In Lindsey Graham, US Loses Tough China Critic

News of Lindsey Graham's death is being reported in China as a loss for the Republican Party's “hawkish” wing that could grant further influence in American foreign policy to President Donald Trump.

The late U.S. senator for South Carolina died from a sudden illness on Saturday, his office said in a statement the following day, and the contest for the longtime lawmaker's vacant seat is being watched closely, China's official Xinhua News Agency said on Monday.

Graham championed a brand of interventionist conservatism that sought a strong U.S. footprint globally to actively deny growing influence of top American adversaries.

He was wary of China's defense cooperation with Russia and previously blamed Beijing for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Graham also warned of the Chinese Communist Party's influence in U.S. politics at the national and state level.

In frequent visits to capitals throughout the Pacific region, Graham was a vocal backer of U.S. interest in self-ruled Taiwan and was highly critical of the Chinese economic practices that saw Trump launch separate trade wars in both his White House terms.

Although he eventually became one of Trump's closest allies, Graham and the U.S. president shared different views of America's role in world, according to Ren Yi, a prominent Chinese nationalist foreign policy commentator who writes under the pen name Chairman Rabbit.

“Trump is a supporter of the multipolar order, while Graham was a typical supporter of the unipolar order (like Joe Biden), who advocated that the United States maintain its postwar hegemony around the world, and adopted an extremely hostile and hard-line attitude toward China,” Ren wrote on Monday.

“Graham’s death personifies the accelerated demise of the American unipolar order,” Ren said.

Lindsey Graham Was ‘Triple Hawk'

On Weibo, China's largest microblogging website, another frequent commentator on relations with the United States said Graham was America's “triple hawk”-hard on Russia, Iran and China.

Graham defended Trump's decision to start the Iran war this spring and was staunch supporter of both Israel and Ukraine.

His final public appearance was in Kyiv on Friday, where he urged China's leaders to help end Russia's four-year military campaign.

“China has ​an oversized influence. I’d like them to use their influence for the good of the world,” Graham said next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV called Graham, 71 at the time of his passing, the GOP's “hawk” on Capitol Hill.

He was most recently the cosponsor of a bill that sought to economically punish China and other buyers of sanctioned Russian crude oil and natural gas.

Weibo's AI-generated summary of search results for Graham's name described him as the author of multiple pieces of hostile legislation in Congress.

“Because of his anti-China stance, many Chinese netizens and internet celebrities expressed strong criticism and even celebratory remarks after his death,” the summary said.

Hu Xijin, the former editor of China's nationalist Global Times tabloid, said on X on Sunday: “Although Lindsey Graham is not widely known among ordinary Chinese people, he is still one of the most frequently mentioned U.S. senators in China. And, generally speaking, he is not well liked by the Chinese public”

Lindsey Graham Backed Taiwan

Graham never publicly contradicted the U.S.'s deliberately ambiguous policy on possible military intervention in the next Taiwan Strait crisis, but he repeatedly made clear the level of cross-party support that Taipei enjoyed in Congress.

China's state-run news outlets frequently panned Graham for backing Taiwan. They publicly criticized him for linking security assistance to Taipei and Kyiv to better trade relations with the United States.

During a visit to Taipei in 2022, he urged Taiwan's then-President Tsai Ing-wen to purchase Boeing jets made in his home state of South Carolina. She did.

He argued that deeper economic interests would help sustain U.S. support in the government and among the public, and went on to sponsor bills that granted millions of dollars in aid to Taiwan as well as treating Taiwan as a major non-NATO ally to expedite arms sales.

In May, after Trump's summit in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in which Xi publicly warned Trump against aiding Taiwan, Graham said he would encourage the White House to double down on its support for the island.

“If you give an inch on Taiwan, I think they’ll take a mile. But we’re not looking for war. We’re not looking for conflict. I want to keep the status quo,” Graham said at the time.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te was “deeply saddened” by Graham's passing, a spokesperson said on Sunday.

In an X post on Monday, Taiwan's former leader Tsai said Graham was “a true friend to Taiwan and a principled supporter of our freedom and democracy.”

She said he would be “sorely missed.”

Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that flags would be lowered to half-mast for a week.

Graham, who chaired the Senate Budget Committee, was never sanctioned by China.

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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 11:09 AM.