China’s attempt to influence the upcoming US Presidential polls is becoming brazenly clear. Till now, it was well-known that Beijing wants to get rid of the sitting US President Donald Trump and back the Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden instead. Moreover, the Chinese State media has itself endorsed Biden, while criticising the White House due to Trump administration’s onslaught against China.
But now Beijing has made its collusion in the American Presidential polls amply clear. As per latest reports, China censored parts of the CNN feed of the US Vice-presidential debate on Wednesday night. Censors kicked in when Mike Pence started rebuking the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for poor management of the COVID-19 Pandemic while promising action against China. However, Democratic Vice-presidential nominee, Harris’ remarks were broadcasted without any interruption.
Globe and Mail reported that CNN feeds were abruptly taken out and replaced with a message stating, “no signal – please stand by”. The signals returned only after the US Vice-president Mike Pence was done answering a question about China. Such “no signal” messages are generally used by CCP authorities to censor content, especially reports concerning China.
Nathan Vander Klippe, Globe and Mail Beijing correspondent said, “The interruption, which cut the debate signal to display colour bars for nearly three minutes, affected only a small number of people in China with access to channels like CNN, which is available in some hotels and residential compounds but not in most homes.”
The CNN feed in China the moment debate turned to China. pic.twitter.com/GuhqTDaEda
— Nathan VanderKlippe (@nvanderklippe) October 8, 2020
What it looks like when China censors a vice-presidential debate after a question about China is asked – and then lifts the blackout when conversation appears set to move on. pic.twitter.com/JgV5yEq7JU
— Nathan VanderKlippe (@nvanderklippe) October 8, 2020
Nathan Vander Klippe tweeted, “What it looks like when China censors a vice-presidential debate after a question about China is asked – and then lifts the blackout when conversation appears set to move on.”
Pence was actually going hammer and tongs after China. During the censored parts of the debate, Pence said, “China is to blame for the coronavirus. And President Trump is not happy about it.”
The US Vice-president added, “President Trump has stood up to China. We’re going to continue to stand strong. We want to improve the relationship, but we’re going to level the playing field, and we’re going to hold China accountable for what they did to America with the coronavirus.”
However, signals returned miraculously when Kamala Harris started criticising Trump’s China policy. As per Vander Klippe, “The video feed returned after Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, was asked a similar question. She attacked Mr Trump’s pandemic response and enumerated some of the costs to US workers from his trade battles with Beijing. She also described Mr Trump as less popular overseas than China’s President Xi Jinping, whose name she badly mispronounced.”
And to be fair to the CCP authorities, there is no reason why they should have censored Kamala Harris when the Democratic Vice-presidential nominee was showering praise on China and its President. The kind of narratives, from calling Xi Jinping more popular than Trump to condemning the US President’s trade war with Beijing, that the Democrats are pushing fit in perfectly for the CCP. This has created a lot of space for Chinese collusion in the upcoming US Presidential polls.
China understands that Trump will punish it even more severely if he returns to the White House for a second term. The tide of public opinion against China will also become stronger. On the other hand, the Democrats led by Joe Biden are getting infested with Sinophilia.
Democrats are actually going out of their way here by holding Trump, and not China responsible for the Pandemic, hailing Xi’s leadership and even showing signs of disagreement with the ongoing Sino-US trade war. The deep Chinese collusion in favour of Joe Biden-led Democrats is therefore getting unmasked just days ahead of the US Presidential polls.
