The Chinese regime-run Global Times newspaper lamented the expected wave of
democratic elections around the world in 2024 as a source of �uncertainty� on
Monday, warning that �the rise of far-right politics� could damage the
advancement of �globalism.�

The Global Times is China�s top English-language government publication, a
mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party. If often publishes editorials
condemning free societies and the use of elections to determine government
leaders as causing �chaos,� as opposed to the �harmony� of totalitarian
communism. Elections �cannot truly reflect the essence of democracy,� a
senior Communist Party leader wrote in the Global Times in 2019. In contrast,
the Global Times ended 2021 praising �Confucian social management� and
�grassroots� regime repression for bringing �harmony� to Chinese people.

In its analysis on Monday, the Global Times observed that multiple democratic
nations are scheduled to hold elections in 2024, from the American
presidential election to India�s general parliamentary elections, considered
the largest in the world. The Times suggested that the trend of populist
right-wing and conservative wins in Europe in the past two years � and the
victory of libertarian outsider Javier Milei in Argentina�s presidential
election in November � could augur major gains for small-government, populist
movements globally.

�Chinese experts said that in 2024 challenges and crises will remain,
including the risk of spillovers from current regional wars, great power
confrontations, protectionism concerns,� the Times listed, �the rise of
populist and right-wing politicians, and the great uncertainty to policies
that will come from the different results of upcoming elections.�

One such regime-friendly �expert,� identified as academic Jin Canrong, told
the government propaganda outlet that elections generally �will bring more
uncertainty to the global landscape,� but recalled a trend the Chinese
publication deemed unfortunate in recent votes.

�In 2023, far-right parties in countries such as the Netherlands, Italy,
Finland, Sweden and Argentina all embraced their electoral success, as
populists and nationalists rising globally,� the Global Times reported.

�The rise of far-right politics is likely to lead to a further tightening of
trade, foreign investment and immigration policies, and a further damage to
globalization,� another �expert,� professor Li Haidong, reportedly said.
�Economic protectionism is likely to intensify in 2024.�

�Economic protectionism� � by which the Global Times meant the securing of
national supply chains by becoming less dependent on China � could
potentially significantly damage the manufacturing-dependent Chinese economy.
The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic prompted many political voices around the
world to reconsider global economic dependence on China, as the novel virus
spread rapidly from the central Chinese city of Wuhan around the world in
2019 thanks to the 5 million travelers who left the city before dictator Xi
Jinping locked it down. Regions of the world, such as northern Italy, with a
disproportionately high number of migrants from Wuhan documented some of the
most severe outbreaks of the disease in the early months of the pandemic.
Many have reconsidered their ties to China; Italy recently abandoned China�s
predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), infrastructure debt-trap program.

Italy�s election of current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a right-wing
populist, is among the recent political developments alarming China. The
Global Times also noted the dramatic rise of the populist Party for Freedom
(PVV) in the Netherlands, led by longtime right-wing leader Geert Wilders, as
a cause of concern, as well as the election of Milei, an economics professor,
in Argentina.

Argentina abandoned 20 years of socialist, pro-China government in November
to elect Milei, a television commentator who promised he would �not do deals
with communists� and described himself as having a preference for �civilized�
nations as partners over China. Milei�s predecessor, socialist former
President Alberto Fern�ndez, joined the BRI and obsequiously venerated the
corpse of Mao Zedong during a visit to Beijing in 2022. Fern�ndez secured a
spot for Argentina in the China-led, anti-American BRICS coalition in August
� which Milei promptly rejected on December 29. Argentina�s departure left
China � and fellow BRICS members India, Russia, Brazil, and South America �
with only five new members, including economically destitute Egypt and
Ethiopia, Islamist powers Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), the most moderate and successful of the countries invited.

China Daily, another regime-owned outlet, declared on Tuesday that Milei�s
rejection of BRICS was �not a rejection of BRICS.�

�The door of membership to BRICS will always remain open to Argentina. It is
welcome to join when it feels the time is right,� it surmised hopefully.

In the United States, the administration of leftist President Joe Biden has
repeatedly, and enthusiastically, rejected decoupling the American economy
from communist China�s, but the votes of confidence have not deterred private
American companies from directing much of their investments elsewhere. Nor
are they alone internationally; China documented its first-ever quarterly
drop in foreign direct investment in November 2023, tallying $11.8 billion
less in foreign money in the quarter ending in September than in the one
prior.

�There is always a risk in 2024 that if economic globalization suffers a
major setback, the tightly connected world will be disrupted, with
corresponding political and military consequences,� the Global Times quoted
Li Haidong as saying.

Should Biden lose reelection in 2024, his top rival according to the latest
polls is former President Donald Trump, a right-wing populist who made
treating China�s regime as the rogue communist threat that it is a priority
of his administration. A plurality of recent national polls show Trump ahead
of Biden should the election be held now, making the presidential election of
paramount significance for China.

�Increasingly intense geopolitical games � not only have a profound impact on
the world pattern, but also disturb the global industrial chains, and bring a
serious impact to the world economy,� the Global Times concluded ominously.

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Let's go Brandon!