After President Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate performance, Gavin Newsom has emerged among a handful of names being floated to replace him. In China, that would be a popular outcome.
Since Biden stumbled against Donald Trump last week, Chinese social media users have posted photos and video clips of the California state governor, who was a hit during his visit to the world’s No. 2 economy last year.
One clip of Newsom reaffirming his support for Biden as the Democratic nominee was viewed 80,000 times on China’s X-like Weibo platform. Underneath, users said the governor had a “presidential temperament” and “the perfect resume” for the top job.
Blogger Zheng Jun, whose account has some 3 million followers on the site, wrote the governor was “the most prepared to step up when the opportunity comes along.”
So far, it’s unclear if that moment will arrive anytime soon. Biden has vowed to remain the Democratic nominee in the November vote, even as calls grow within his party for a replacement.
President Xi Jinping gave Newsom an audience in Beijing last October, in his first meeting with a US state governor in six years. During that weeklong trip, the Democrat hailed China’s success as a boon for the rest of the world, as he pushed for progress between the two sides on climate change.
“Newsom represents a fresh but also positive and more sober-minded politician in the US,” said Henry Wang, founder of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank. “He could be a cool head among this anti-China US consensus.”
Newsom understands the benefits of business ties to China better than other American politicians because of California’s large economy and its Chinese-American population, Wang added.
Newsom’s visit to China came at a fraught time in bilateral relations, with the two nations at odds over Beijing’s territorial claims on self-ruled Taiwan and Biden’s curbs on the Asian nation’s access to cutting-edge chips. He…
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