The People’s Daily, the largest newspaper group in China, mocked President Donald Trump on Saturday after he falsely tweeted that he had won the presidential elections “by a wide margin”.
The newspaper – which is an official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and has 7 million Twitter followers – wrote “HaHa” and included a laughing emoji in response to Trump’s earlier tweet, in which he declared he had won the election just hours before Joe Biden was announced as the likely winner.
HaHa𤣠https://t.co/hQcTFrxaRn
– People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) November 7, 2020
Trump’s tweet was immediately flagged by Twitter because he mistakenly stated a winner of the hotly contested race before it was officially called. The AP and the networks projected Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States shortly thereafter, with Biden garnering the 20 votes of the Pennsylvania electoral college.
On Thursday, Trump falsely claimed he had won Pennsylvania – also by “a lot” – even though thousands of ballots had not yet been counted nationwide. Biden was led by more than 30,000 votes in Biden State.
But the People’s Daily was not the only publication targeting Trump. Publimetro, a Colombian daily newspaper, published, according to the Associated Press, the headline on the front page “Who is the Banana Republic now?” with a photo of a man wearing a mask of the U.S. flag.
The Saturday front page of Spiegel, a leading German news magazine, was entitled “the squatter” and showed a rebellious trump with a rifle in the Oval Office. In the background there is a picture of Biden, who was clearly shot at with the rifle.
The Australian weekly newspaper The Saturday Paper stuck a photo of Trump’s hand in his fist on its front page with the headline: “A little hand clutching at everything but reality”. Meanwhile, The Guardian in the UK declared that Trump was in a “fight against reality”.
Today’s front page: “A little hand that clings to everything but reality”. https://t.co/vyyUKcrXn3 pic.twitter.com/jnYgXsOfbQ
– The Saturday Paper (@SatPaper) November 6, 2020
The “People’s Daily” mockery comes after years of turbulent relations between the US and China, in which a long trade war and conflicts over the coronavirus pandemic, technology, human rights and security have created the most strained relations between the two countries in 40 years.
The Associated Press reported last month that Chinese leaders had hoped for Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, which could possibly lead to some cooperation in certain areas of conflict between the U.S. and China. But neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are convinced that they will adopt a softer stance toward China in the near future.
World leaders have turned to the social media to congratulate Biden on his election victory after a long week of unfounded accusations by the Trump administration that electoral fraud in war zones had led to a “rigged” election. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated Biden and Harris on Twitter on their “historic achievement”, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote that he was “very much looking forward to working with them”.
“Our two countries are close friends, partners and allies,” Trudeau twittered. “We share a relationship that is unique on the world stage. I really look forward to working with you both and building on that”.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted special congratulations to Harris, the first Black American, the first South Asian and the first woman ever elected Vice President.
“Your success is groundbreaking and a matter of immense pride not only for your chittis, but for all Indian Americans,” Modi wrote. “I am confident that with your support and leadership, the vibrant relationship between India and the United States will grow even stronger”.
