Trump, Biden try to outdo each other on tough talk on China

China has fast become a top election issue as President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden eng in a verbal brawl over who's better at playing tough guy against Beijing.

Trump campaign put out ads showing Biden toasting China's Xi Jinping, even though Trump did just that with Xi in Asia and hosted Chinese leader at his Florida club. Spots from Biden campaign feature Trump playing down coronavirus and praising Xi for being transparent about pandemic, even though it's clear China hid details of outbreak from world.

“I think it’s going to be absolutely critical, but I don’t kw who is going to have advant,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz. He has been reviewing ads and thinks China is one of three leading issues along with ecomy and handling of coronavirus.

China is t just a foreign policy issue in vember election. It's an issue that runs deeply through troubles with virus, which tanked U.S. ecomy. Voters also will be asking mselves wher Trump or Biden can best defend U.S. against China's unfair trade practices, ft of intellectual property rights, rising aggression across globe and human rights abuses.

“Which person looks more subservient to Chinese leaders is person who’s in more jeopardy,” Luntz said.

As coronavirus spread throughout U.S., a Pew Research Center poll in March found Americans with increasingly negative views of China, with 66% saying y had an unfavorable opinion. That was most negative rating since question was first asked in 2005. same poll found 62% of Americans calling China’s power and influence a major threat to U.S., compared with 48% two years ago.

A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in late May and early June found registered voters about evenly divided over which of candidates would be better at dealing with China, with 43% saying Trump compared with 40% for Biden. In poll, 5% viewed Trump and Biden equally, while 10% said neir would be good.

Trump's advisers see China as an opportunity to portray Biden as deferential to Beijing when he was President Barack Obama's vice president and point person on Asia, according to three campaign officials and Republicans close to White House. campaign made a push in May to link Biden with China, complete with an advertising blitz, but effort did little to raise Trump’s poll numbers.

Trump campaign credits president with signing first phase of a trade deal with China in January, which boosted stock markets and seemingly ended a bruising trade war. Republicans want to ter Biden to past multinational agreements and trade deals blamed for an exodus of manufacturing jobs across Midwest. Trump campaign officials believe y missed that opportunity in trying to wrest Midwest states from Democrats in 2016.

White House lists more than two dozen actions administration has taken since April to protect U.S. jobs, businesses and U.S. supply chains from dam caused by Chinese Communist Party’s policies. That includes last week's move to impose sanctions on Chinese officials for ir roles in repressing religious and ethnic mirities. More than a few administration officials have recently delivered speeches calling out China's policies.

That mess could strike a chord with increasing number of Americans who have an unfavorable view of Asian power. re also is rising concern about U.S. dependence on China for supplies — something that drew attention during scramble for protective gear for U.S. health workers.

One more line of off-and-on attack by Trump, despite proof of impropriety, involves business ties that Biden's son, Hunter, has had with China.

Biden campaign is working to portray Trump as someone who talks tough but has failed to hold China accountable for its response to virus and has signed only first phase of a trade deal. campaign says that while that deal was being negotiated, Trump was saying that COVID-19 would “miraculously” be gone in April and w it’s July and cases are surging and death toll rising.

“Trump said he’d get tough on China,” one of Biden campaign ads says. “He didn’t get tough. He got played.”

Biden camp highlights or Trump vulnerabilities on China that surfaced in former national security adviser John Bolton 's new book, which claims Trump urged Xi to increase Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat to help him Trump farm states in vember. Bolton also wrote that Trump told Xi that building detention camps for hundreds of thousands of Muslim and or ethnic and religious mirities in western China was “exactly right thing to do.”

Trump claims he’s been tougher on China than any or president. Biden campaign says Trump has weakened relations with allies and pulled U.S. out of international organizations, giving China more room to exert its own influence. Biden campaign officials say that if Biden is elected, he will restore relationships with U.S. allies and rally international community to form a united front against China.

“What’s striking to me is extent to which Trump campaign seems to have thought that China would be a winning issue for m,” said Jeff Prescott, a foreign policy adviser for Biden.

“He was hiding from warning signs coming in on pandemic to get his trade deal done with Xi Jinping and n spent all of January and February and into March praising Xi — praising China’s handling of coronavirus — and talking up his very flimsy phase one trade deal," Prescott said.

That first phase is smaller than comprehensive deal Trump had hoped for and leaves many of thorniest issues between two countries for future talks. Few ecomists expect any resolution of next phase before vember. Even Trump said this past week that it's t a top priority before n.