Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have publicly boasted in the past that they had strong personal ties to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Now they both say their views on China have changed, and each candidate's campaign has produced TV ads accusing the other of being weak against China.
Trump committed himself to making China "pay the price" for what he sees as a cover for the fact that the Corona virus exists, and for allowing it to spread the virus around the world.
The Trump administration has launched a campaign against what it considers Chinese espionage, and Washington imposed sanctions on Huawei and other Chinese technology companies, responded to Beijing's moves to end Hong Kong's autonomy, and imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for violations against the Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang (western) regions. China).
For his part, Biden described Chinese President Xi Jinping as a "thug", and at the same time described the trade war launched by Trump as "disorganized", and stressed the need for coordination with Washington's allies in the face of Chinese trade practices.
Some Republican commentators are concerned about what they perceive as Biden will be less blunt in facing the Chinese president, especially as he seeks bilateral cooperation on issues such as climate change and curbing the spread of nuclear weapons.
Trump's campaign accuses Biden of having witnessed the rise of China and welcomed him while serving as Vice President Obama for eight years, and was unaware of the Chinese risks.
Will Biden be soft?
The Biden administration - if he wins the election - is likely to maintain the efforts initiated by Trump to reduce US dependence on importing Chinese goods and compete with China in strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence and fifth generation communications networks.
Biden is also likely to remain an essential part of the trade war that Trump has started, which includes nearly 3-quarters of all that China sells to the United States.
Unlike President Trump, Biden is known to be more diplomatic, which is in line with his long experience and connection to the world order that Trump often criticizes.
Biden aims to work closely with allies, rallying them to counter China's expanding global influence, and says he will work with China to address global issues such as the coronavirus and climate change issues.
Josh Kurlantzick, an expert on US-Chinese relations at the Council on Foreign Relations, said - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - that Biden will follow, upon his arrival at the White House, "a contradictory approach regarding trade agreements between the United States and China and Asian countries, and there may also be somewhat less direct pressure on China." On bilateral trade issues, and a greater willingness to work with China on some global issues such as climate change. "
The Trump campaign seeks to portray Biden as soft toward China, by repeatedly reminding that when he was Vice President Barack Obama, he played down the future Chinese threat.
Kurlantzic told Al Jazeera Net, "Trump has put Sino-American relations on a path that will be difficult to undo, regardless of who wins in November."
Congress also knows a bipartisan agreement on the need to confront the accelerating Chinese influence and hegemony, and US lawmakers from both parties have adopted strict legislation in response to Chinese violations of the Uighurs and Hong Kong.
Trump and the limits of the confrontation with China
The Chinese-American competition is experiencing great complications. For example, the two countries collect trade transactions worth more than 700 billion dollars annually, and American universities host more than 350 thousand Chinese students.
Before the Corona pandemic, millions of Americans and Chinese enjoyed tourism in both countries, and the two countries adopted non-conflicting economic systems and policies, all of which reduces the occurrence of a comprehensive confrontation between them.
The crisis of the spread of the new Corona virus (Covid-19) in the United States of America has changed the nature and dynamism of the electoral strategies of the Republican candidates Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
After a period of repeated praise for China and for its handling of the spread of the virus, Trump took a publicly hostile stance against it, and not a day goes by without he tweeting or speaking criticizing it, and stated that "China will do everything in its power to lose the presidential election."
Trump tried to exploit this hostile trend against China by describing Corona as the "Chinese virus" or "Wuhan virus", and accusing the Chinese authorities of lying and covering up the spread of the virus outside the Chinese borders, while committing several times to punish China.
Biden and the front lines with China
The Joe Biden campaign claims that President Trump has weakened America's position relative to China on 4 main fronts, and believes that Trump has turned a blind eye to China's human rights violations, undermined America's foreign alliances, criticized Washington's historic allies, approached and expressed much respect for Of despots around the world, and contributed to the deterioration of American institutions and infrastructure.
"The United States has weakened, and China has become stronger because of President Trump," says Tony Blinken, Biden's foreign policy adviser.
In a research seminar held by the "Aspen" Institute, Blinken emphasized that the Biden presidency would restore to America its leadership in the confrontation with China by restoring moral authority by calling on China to stop human rights violations, and working with allies to pressure China to change its behavior, and to invest in the American interior. For future competition in vital areas such as artificial intelligence and 5G networks.
Biden's campaign believes that the Democratic candidate will restore to America its leadership in the confrontation with China (Reuters)
For their part, most Americans believe that Joe Biden is better and more experienced in dealing with China and curbing its growing influence around the world.
A Gallup poll of 1,031 voters from July 30 to August 12 indicated that only 40 percent of Americans agreed with President Trump's approach to China, while 57 percent of them rejected it.
Another poll - conducted by CNN - indicated that 49% of Americans reject Trump's approach to China, while Trump's approach to China supports 40% of Americans.
On the other hand, a poll - conducted by the "Fox News" network (FOX News) on a thousand American voters between 9 and 12 August - revealed that Biden was 12 points superior to Trump when asked who they prefer to deal with China.