Harris Doesn’t Have Much to Say About China. That’s Good
Staking out a dramatically different position from the administration’s would be hard and politically unprofitable. Silence is smart.
Little chatter about China.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
In her speech accepting the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination last month, Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned China exactly once. Her running mate Tim Walz has visited the country nearly 30 times, taught there for a year, and regularly criticized its abysmal human rights record. He never referred to it in his own speech.
By contrast, Donald Trump mentioned China 14 times at the Republican National Convention in July, mostly touting his hardline stance on the country. Vice presidential hopeful JD Vance has also been bashing Beijing in his speeches and rallies. Further down the tickets, candidates on both sides of the aisle are accusing one another of being Chinese plants, dupes, or willing idiots.