Big-mouthed clown? China reacts to Donald Trump’s rise

For months,Republican frontrunnerDonald Trump has repeatedly targeted China on the campaign trail, pledging to put tariffs on goods produced overseas and bring things like iPhone production back to the United States.

Trump has even used a broken-English accent at a campaign rally to mock the negotiating style of Chinese businessmen.

Beijing had previously downplayed any impact Trump’s rhetoric could have on U.S.-China relations, reducing it as a mere “disturbance.”

But this week, that all changed.

gallery

Related gallery Trump campaign: 11 outrageous quotes

With Trump securing major victories on the road to the White House, China issued a scathing criticism of the U.S. election process and the candidate who has “opened a Pandora’s box in U.S. society.”

In an editorial published this week, China’s state-owned Global Times newspaper condemns the billionaire candidate as “big-mouthed” and “abusively forthright.”

The Global Times claims Trump was initially supposed to “act as a clown to attract more voters for GOP.” Instead, it goes on to imply that the Republican party lost control of Trump – who has now become the party’s worst nightmare.

Trump’s potshots at China’s currency miss mark

Mussolini, Hitler, Trump?

The editorial also uses Trump’s political rise to highlight America’s decline and the failings of democracy, saying: “Mussolini and Hitler came to power through elections, a heavy lesson for Western democracy.”

In its final paragraph, the Global Times warns that the United States should watch itself from becoming a global destructive force before pointing fingers at China for its “so-called nationalism and tyranny.”

While a Communist Party mouthpiece uses the rise of Trump to condemn both him and Western-style democracy, survivors of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have quoted Trump to condemn his failure to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.

During last week’s CNN Republican debate in Miami, Trump called pro-democracy demonstrations a “riot.”

Trump also said he believed the Chinese government had a “strong, powerful” response in ending the student protests on June 4, 1989.

- Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/160316074255-01-trump-0316.jpg?q=x_0,y_48,h_1125,w_1999,c_crop/h_540,w_960" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/160316074255-01-trump-0316.jpg?q=x_0,y_48,h_1125,w_1999,c_crop/h_540,w_960" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

" data-timestamp-html="

Published 11:16 PM EDT, Wed March 16, 2016

" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-is-vertical-video-embed="false" data-network-id="" data-publish-date="2016-03-16T13:08:59Z" data-video-section="tv" data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/03/16/exp-ns-stout-trump-china.cnn" data-branding-key="news-stream" data-video-slug="exp ns stout trump china" data-first-publish-slug="exp ns stout trump china" data-video-tags="2016 presidential election,asia,china,donald trump,east asia,elections and campaigns,government and public administration,political candidates,political figures - us,politics,us federal elections,us presidential elections" data-details="">

Video Ad Feedback

China reacts to the rise of Donald Trump

03:36 - Source: CNN

Since those comments, Chinese dissidents have lined up to condemn him for supporting the bloody crackdown and to demand an apology.

In an article for TIME magazine, 1989 student protest leader Wang Dan denounces Trump for using the same language as the Communist Party.

“I am disappointed by and angry at Mr. Trump’s words,” he writes. “If a bloody repression can be praised as a ‘strong, powerful’ action, what does this mean about American values, especially when this blatant mischaracterization comes from a presidential candidate?”

Donald Trump’s suit and ties are made in China

Freedom fighter fears Trump

Fellow Tiananmen protest leader Wu’er Kaixi turned to Facebook to describe Trump as “an enemy of the values that America deeply defines itself by – the same values that have long provided hope to the victims of oppressive power worldwide.”

FORT WORTH, TX - FEBRUARY 26: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally at the Fort Worth Convention Center on February 26, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Trump is campaigning in Texas, days ahead of the Super Tuesday primary. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Related article What would a President Trump mean for the world?

He goes on to say, “Those of us who have fought for freedom anywhere in the world worry that something is about to change in America.”

But perhaps the most graphic criticism leveled at Trump is by the exiled political cartoonist Wang Liming, better known as Rebel Pepper.

Forced to live in Japan for his own safety, the cartoonist is well known for skewering China’s elite.

In a cartoon released this week on his Twitter feed addressed simply “to Trump,” Rebel Pepper portrays the American candidate as a tank commander brutally mowing down and crushing a protester while declaring, “This is the best thing we imported from China.”

Poker face?

Trump’s controversial remarks on China’s past and present are no longer being ignored by China’s dissidents or political establishment.

And yet despite his relentless attacks and steady political advance, Chinese premier Li Keqiang says relations between the U.S. and China will continue to develop no matter who wins the presidential race.

That’s Beijing, putting on its best poker face.

CNN’s Yuli Yang and Joel Labi contributed to this report