'Two bowls of poison: China weighs a Trump v Harris presidency

Beijing wary of 'mystery' around the US Vice-President, who has had little exposure to foreign affairs.

- Joe Leahy, Wenjie Ding and Demetri Sevastopulo

Ms Kamala Harris' keynote address to US Democrats last week had an audience far from the convention hall in Chicago: policymakers in Beijing.

For China's leaders, who had been preparing for what they saw as an unpalatable choice between two known hawks in incumbent Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump, Ms Harris' sudden elevation in July added more uncertainty to what was already a crucial election for US-China relations.

President Xi Jinping's administration will be now parsing the US Vice-President's statements and record for clues of what a Harris administration's stance would be towards relations with Beijing - and whether it would be preferable to a second Trump term.

"Trump and Kamala Harris are two bowls of poison for Beijing," said Professor Zhao Minghao of the Institute of International Studies and Centre for American Studies at Fudan University.

"Both see China as a competitor or even an adversary." While Ms Harris co-sponsored Bills when she was a senator defending human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the north-western region where Beijing has detained nearly one million mainly Uighur Muslim minorities, Trump launched the trade war, and has pledged higher tariffs on Chinese goods if he wins again lot of mystery."

Before becoming vice-president, Ms Harris - who has never been to China - had relatively little exposure to foreign affairs. Since taking office, she has travelled overseas 17 times, including making four visits to East Asia, where she briefly met Mr Xi in Thailand in 2022 and rubbed shoulders with his No. 2, Premier Li Qiang, in Jakarta in 2023.