Chinese state media reacts to Biden victory with cautious optimism

HONG KONG — The Chinese state news media reacted with cautious optimism to former Vice President Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, expressing hope that he would stabilize the fast-deteriorating relations between the two countries.

But many outlets also continued to warn of future tensions between the superpowers, and to suggest that American democracy was in decline.

Under President Donald Trump, trust and cooperation between the United States and China ebbed to their lowest levels in recent history as a trade war raged and officials on both sides hurled recriminations about espionage, protest movements and the coronavirus pandemic. China’s state-controlled news outlets had criticized Trump and the United States with increasing stridence in recent months.

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But the immediate reaction to Biden’s victory Sunday was measured, indicating that China was willing to attempt, and indeed was eager for, a thaw.

“The outcome could usher in a ‘buffering period’ for already-tense China-U.S. relations, and offer an opportunity for breakthroughs in resuming high-level communication and rebuilding mutual strategic trust,” Global Times, a fiercely nationalistic tabloid, wrote in an article, citing Chinese experts.

The article suggested that the two countries could work together on combating climate change, containing the coronavirus and developing vaccines, saying that Biden would be “more moderate and mature” than Trump on foreign affairs.

Those that did venture optimism warned against excessive expectations. Although Trump had made demonizing China a central plank of his campaign rhetoric — especially as he tried to deflect blame for his disastrous response to the coronavirus outbreak — public opinion toward China in both parties has increasingly soured.

And geopolitical tensions between the two countries will most likely continue to simmer. The Global Times article pointed to unresolved disputes over the democracy movement in Hong Kong, the trade war and Taiwan.

Southern Daily, an official newspaper for the southern province of Guangdong, wrote on Weibo that while Biden would most likely treat Russia, not China, as the biggest foreign threat to the United States, “we don’t have to have illusions.”

“One thing is for sure, things will never return to the way they were before,” the post continued. “The world is not the world it was before.”