Investor election guide: Biden would be tough on China but may find some room for compromise

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the fifth annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, July 28, 2020.
Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

(CNBC PRO is looking at the most important investing angles surrounding next week's election. For the complete investor's guide, see here.)

No matter who wins the White House, the relationship between the U.S. and China is likely to remain strained and the world's largest economies will continue to distance themselves from each other.

Nearly 3 in 4 Americans have an unfavorable opinion of China, a view that grew during President Donald Trump's trade war with Beijing and expanded as the pandemic that started there spread across the world. The Pew Research Center found that 78% of Americans blame China, to some extent, for the spread of the coronavirus.

"The president has a lot of leeway, and both the Democrats and Republicans have reasonably hard line attitudes at this stage about China," said Bruce Kasman, JPMorgan head of economic research.

But the approach of the president and former vice president Joe Biden would not be the same.