijing has branded a new era of McCarthy-style paranoia among Americans might seem surprising. But Trump’s country-first approach and conservative values on immigration, as well as his image as a strongman leader, resonate with some of the Chinese public, according to one article titled Why Do So Many Chinese Support Trump? published Wednesday.
“If all Trump’s voters were Chinese, he would have won long ago,” the author wrote in the WeChat post viewed some 30,000 times.
While Chinese internet users were impressed by Trump’s victory — he is the first president to win a non-consecutive second term in more than 100 years — they were divided over what his return meant for their nation. The president-elect has threatened to slap a 60% flat fee on Chinese goods, a level Bloomberg Economics deems sufficient to decimate trade between the world’s biggest economies.
“Trump’s win is a very bad thing for China, especially China’s economy,” one user wrote on Weibo, in a post attracting over 900 likes. “The situation is set to get even more grim. And we’ll see that very soon.”
That threat of a second trade war comes at a perilous point for President Xi Jinping, as he rolls out China’s biggest stimulus package since the pandemic.
But it could have advantages. Trump has questioned whether the US would defend Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy Beijing claims, while his taunts of the European Union over trade imbalances, and ambivalence over US security commitments abroad, could give China space to mend diplomatic fences.
“Congratulations to Trump,” one user wrote, with apparent sarcasm. “Hope you have more policies that are beneficial for China.”
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