Perceptions of American Elections in Hong Kong and Taiwan

During the Trump administration between 2016 and 2020, while the Trump presidency gave rise to numerous controversies both at home and abroad, President Donald Trump however enjoyed enormous support from two places, Hong Kong and Taiwan. At home, many of President Trump's policies appeared to be inconsistent and fairly divisive. Internationally, he alienated conventional allies in both Europe and Asia. Despite all these controversies, he nonetheless was highly (and might still be) widely respected and supported in Hong Kong and Taiwan. To account for the support for Trump among Hong Kongers and Taiwanese people, we propose a political psychology approach, motivated reasoning. The key component of the motivated reasoning theory is the presence of a "motive" when individuals screen information. In our context, despite various differences in political situations, what Hong Kong and Taiwan share in common is that both of them have been significantly affected by China in almost all aspects of life and therefore have a strong motive to support or oppose any policies that would change the way in which China exerts its influence on them. In other words, for those who try to resist the China factor, any policies that would curb China's growing influence will be welcome and the leaders who adopt such policies will also be supported. On the contrary, for those who embrace the China factor, such policies would be disfavored and their makers hated. As suggested by the literature, the reason why political identity or predisposition can motivate one's reasoning is that they provide mental and information shortcut. In the context of this project, this implies that, in processing Trump's policies and signals, Hong Kongers and Taiwanese people have adopted one of the perspectives and therefore introduce biases into their preferences for candidates and policies.