Are MAGA-CCP comparisons fair?
I explain why I do draw the parallels, and respond to the criticism
Anyone who has suffered through following me on social media or reading this Unexemptional newsletter know that I frequently make comparisons between the behavior of Trump’s MAGA and the Chinese Communist Party, between the governance of the Chinese government and U.S. government under today’s Republican Party.
Am I accurate? Is this fair? What is the point? And why does it matter?
Let me reflect on my project of pointing out the MAGA-CCP parallels, first by looking at the criticisms of such comparisons, and then offering my response and telling you why I do this.
The criticism
I see two main lines of criticism of those who compare the U.S. to China and MAGA to the CCP. This includes both critiques directed at me or at others, or at the general notion of such comparison.
Criticism #1: Comparisons between governance in China and the United States fail based on scale and scope. Even if you concede that Trump’s impulses are authoritarian, the situations in the two countries are nowhere near the same. China is a one-party state under the CCP, which controls all elements of government and exerts significant controls over society.
Criticism #2: Comparisons are unfair if not prejudiced against the people of China. Their human desires for freedom and dignity are the same as anyone anywhere, but the conditions they live in are nothing like what Americans experience. Because of the repression and surveillance of the CCP, they are not able to enjoy many of the freedoms that Americans still do.
My response
I don’t dispute either of these criticisms in general. They are inherently valid. However, I also think they are somewhat misapplied to what I have been doing. Let me explain, and you can draw your own conclusions.
A caveat: I am not a political scientist or a behavioral scientist or any kind of credentialed -ist. I am just an observer who has worked in the liminal space between policymaking, law-writing, idea-promoting and communicating.
I’ve been a professional China watcher for many years; for some of these I was paid to monitor CCP behavior. Then I would turn my head and see the same behavior in the rhetoric and actions of Donald Trump, his followers and the Party he controls.
I wrote about the parallels most directly in The Coming MAGA-CCP Alignment, as well as here and here and here and here.
I am observing behavior, not systems. Intention, not scale. Here are three examples among the dozens I could make:
Party loyalty as a job prerequisite. You have to be a Communist Party member to have a government job in China, and to remain loyal in order to keep it. Trump is replacing the century-and-a-half-old system of a merit-based, nonpartisan civil service with one based on Party loyalty and ideological fealty.
Punishing people for exercising free speech. The Chinese government has a long and consistent record of jailing people for saying things that run contrary to Party positions. The Trump Administration has arbitrarily detained or deported students, such as Rümeysa Öztürk, without due process simply for writing or saying things that run contrary to Party positions. It has used the power of the state to force universities to restrict the freedoms of expression and association of students. And it is wider than that.
Eliminating judicial and prosecutorial independence. The justice system in China includes a number of controls that significantly limit if not prohibit independent decision-making. Judges and prosecutors are expected to follow the Party line. The Trump Administration has dispensed with the long-held norm that the Department of Justice should operate independent of political influence from the White House, and has directed federal prosecutors to target perceived political opponents, including a Member of Congress and a state judge. Trump and allies are overtly pressuring judges to rule in their favor, overriding judicial independence.
You would be correct in noting that scope and scale is not as great as in China. But that doesn’t mean that these indicators of creeping authoritarianism aren’t happening in the United States today. It doesn’t mean we can’t use comparison to evaluate the actions of Trump and the Republican Party as they affect the state democracy, rule of law and human rights in the U.S.
If you steal money from one person’s wallet, it’s still theft even if it is accurate that you didn’t steal money from a thousand people’s wallets. And punishing one person for speech is still a violation of freedom of expression even if you are not punishing a thousand for it.
These comparisons serve to invoke an easily accessed reference point for what is authoritarian behavior. There are plenty of others to draw from, but China’s case is front and center today.
On the second criticism, I am sensitive to the fact that the lived experience of people in China and people in the United States is not the same. I try with intention to avoid implying such parallel. If I do, I apologize. I do see others saying this, though, so I can see what is drawing this criticism.
The bottom line is that people in China, the United States and anywhere else are entitled to enjoy the same basic rights under international law. To me, it is sound to point out that the U.S. government is restricting rights as the Chinese government does, even if the scale is different.
My purpose
There are three reasons I make the MAGA-CCP comparisons:
Anti-authoritarianism. I love America because its Constitution and founding principles allow for a system of self-government where democracy and individual liberty can flourish. We routinely fall short of these ideals, but we must strive to reach them. As an American, I hate that Trump and the Republican Party are moving the country away from these principles by importing and imposing authoritarian behaviors on us. As a human being, I am disgusted that they are violating people’s fundamental human rights and creating conditions where people are not able to full enjoy these rights. I hope that pointing out parallels to the system in China can help people realize the danger we are in.
An attempt to reach Republican ears. For years, I have worked with Republican colleagues to call out human rights abuses committed by the government of the People’s Republic of China and monitor its authoritarian behavior as it crimps the rights of people inside China and outside its borders. I know that they understand what constitutes a violation of human rights and an erosion of rule of law. So I am hoping that they too see these parallels and that they may take some action within Republican circles to push back against Trump’s CCP-style authoritarian behavior. I am hoping they can apply the universal standards they have used to critique PRC behavior to critique the Administration’s behavior.
A principled U.S policy on China. I see America’s adherence to human rights and rule of law as a necessary precondition for advocacy for human rights improvements in China. When the U.S. government mimics CCP behavior, as I wrote about regarding Secretary of State Rubio, we “undermin[e] America’s standing in the rest of world vis-à-vis competition with China” and lose the moral authority to take a principled stand in defense of human rights.
I don’t know whether any of this is sinking in. I’m not the only one making these comparisons, of course. The record, so far, looks grim. The Trump Administration and their rubber-stamp Party cadres in Congress are proceeding apace on their authoritarian project domestically, while simultaneously saying Chinese leaders are bad for doing the same things. I guess they’re fine with a double standard. Sigh.
Maybe I’m way off base. Maybe I’m naïve. Or myopic. Unlike Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, I’m open to criticism. Please let me know your thoughts.