 Hi Mary Beth. Hi Beijing. This is Tom Schaller from Washington DC. I'm happy to join everybody here on election night I hope everybody can hear me. Well, I'm a professor of political science at the University of Maryland and have been for 19 years now I'm author of a few political books and long-time columnist for the Baltimore Sun I've been traveling on behalf of the State Department on international trips to countries including China in 2012 Since back in 2004 was my first trip. I've been to more than 1920 countries I believe now over the last Four presidential cycles. I'm happy to join you here to talk about the election It's a little too early to say for sure who's gonna win. I think it'll be a relatively close Election, Haley Clinton's a slight favorite to win. She has a slight advantage going into the election in the electoral college I think she'll she's likely to prevail I think the Republicans will probably hold one maybe two chambers both chambers of Congress and so As the results come in later in the night, I hope you'll follow along in Beijing as we figure out who the 45th president of the United States is It's been a tense close sometimes ugly election Pretty competitive a lot of criticisms and negative attacks Oftentimes a not very policy or issue Rich election a lot of candidate personal attacks on character and background and record and personal and political finances and the candidates connections to their spouses to donors To their foundations and so forth. So I'm not sure we've had the most policy rich An issue-oriented presidential campaign in my lifetime for sure But we've certainly had one of the most entertaining and one of the most negative presidential elections I can ever remember so we should know pretty soon Who will become the 45th president of the United States? And I am very confident that we will have a peaceful transition of power no matter Whether Donald Trump the Republican nominee or Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee prevails later tonight And with that I guess I'll just open it up to questions from the audience in Beijing and I'm happy to answer them as best I can Okay, so everyone if you have a question, please come to the microphone here Professor Schaller, can you hear us here in Beijing perfectly? Hi, Professor Schaller, this is you've been from a voice of America in Beijing My question is about US policy, you know after this election Whoever it means wins What do you think the impact About the US-China relations and the more broadly to the Situation in East Asia Thank you Well, I'm foreign policy and diplomacy the two political parties are much closer Historically than they are on economic policies like taxes and regulation And welfare and the size of government and certainly closer than they are on Social issues like abortion or gay marriage So we've generally had a post-war consensus between the two parties with some Deviations and some differences of course between Republicans and Democrats so I think I can say with relative confidence and given the way that Hillary Clinton has positioned herself in This election as an heir apparent to the Obama legacy more than her own husband's Political or policy legacy. I think we will see relatively Little change in the foreign policy diplomatic political and economic posture of the United States visa via China And some of the you know controversies over the South China Sea and Taiwan and what have you if If if excuse me on the other hand Donald Trump is like the president It's a little harder to say frankly. He's a bit more of a wild card of course He doesn't have a governing record that we can look to Hillary Clinton has been both Secretary of State as I'm sure you all know She's also been a senator for eight years and served on the Senate Armed Services Committee So there's a record of policy statements as a record of votes in the senator. There's a record visits and policy Issues and speeches that she gave a Secretary of State with Donald Trump. We have to basically go on Promises and statements during the election in which of course he made China a focal point more On trade issues on economics than on foreign policy or militarism I suspect we should take him at his word that he'll be a little bit more aggressive about trade deals Not just with China but with other countries and taking a very unique posture a very protectionist posture as a Republican nominee that departs significantly from Republican orthodoxy Which historically has been largely free trade? And less concern about tariffs less concern about environmental standards worker standards and trade Negotiations so we could see some differences not just from a Clinton Obama tradition, but even a little bit from the Republican tradition of say President's George Bush senior and junior if Trump wins, but You know, I think there are institutions That will check any dramatic change too much, but I think on the trade front more than anything else US China policy, you know could change under Trump administration in a way that it would not I think in a Clinton administration Hi professor Chandler, thank you very much. I'm Xiao Jinxing of Global Times So my question is most of American ministry and medias endorse the for Hillary Clinton But none of them do this for Trump is a very rare phenomenon in American history. So how do you make of this? Thank you very much Yes, Donald Trump hasn't really had any major newspaper endorsements. He was endorsed by a Las Vegas paper He was endorsed by another paper both of which were owned by major Trump donors Sheldon Adelson in one case and I forget the other donor who's a supporter of Trump who owned those newspapers So he does have a record low number of Media endorsements. He also has a record low number of endorsements from fellow Republicans This is a Republican Party that's split itself only about one in three of the Republican members of the US House of Representatives And the Republicans have a majority there have publicly endorsed Donald Trump two out of Excuse me one out of three have not two out only two out of three have endorsed him Whereas pretty much every Democrat in the House of Representatives and the Senate has endorsed Hillary Clinton so Trump is somewhat at war within his own party with many of its elected officials governors members of Congress and Certainly the media has has not endorsed his candidacy in most of the major newspapers and a lot of the state papers have endorsed Hillary Clinton So and I think that has a lot to do with things that Donald Trump has said during the campaign In terms of attacking variety of groups and language that he's used and so forth You know, there is a big question about you know His fitness and temperament for office and this campaign has really been an argument between Clinton and Trump about who's really Not so much qualified, but who's really fit To be the next commander-in-chief and I think that's why we've seen a very negative campaign I Professor I'm from China daily. So my question is about climate change Trump has Publicly said against climate change and China has opposed about that. So if there is a Trump presidency What do you think will happen about the future of climate change and how it's going to affect the ties between us and China? Thank you. This is a great question I mean if you look for a theme in Trump's positions, whether it's on trade or whether it's on Defense of say NATO and shared military alliances or whether you look at Climate change his general posture is sort of America first or America alone in some senses And he's used that phrase the American first which you know It goes back to the sort of Lindbergh era and that movement of sort of American Isolationism and I think there is a heavy isolationist strain that you hear in Trump's policy pronouncements and in his rhetoric That borrows significantly from recent politicians like Rand and Ron Paul who are isolationist Pap you can and who ran for president back in 1992 so I wouldn't be surprised if Trump Comes out publicly to say he's not sure he supports the Paris Accords for example That were negotiated by John Kerry and the Obama administration Whether or not he will call for a policy reversal I don't know but given the fact that he proclaims to be a climate change denier I can't imagine that he would Continue to be party to agreements that are based on a premise with which he fundamentally disagrees or simply doesn't believe in Okay, professor Scheller, I believe that's all the questions we have I'd like to once again. Thank you very much for taking time out of your day to join us. We really appreciate it. Thank you