The "Mao-Like" Era of Trump: A Familiar Storm Brewing in America
Trump's behavior evokes memories of Mao's rule among the Chinese populace.
Let's be clear - Donald Trump is no Mao Zedong. But some American scholars have drawn comparisons between the actions of the current US president and the Chinese leader in a concept they're calling an "American Cultural Revolution."
Donald Trump, with his disdain for the intellectual elite, mistrust of bureaucracy, and his presumed closeness to the common man, may have some echoes of Mao in his style. Ding Xueliang, a Chinese scholar who earned his PhD from Harvard and grew up in Communist China, was once part of Mao's Red Guards. This is according to a CNN report.
During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards denounced parents, humiliated millions, and forced many into exile. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives as a result. While these events can't be equated with today's USA, some Chinese people see similarities in the current political landscape.
Familiar echoes
Hu Shuli, a Chinese entrepreneur and media researcher, felt "overwhelmed by a feeling of familiarity" recently when she noticed parallels between the actions of Donald Trump and Mao. This sentiment has been shared by others, including Jiang Xue, a journalist who left China for the USA due to her work.
Zhang Qianfan, a Beijing constitutional lawyer, notes that both Trump and Mao have surrounded themselves with loyalists outside the establishment. Zi Zhongyun, a colleague of Zhang, explained that dictators want direct contact with the people, and bureaucracy gets in the way. In China, the Red Guards addressed this need, and in America, tech wizards like Elon Musk seem to fill that role.
However, the comparison between the Red Guards and Musk's team only goes so far. The Red Guards were paramilitaries who killed thousands and were eventually disbanded in 1968. Musk's team consists of IT experts who are restructuring bureaucratic processes.
Stark contrasts
Despite these parallels, there are vast differences between the two phenomena. Mao's Cultural Revolution came from a dictatorship, became a nationwide youth movement, and cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. Trump has been in office for roughly four months, and the midterm elections next year could curtail his power. While his administration appears more ruthless than previous ones, the USA is a very different country from Mao's China, where people were killed.
The USA has mechanisms in place to protect its political system from an authoritarian leader. According to the sociologist Andrew Walder, the founding fathers "put sand in the gears at every level of the system," which has proven effective. In Mao's China, there was hardly any resistance to the Cultural Revolution. In the USA, however, courts challenge Trump's decisions, and over a hundred cases are ongoing against his administration's measures.
Even the American public is growing increasingly critical of Trump. Now, a majority of the population expresses dissatisfaction with the president's work in polls. Unlike Mao's China, the USA has a free press and civil society that maintains oversight and accountability, holding the president and his team up for scrutiny.
- USA
- Donald Trump
Scholars' Insights:
- American scholars have pointed out parallels between Trump and Mao's approaches to governance, society, and of course, their respective cults of personality.
Comparison of Systems:
- The U.S. political system is designed with checks and balances to prevent any one branch of government from becoming too powerful, leading to significant institutional safeguards against authoritarianism.
- Mao's Cultural Revolution was characterized by a centralized authoritarian control, with the Communist Party holding absolute power, and the suppression of dissent.
The European Union, with its democratic and decentralized political structure, stands in stark contrast to the centralized authoritarian control Mao Zedong exercised during the Cultural Revolution.
Donald Trump's administration, despite some echoes of Mao's style and approach, is subject to numerous checks and balances within the U.S. political system, a marked difference from the absolute power that Mao held in China.
