The presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris comes at a time of rising geopolitical tensions on multiple fronts. In the 17th part of an in-depth series, Yuanyue Dang and William Zheng report on Beijing’s fear of a “colour revolution”.
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As its coverage of the United States presidential election gets into full swing, Chinese state media is expected to focus on personal attacks between the candidates and issues like gun violence and drug abuse.
But according to an editor with one of China’s official news outlets, who requested anonymity, the full process of the US election will not be presented “to avoid comparing the two countries’ political systems”.
State media is covering the election according to detailed guidance aimed at shaping the information environment of Chinese readers. It is part of Beijing’s strategy to manage a key aspect of its US policy: containing the spread of Western political ideas so that Washington cannot overthrow the rule of the Communist Party.
In Beijing’s language, the transformation of a political system – usually pushed by widespread demonstrations – is a “colour revolution”. Examples are the velvet revolution that ended four decades of communist rule in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1989, the Arab spring pro-democracy protests and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa starting in Tunisia in 2010, and the orange revolution protests over election fraud in Ukraine in 2004.
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Fear of this happening in China and the ruling party’s deep suspicion of the US has shaped Beijing’s relations with Washington, and experts say that will continue to be the case – regardless of who wins next month’s election – as clashes over ideology become an increasingly important part of their rivalry.