The Chinese Communist Party was pulling for Joe Biden to win the 2020 presidential election, according to former president Barack Obama's ambassador to China.
Max Baucus, who is on the payroll of several CCP-connected firms, said in an interview with Politico published Friday that CCP officials were optimistic about Biden softening relations between the United States and China.
"I had some very good Chinese friends—high up in the government—and I talked to them before the [2020] election, and they said they hoped Biden would win the election and not [Donald] Trump," Baucus said. "Why? Because they said, 'We could deal with Biden.' They thought because he's steeped in foreign policy and he was chairman of that Foreign Relations Committee, he's reasonable, whereas … you never know where Trump is going to go."
Few former senior government officials have closer ties to the CCP than Baucus, who runs a consulting firm for Chinese companies and serves on the board of Alibaba, a Chinese tech company. Baucus was a vocal critic of Trump's policies toward China, even appearing on Chinese state television to bash the administration's policies. While vice president, Biden advocated for Baucus's appointment as ambassador to China, likely prompting Baucus to endorse Biden's 2020 presidential bid.
Baucus told Politico that although Chinese government officials favored Biden during the 2020 campaign, they've now "changed their mind." Following Biden's win, Baucus said, the CCP concluded that "Biden's rhetoric isn't as anti-China as Trump's, but his policies are more anti-China than Trump's."