Trump as Mao

When Donald Trump took over the U.S. presidency, a parody of his inauguration speech blew up on the Chinese internet. The droll posting recast the Republican's rousing populist rhetoric as Chinese propaganda slogans. "Make America Great Again" became "Struggle to Realize the Great Rejuvenation of the United States!" in an adaptation of the signature catchphrase of President Xi Jinping. "Vigorously Carry Forward the Spirit of Patriotism!" read another, an ironic take on Trump's strident jingoism.  And then, in a nod to the anti-establishment insurgency that carried Trump to office—one which finally degenerated into deadly mob violence in Washington this week—there was this rallying cry from the Mao era: "Overthrow Bourgeois Authority, Establish a People's Government!" Trump is not Mao, although as China expert Edward S. Steinfeld points out, there are alarming parallels. Mao despised elites, celebrated chaos, saw dark conspiracies everywhere, and ended up launching an all-out assault on the apparatus of government in a fit of late-life madness. "Bombard the headquarters!" he beseeched his Red Guard foot soldiers at the start of the Cultural Revolution in the summer of 1966. "In the U.S. now, I witness things that I never thought I would live to see at home, but that feel ominously reminiscent of the Chinese experience," wrote Steinfeld in an article published before Trump's own fanatical supporters stormed the Capitol. Mao Zedong  Photographer: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP This week in the New Economy Fastest rally in history takes emerging market stocks to new record. Turkish stocks see longest weekly winning streak since 2009.  Saudi prince attempts 2021 reset trying to make allies, not enemies. China urgently needs to contain financial risks, IMF warns. Outlook bleak for Nigeria bonds with real yields firmly negative.   Chinese officials and state media are having a field day mocking the democratic institutions that the American president himself has turned against. The Chinese Communist Youth League called the riots a "beautiful sight," a scornful reference to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's enthusiastic description of pro-democracy demonstrations that filled Hong Kong's streets two years ago. "We hope that the American people can enjoy peace, stability and security as soon as possible," commented Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, deploying the sort of language (as the Washington Post noted) U.S. officials might use to signal concern about the welfare of China's people. To be sure, China's leaders have never confused Trump for a democrat (with a small "d"). In some ways they're kindred spirits—flag-waving nationalists competing to promote their own narrow interests—though the rivalry sometimes took other forms. Remember when Xi tried to steal Trump's thunder by posing at Davos as the defender of globalization?  True, the Trump administration has sanctioned Chinese officials connected to the mass detention of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, and it has imposed penalties on prominent individuals accused of undermining the independence of Hong Kong. But these moves are better seen in the context of White House efforts to contain China, rather than a principled defense of human rights.  Former National Security Adviser John Bolton  Photographer: Logan Cyrus/AFP In his tell-all book about his time as Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton writes that the Republican told Xi in a face-to-face meeting that building the Uighur internment camps was "exactly the right thing to do." On Hong Kong, Bolton said, Trump's conversations with Xi over many years left the Chinese leader "thinking he basically had a free hand."  Like the men who run China, Trump is no fan of a free press. He's also a master at manipulating facts. That's given authoritarians everywhere, including China, cover to crack down on the media and civil society more broadly. Now they have even less reason to fear censure.  All this is a massive win for the Chinese Communist Party and its narrative of American decline. The nationalistic Global Times described the far-right wing riots in Washington as a sign of America's "internal collapse." President-elect Joe Biden's efforts to build and lead a coalition of democracies to stand up to China will run up against the reality that 147 Republicans supported Trump's efforts to void the election on patently false claims of voter malfeasance. And those 74 million people who voted for Trump may remain a potent force. America's "soft power" has suffered permanent damage. Defenders of the U.S. liberal order are in mourning. What standing does the U.S. now have, they ask, to take Beijing to task for the mass arrests of pro-democracy campaigners and politicians in Hong Kong—a crackdown that took place on the day Trump incited his MAGA mobs to break into the Capitol?  As the mayhem unfolded on Wednesday, Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, observed: "If the post-American era has a start date, it is almost certainly today."  __________________________________________________________ Like Turning Points? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and gain expert analysis from exclusive subscriber-only newsletters. The Bloomberg Crypto Summit: With Bitcoin burgeoning and markets jumping as vaccines signal the coming end to the pandemic, the future of digital assets is bright. Join us Feb. 25 as we analyze what it takes to push cryptocurrencies into the portfolios of the world's largest investors. Sponsored by BitGo and Grayscale Investments. 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