China makes a mickey out of Donald

As protests against the Donald Trump administration’s intensified immigration raids spread from Los Angeles to cities like New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Atlanta, the Chinese media seized the moment to mock what they called a “chaotic era” in American leadership.

Turning domestic unrest and policy flip-flops into propaganda gold, Beijing made a “mickey” out of Donald Trump and the US, ridiculing his leadership, spotlighting contradictions, and weaponising his own words to show a deeper crisis in the US.

The sharp salvo was launched by Chinese state news agency Xinhua, along with state-backed publications Beijing Youth Daily and Beijing Daily.

Media outlets condemned the deployment of the National Guard against American citizens, with Beijing Youth Daily predicting that “US politics was likely to enter an increasingly unpredictable and chaotic era,” according to a report by the Hong Kong-based daily South China Morning Post.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Both the US and China have over the years highlighted each other’s perceived failures or weaknesses.

But this latest episode is distinctive as it unfolded even as President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, announced on Truth Social a breakthrough in US-China trade negotiations.

After two days of high-level talks in London, Trump said that, pending final approval from himself and President Xi Jinping, the US would secure access to critical rare earth metals, while the US would walk back its threats to revoke visas of Chinese students.

CHINA CALLS OUT CRISIS IN THE US

Yet, this doesn’t overshadow the complex relationship the two superpowers have shared over the years. Issues, such as Taiwan, disputes in the South China Sea, cybersecurity, and rivalry over global infrastructure and development initiatives, still strain bilateral ties.

Over the past week, Beijing has taken every opportunity to portray the United States as “broken”, cartooning Donald Trump’s leadership. It appears Washington also unintentionally handed China’s propaganda machine a domestic crisis on a platter.

Even in the past, during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the 2021 Capitol riots, and recurring episodes of mass shootings and gun violence, China did not shy away from calling out racism in the US, its moral hypocrisy, and human rights violations.

By doing this, China redirects attention away from criticism of its own governance, and the rhetoric also chips away at US’s soft power globally.

‘BEAUTIFUL SIGHT IN LAND OF FREEDOM’: CHINESE PRESS

An example of this was seen last week when Beijing Youth Daily reportedly alleged that Trump and his team had shown little capacity for strategic thinking or systemic solutions when faced with complex challenges, while Beijing Daily alleged that the unrest in Los Angeles has laid bare a deep crisis in “American-style democracy”.

The intensity of propaganda is such that even Chinese social media users did not hold back. They reportedly responded to the unrest in LA with a sense of grim amusement. Many referred to the turmoil as “a beautiful sight in the land of freedom” — a jab at former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2019 description of the Hong Kong protests as “a beautiful sight to behold”.

Meanwhile, the hashtag “Los Angeles police have admitted to losing control of the situation” citing what the city’s police chief told the press on Sunday night, had reportedly clocked up more than 73 million views by 7 pm on Tuesday, Beijing time, as per the South China Morning Post.

The mockery comes at a time when bilateral relations between Washington and Beijing remain tense, particularly in the wake of the ongoing trade war.

The tit-for-tat tariff dispute, which began in 2018 under the Trump administration, escalated into a full-blown trade conflict, and it still going on. In April, the US imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods, as high as 145%, before scaling them back to 30% in May.

The sharp tariff hike was widely viewed as a short-sighted move. At a press briefing, a White House reporter even questioned President Trump on why he appeared to “chicken out” on China.

The reversal was widely seen as a weakness. As satirist Kamlesh Singh ‘Tau’ quipped about Donald Trump’s “White House reality show” entering its “second season”, “There are no twists, only endless turns and U-turns.“

TRUMP HAS LITTLE CAPACITY FOR ‘STRATEGIC THINKING’

Seemingly commenting on this pattern of governance, the Beijing Youth Daily alleged Team Trump has “little capacity for strategic thinking or systemic solutions”, adding, “they have repeatedly relied on short-term fixes for long-term problems, masking deep-rooted issues with superficial measures. Governing a vast country requires delicacy and foresight – yet Trump seems to have taken the opposite approach.”

The South China Morning Post noted that Chinese state news agency Xinhua even suggested a deepening rift between Republican-led Washington and Democratic-led California.

Xinhua reportedly said in a commentary on Monday, “While the deployment of federal troops may bring temporary calm, it risks further deepening the rift [between the Trump government and California] rather than addressing the root causes of the unrest.”

In a similar vein, Beijing Daily, an official Communist Party publication, reportedly said Trump’s calls to “liberate LA” were a display of “strongman” leadership. It also reportedly said his six months in office were marked by indiscriminate global tariffs, failed mediations in the Russia-Ukraine and Gaza conflicts, and pressure on higher education.

Despite the US’s tariff rollback on China, the dust from the tariff war has barely settled, and Trump’s recent declaration that “the deal is done” after the London talks may be just a face-saving gesture.

The scathing commentaries by China are unlikely to shift any policies, but the move underscores how internal developments in the US are quickly reframed as ammo in Beijing.