Trump vs. Biden: Round Two Commences with China's Role Front and Center
Nathan Rivero, 4/18/2024Biden's tough talk on China masks a troubling track record of appeasement and naivete. Trump's hardline stance resonates with working-class voters skeptical of Biden's newfound hawkishness. With China emerging as a key issue, the 2024 rematch is shaping up to be brutal.
The battle lines are being drawn for the 2024 presidential election as former President Donald Trump and incumbent Joe Biden gear up for what promises to be a bruising rematch of their 2020 contest. Tensions are high, with each side accusing the other of mishandling critical issues -- chiefly the economy and America's stance towards China.
Trump, whose hardline policies led to a blistering trade war with Beijing, is hitting Biden hard over his alleged softness on China. "Trump simply doesn't get it," Biden retorted, claiming his predecessor failed to take substantive action against the rising superpower. Yet the facts seem to contradict Biden's assertion -- Trump imposed punishing tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, earning him the ire of free trade advocates but winning over blue-collar voters concerned about unfair competition.
"Joe Biden has given Beijing pretty much everything they want for three and a half years," charged Peter Schweizer, author of the book 'Blood Money' which exposed shady business dealings between the Biden family and China. "China knows that Biden has to sometimes take aim at them. But Beijing regards his policies broadly as being highly favorable to them."
Indeed, Biden's tough rhetoric on China appears to be largely for show as he courts union voters in crucial Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He's now promising to raise tariffs on Chinese steel -- essentially copying Trump's playbook, which he vehemently opposed on the 2020 campaign trail. "No. Hey, look...Who said Trump's idea is a good one?" Biden scoffed at the time when asked about keeping the tariffs.
The about-face hasn't gone unnoticed by the labor movement, which is traditionally a Democratic stronghold. In a surprising development, the Teamsters union donated $45,000 to the Republican National Committee this year -- the first such contribution in two decades. It seems unions are hedging their bets, perhaps unconvinced by Biden's newly combative stance towards the economic behemoth that has hemorrhaged American manufacturing jobs.
Not helping Biden's case is his own history of championing free trade policies that critics argue paved the way for China's ascent. As a senator in 2001, he helped "usher in" China's entry into the World Trade Organization while naively proclaiming that the U.S. "welcomes the emergence of a prosperous, integrated China on the global stage, because we expect this is going to be a China that plays by the rules."
While polls show a tight race, Trump seems to have the momentum -- at least for now. A recent Marquette survey found him edging out Biden 51%-49% among registered Wisconsin voters, though the lead narrows when third-party candidates are included. With over a year until Election Day, both men are sharpening their rhetoric and jockeying for position in what could be a bitterly divisive campaign.
No matter who prevails, one thing is clear: China looms large as a defining issue. Trump's "America First" doctrine put the economic rivalry with Beijing front and center. Whether Biden can convince skeptical blue-collar voters that he's up to that challenge -- after years of downplaying the threat -- may well decide his political fate in 2024.
