What China Sees in Donald Trump—and in Itself

The current American Presidential election has been called many things: a pathetic, protracted joke; the great apocalyptic implosion; a dumpster fire; an unending nightmare; the best and the worst reality-television series ever made. But all of these labels, theatrical as they may be, pale in comparison to the terms that Chinese observers, in both official press outlets and on social media, have used in recent days to describe the Trump-Clinton standoff: as a spectacle of unfettered “chaos” that shakes their faith in the legitimacy of Western democracy.