WELL, THAT’S A TAKE: Biden says he isn’t soft on China, Trump is.

A Biden-aligned super PAC, American Bridge, is running a $15 million ad campaign of its own hitting Trump on China. “Everyone knew they lied about the virus,” the narrator said against the backdrop of eerie music. “China … President Trump gave China his trust.” Last week, the Democratic National Committee’s sixth installment of its “In Focus: Trump’s Disastrous Coronavirus Response” was titled “Trump rolled over for China.” The DNC memo asserted, “Trump’s failure to stand up to China is one of his biggest vulnerabilities.”

The Trump-approved America First Action Super PAC is already running an ad going after four decades of Biden’s China policy. But the main focus is on China and the coronavirus.

“Joe Biden attacked Trump after the China travel ban,” said the spot’s narrator, followed by audio of the ex-vice president calling it “xenophobia and fear-mongering.” The ad continued, “For forty years, Joe Biden has been wrong about China.” America First then cuts to a speech in which Biden declared, “I believed in 1979, and I believe now, that a rising China is a positive development.”

Trump, by contrast, has inveighed against this position for decades before entering politics. “I ran on China and other countries, the way they were ripping us off,” Trump recalled during Sunday’s White House press briefing. “They were ripping off our country. And China understood that.” But his desire to strike a trade deal with China, as well as secure the regime’s cooperation in getting needed medical supplies to the United States, has led him to equivocate publicly on Xi.

“The president can be harsh with foreign governments, but he also knows how to sweet-talk foreign leaders to get what he wants,” said a Republican strategist who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “Everyone knows that.”

This makes Biden look sillier and more full of it than usual — a high bar.