Chinese state-backed media says Beijing is preparing for a ‘final act of madness’ by Trump

Chinese state media claims that Beijing is preparing for a ‘final act of madness’ by Donald Trump in the final throes of his administration.

In his ten remaining weeks in the White House, the president will sow the seeds of sabotage for president-elect Joe Biden to inherit, the Beijing-backed Global Times claimed today.

The Communist newspaper says Trump will launch irreversible attacks on the Chinese technology industry, the apparatchik and labour camps for Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

‘Trump is actually setting a trap or planting a landmine for the Biden administration,’ Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, told the Global Times.

The paper claims that Trump will sign off on executive orders which if Biden then attempts to reverse he will be branded a ‘Panda Hugger.’ 

Shen added that the outgoing US president was a liability and despite his warm words for President Xi Jinping at the beginning of his tenure, ‘he is such an emotional and unpredictable person that we can’t use a normal person’s mentality to judge him.’ 

It comes after Trump last Thursday unveiled an executive order prohibiting US investments in Chinese firms, ramping up pressure on Beijing after the US election. 

Trump has taken a strong stance towards Beijing during his two terms, including a year-long trade war, battling Chinese intellectual property theft and squarely levelling blame at the Chinese for covering up the coronavirus.

It has brought relations between the two countries to a decades-long low.

Foreign policy analysts argue that Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) early in 2017 created a political vacuum which Beijing was all too happy to fill.

Just last week, China secured a huge coup as it helped to forge the world’s largest ever free trade agreement with its Asia-Pacific allies, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. 

But Trump has also won praise for his stance where others have criticised him.

Indeed, when he banned travel from China at the beginning of the pandemic his political rivals and the WHO accused him of xenophobia.

Similar measures were taken against European arrivals which have been proven to be sensible since the disease spread across the globe.

The US military has also been dispatched to the South China Sea to make plain Washington’s dim view on Beijing’s colonial ambitions on disputed waters. 

The Global Times claims that as part of Trump’s final days in office he will ‘stir up conflicts in the South China Sea.’

‘It’s also likely that the US will shut down all the Confucius Institutes in America, casting shadow over future people-to-people exchanges between China and the US,’ Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for US Studies at Fudan University, told the paper. 

China last week sent its congratulations to Biden in the face of Trump’s refusal to concede the election. 

‘We respect the choice of the American people. We extend congratulations to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris,’ a foreign affairs spokesman said on Friday. ‘We understand the results of the U.S. election will be determined according to U.S. laws and procedures.’ 

During the presidential campaign Trump was keen to shift the focus onto Biden’s softer approach to China as vice president.

However, given the rising power of China, both militarily and economically, experts expect that Washington will remain steadfast in its stance against Beijing irrespective of whether the new president opts for a different tone.