What Trump Tweets About China

Original Site (2017-11-09)

On Nov. 8, 2017, Trump made his first state visit to China since being elected president. I analyzed 493 tweets posted by Trump over the past six years to dig out his real attitude towards China. (The original is in Chinese.)

APIs | NLTK | Sentimental Analysis | Illustrator.

Donald Trump Praises China During His Visit? His Tweets Tell Otherwise

During his three-day state visit in Beijing, U.S. President Donald Trump posted nine tweets and changed his Twitter header photo twice accordingly. Last time Trump tweeted so much about China was while he was campaigning for the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.

Trump regards Twitter as a weapon to attack his political opponents as well as a platform for diplomacy.  Throughout his eight-year tweeting history, Trump spent six years posting 493 tweets on China. “China,” therefore, becomes the most popular word of Trump’s public comments, preceding words of other foreign countries such as Iran, Russia, Mexico and Iraq.

China-related Tweets Occur With the Presidential Elections

In 2011, one year before the U.S. Presidential Election, China overtook Japan in GDP and became the Second-largest Economy.  This change probed Trump to write his first tweet about China on January 27: “The people at shouldtrumprun.com have got it right! How are our factories supposed to compete with China and other countries…” This tweet was just a start. Of Trump’s total 770 tweets in 2011, every nine tweets were followed by one about China.  Most China-related tweets focus on issues of trade deficit, labor markets, exchange rate and debt between China and the U.S.

With the Election approaching, the number of Trump’s China-related tweets rose up to 198.  So far, this number has been the highest among other annual counts of Trump’s China-related tweets. In other words, Trump had the most China-related tweets in 2012.  At the time, he tweeted in order to deviate public attention to international crisis rather than domestic issues. Trump stated the bilateral trade with China caused the debt-ceiling crisis and low employment rate in the U.S. He also struck his political rivals by verbally attacking China. Such interest in China topics reoccurred in 2016. During the first Trump-Clinton presidential debate in 2016, Trump mentioned China five times within the initial 15 minutes. Another interesting finding is that one-fourth of Trump’s China-related tweets mention the 44th U.S. President, Barack Obama.

Keen On “Economy” And “North Korea” When Tweeting China

Among Trump’s 493 China-related tweets, the top ten keywords are “U.S. (we),” “Barack Obama,” “oil,” “job,” “trade,” “currency,” “President,” “North Korea,” “laugh” and “military.” These keywords can be clustered into four topics: US-China relations, economic trade, military security, and international politics. Economic issues seem to be Trump’s favorite topic, as he often talks about employment, trade, deficit, exchange rate and debt.

Besides, Trump is interested in discussions on national security and international order as he often comments on North Korea nuclear crisis, South China Sea dispute and bilateral relations. He tweeted that China and the U.S. should collaborate to solve North Korea issue. This stance was highly agreed by Americans because seven-tenths of most “liked” China-related tweets are on trilateral relations between China, the U.S. and North Korea. In this regard, the most influential tweet is “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.”

Known for his mockery of political rivals during the 2016 Election, Trump did have 28 tweets with the word “laugh”; but they are about China’s laughing at the U.S. instead of Trump’s laughing at other entities. According to Trump’s tweets, China has been “laughing at” the U.S. for eight years on the following issues: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the exchange rate of RMB, U.S. debt, export trade, carbon emission, pollution, etc.  His intent for these tweets, however, is to insinuate that the Obama Administration failed Americans. 

Positive China-related Tweets Surge As Soon As Trump Being the President

Trump became more pragmatic and businesslike once moving to the White House. One year after he won the Election, Trump, despite his addiction to Twitter, only posted 2193 tweets in total, far less than half of tweets last year. The frequency that Trump tweets about China, however, doubled that of last year. Apparently, China is on the top of Trump’s agenda.

American data scientists analyzed and compared Trump’s tweets sent from different mobile devices. They concluded that tweets from iPhone devices are likely to be from Trump’s assistants, while tweets from Android are written by Trump himself.  Even though Trump had to switch to an iPhone after he sworn in, most of his 493 China-related tweets should be written by him. These tweets reveal his opinions about China and they lead to a question: Has Trump changed his attitudes toward China before and after he won the Election? 

According to the data analysis of Trump’s tweets, Trump still holds a strong “Negative” attitude toward China regardless of his status as a candidate or U.S. President. However, Trump’s tweets also show an obvious inclination for “Positive” attitude. To be specific, tweets with “Positive” attitude increases by 24 percent and “Trust” attitude by 40 percent. The most drastic contrast is tweets with “Expectation” attitude, which boosts by 83 percent. This trend tells that Trump has been more optimistic about US-China relation and gown expectations for bilateral collaborations, which explains why Trump brought a Trade Mission to Beijing and sealed a $253.5 billion in record-breaking trade deals with China this time.  

Five years ago, as a businessman, Trump said: “China is robbing us blind in trade deficits and stealing our jobs…” Now as President Trump just departed Beijing, he tweeted: “I don’t blame China, I blame the incompetence of past Admins for allowing China to take advantage of the U.S. ...”