It’s official: Joe Biden and Donald Trump have locked up their party’s respective nominations and will be meeting face-to-face in November for a general election rematch.
The world has taken notice. Of all the elections that will occur this year, the 2024 U.S. presidential race is by far the most important. U.S. allies, partners, and adversaries alike are anticipating the result, drafting contingency plans and making preparations to better understand what a Biden or Trump presidency would mean for their respective interests. Japan, for instance, has ordered its embassy in Washington to reach out to Trump’s orbit. South Korea, meanwhile, has agreed to start cost-sharing talks about the U.S. troop presence in their country earlier than usual, hoping to ensure the U.S. military will stick around in the event of a Trump victory.
China is no exception. Yet there’s one big difference between China and everybody else: regardless of who the next U.S. president is, Beijing will still be facing a United States that is, if not outright hostile to China, then at least highly adverse to it. As one Chinese scholar told The Washington Post this week, “Biden and Trump are like two bowls of poison for China.”
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