The ills of election campaign

WANG FAN AND LING SHENGLI

In previous US presidential election campaigns, candidates often tried to win votes by bashing China.

Even now, whatever political tendency a candidate has, he/she has to seem very worried about the "China threat" in order to "defend US interests". Most of the US politicians who play the "China card" focus on trade frictions and economic competition, from trade rules, jobs and intellectual property rights to exchange rates. Issues such as human rights, China's military, cybersecurity, maritime disputes and global governance have also emerged.

Most accusations try to make China a scapegoat for the US' domestic mess. Demonize China and blame it for all the problems the US faces－that's the trick some US politicians use to prove the US' supremacy.

But most of the politicians who blamed China during presidential campaigns became much more practical on China as soon as they entered the White House, for they knew the importance of Sino-US relationship.

Hopefully, President Xi Jinping's state visit to the US, which coincides with the US presidential campaign, will have a positive impact on the presidential campaign and help change this old, bad habit of US politicians. It's time US politicians realized that playing the "China card" does no good to Sino-US ties. We expect the Xi-Obama summit to deepen mutual trust and influence presidential candidates to lessen the use of the "China card".

Wang Fan is a professor and vice-dean, and Ling Shengli is a lecturer at China Foreign Affairs University.