VP Kamala Harris trends on Chinese social media amid U.S. election chaos

The American election dominated the top four slots of China’s X-like Weibo platform early Monday, as China awoke to President Joe Biden’s departure from the 2024 race. The “Biden exit” hashtag had been viewed 370 million times by noon, while the “Harris praising Biden” topic garnered some 57 million hits.

“Does this mean Trump is set to win?” one user asked, as Chinese citizens tried to parse what the switch-up meant for the world’s No. 2 economy. “The Democratic Party has become the first to prepare for 2028 US elections. The future is promising,” another Weibo user quipped. 

While Harris briefly met with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Thailand in 2022, she hasn’t visited China as vice president meaning Chinese citizens are less familiar with her. That contrasts with California Governor Gavin Newson who last year brought a more dovish message to Beijing on a trip that won applause in the Asian nation.

An online poll of 12,000 Weibo users on Monday found that nearly 80% now believed Trump would beat Harris in the November race, according to results posted by the Shanghai-based Morning Post at midday, some five hours after the question was first posed. 

Images of a bloodied Trump defiantly waving his fist seconds after being shot swept Chinese social media earlier this month. That brush with death appeared to have bolstered the popularity of the former president—who started a trade war with Beijing when last in the White House—with citizens praising his political instincts.

“Trump is set to win!” wrote one Weibo user in a post that had 14,000 likes and called the now-iconic photograph “perfect.”

State media outlets including the Guangzhou Daily highlighted Harris would be the first American president with Asian descent if she wins the tight November race. But few reports mentioned the policy implications of her possible administration for China.

“Her China policy during the election will probably extend from the usual ideologies of the Democrats,” said Tang Xiaoyang, chair of the international relations department at Tsinghua University. “But in the short term she won’t likely develop a very targeted strategy on China.”