Chinese e-commerce websites are selling T-shirts and tote bags printed with the bloodied face of Donald Trump after the former president survived an apparent assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
China's social media channels exploded with speculation after the country's state media broke news of the incident early the next day, shortly before the Chinese Foreign Ministry said President Xi Jinping "expressed sympathies to former President Trump," who Beijing described as "injured by shooting" at the campaign event in Butler.
On Truth Social, Trump's own social media brand, the former president said a bullet "pierced the upper part of my right ear" during the incident, which authorities said left one attendee dead and two others wounded. The shooter "is now dead," Trump wrote.
Late on Saturday, President Joe Biden described the shooting as "sick." The Democrat said in remarks to the press: "We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this."
The shooting—now being investigated by the FBI—appeared to only increase the unpredictability of what was already expected to be a closely contested presidential race heading into November's 2024 elections.
Trump's single-term presidency was at first a hit, and then a miss, in China, where his protectionist policies quickly ran afoul of Communist Party leaders in Beijing. However, the flamboyant Republican continues to enthrall the Chinese public, especially in online forums.
On Taobao and other e-commerce websites, T-shirt makers began selling clothing carrying a widely shared photograph of a fist-pumping Trump, taken just moments after gunshots rang out at the Butler Farm Show rally and as Secret Service agents tried to whisk him away from the stage.
The $8 T-shirt was just one of hundreds of items of Trump merchandise that have been sold in China for years, and which last year included his mugshot.
T-shirt makers in the United States also appeared to have used the photograph taken by Evan Vucci of The Associated Press.
On Weibo, China's largest social media website, a report by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV became the top trending topic for more than 90 minutes, gaining over 230 million views at the time of writing.
An overwhelming majority of comments under the post believed Trump was already a shoo-in for the election, with netizens also commenting on the former president's reactions onstage.
"Trump's reactions are pretty quick," one user wrote.
Another said: "Trump will be elected for sure."
In a background briefing to reporters earlier this week, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said the U.S. intelligence community assessed that "China, for now, does not plan to influence the outcome of the presidential race, because it sees little gain in choosing between two parties that it perceives as both seeking to contain Beijing."
Yun Sun, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution and Stimson Center think tanks in Washington D.C., wrote in May: "The train has left the station long ago on which candidate China prefers. Chinese experts have publicly proclaimed that whoever the winner is, both candidates are 'poison' for China.
"In their view, Biden might bring more stability to bilateral relations, but his competition strategy has been quite effective economically and diplomatically, leaving China's high-tech industry and diplomatic offensive in limbo," Sun said.
"In comparison, Trump's position on U.S. alliances and partnerships and the damage he might cause serves Beijing's strategic agenda in the long run. Yet in the short term, Trump's unpredictability and his use of maximum pressure will put China in extremely difficult corners, making him the less desirable option from China's perspective."
Trump's campaign and the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to separate requests for comment.
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