It’s no secret that there is little love lost between the Trump administration and China and that Beijing, which has already congratulated Joe Biden as the winner in the US presidential election, prefers to see Trump leave the White House.
Human Rights activist Jennifer Zeng has explored the reasons behind this and has shown a video recently banned on Chinese social media that claims Beijing’s preference of a US president is based on concrete ties it has with anti-Trump power centers in the US.
While it’s not unusual for information to be censored on the Chinese internet, where overseers are particularly sensitive to any hint of criticism of the country’s authorities, the video that was removed was essentially an admission of China’s power and influence – and that is something Beijing also apparently chooses to hide.
The statement was made on November 28 by Di Dongsheng, a professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, during a discussion on Chinese TV about the trade war that Di said was launched by the Trump administration against his country. In the clip that was removed soon after it was uploaded, the professor is first heard wondering why various disputes with the US, like the most recent trade one, used to be resolved promptly between 1992 and 2016, but became insurmountable since Trump took office.
Di went on to say, “I’m going to throw out something maybe a little bit explosive here. It’s just because we have people at the top. At the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence, we have our old friends.”
The professor had more “explosive” claims to make, including about Chinese assets working in high places at top Wall Street institutions. Without naming any names, he also praised the Obama administration as having included many friends of China, or rather of Chinese authorities, in its ranks.
It’s easy to see why China wants the video scrubbed from all social media platforms in the country.
