Western Populism and China’s Leadership: A Train Clash?
The European Elections, which had long been considered a boring political event, especially outside of Europe, has drawn enormous attention in different places, including in China. The results point to populism (especially far-right one) taking a stronger hold in the EU, which has drawn the attention of many observers even outside of the EU as well as in China. A more populist nature of European institutions may have important implications for the EU’s stance as regards US-China strategic competition, which is why the Chinese leadership has been paying enormous attention to this event, compared to the past.
At the same time, the race towards the US Presidential Election is in full swing but with an increasingly likelihood of a second Trump Presidency. How a second Trump Presidency will shake the US-China rivalry is a crucial question without a clear answer. On the one hand Trump has kept an extremely aggressive stance on China, even worse than during its first campaign and close to disdain for the rest of Asia. On the other, Trump is well known to be pragmatic and interested in business relations, which is something China could leverage on.
In this note, the interrelations between these two crucial political events in the West and China are analyzed with some details, in particular how more populist Western governments may affect their relations with China and China’s role in the world.
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