Incumbent United States President Donald Trump and his Democratic Party challenger Joe Biden crossed swords directly at their first election debate, held on Tuesday night local time in Cleveland, Ohio.

In the course of the one-and-a-half hour debate, the presidential candidates clashed over domestic policy, the COVID-19 pandemic, health care and the economy, touching on issues related to China every now and then.

Trump’s forceful personality shone through despite being more than 70 years of age, frequently interrupting Biden without a script in hand, Hong Kong political commentator Sang Pu noted. The incumbent was adept at showing his charisma and strength to American voters and reinforcing the American culture to “be strong and be powerful.”

Biden, 77 years old and vice president in the Barack Obama administration, differed in style by comparison. Many a time he was seen fumbling over words and correcting himself, Sang Pu said, “his gentlemanly ways putting him at a disadvantage.”

When Biden mentioned that his late eldest son, Beau Biden, had served with the U.S. army in Iraq and was a patriot not a loser, Trump immediately went on the attack, bringing up another son, Hunter Biden, who used to take cocaine and also stirred controversy with his business in Ukraine. The latter issue had prompted questions about the relationship between Biden, Ukraine and China, Sang Pu said.

Given that American culture emphasized “being a strong man,” the commentator believed that Trump’s performance was better at attracting voter support.

Opinion polls however suggested Biden was holding a steady single-digit lead over Trump.

Simon Shen, a Hong Kong scholar and political columnist, said foreign diplomacy was usually not a topic of concern among American voters but he believed that more discussion on U.S. relations with China would be added in the third debate.

Regarding each candidate pointing the finger at the other for not taking tough measures on China, Shen said the criticism was only “election vocabulary” and that the main polarized opinions were about the effectiveness of the Sino-U.S. trade war and whether to line up an international multilateral alliance to carry out united action regarding China.

Shen said Trump’s strong image was on full display as usual, but Biden’s performance was better than expected as he was not defeated by Trump’s interruptions. Shen concluded that the first debate would not have much impact on the election result.

Hong Kong-born scholar Derek Yuen believed that some voters had already made up their minds and were basically “listening to what they wanted to hear” in the debate.

He felt that to these voters, it would probably not make much difference to their choices even after two more planned debates took place in the near future. Such voters only wanted to see how their favored candidate fought off the competitor live on television, he said, doubting that the debates could help Trump or Biden gain support from the undecided members of the electorate.

Yuen also believed that the performance of Biden was not bad, saying he did not lose the debate despite his advancing years. As the two candidates argued over topics such as health care and the Supreme Court, Trump said at one point: “There’s nothing smart about you.” Biden gave as good as he got, calling his opponent a “clown” and mocking Trump’s style by saying: “Will you shut up, man?”

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