The 45th President of the U.S. has set abuzz think tanks and the Chinese social media, who see in Donald Trump’s persona shades of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping — the iconic leaders of the People’s Republic.
“Every man sees this world according to his own experience. And Chinese people’s political experience is largely based on his or her interpretation of Mao and Deng’s legacies,” the Global Times , quoted Jin Canrong, associate dean of the Department of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, as saying. The Global Times is a tabloid affiliated with the flagship People’s Daily , run by the Communist Party of China.
“Trump’s dissatisfaction towards bureaucrats and interest groups and his direct call [on Twitter] for the public to rebel against the establishment does remind Chinese people of Mao. But his focus on economic development, his lack of interest in ideology, and his drawing back from global input bear some similarities to Deng,” Mr. Jin observed.
Friction among ‘radicals’
Mr. Trump’s comparisons with Mao and Deng also brought out the friction among the “radicals” of the two camps.
Some of Mao’s supporters, as seen in an article in Canghaishibei, a WeChat micro-blog account, praised Mr. Trump’s inaugural speech as “no less than the Declaration of Independence”. The article lauded Mr. Trump’s address as an illustration of “class struggle” within the U.S. at its core.
On the contrary, Mao’s critics in China slammed the speech, comparing it as an evocation of the disastrous Cultural Revolution that lasted for a decade and ended in 1976. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted Zhang Yuquan, a researcher of American studies at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, as saying Mao and Mr. Trump were only similar in so far as both had subverted some traditions in their countries.
‘Student of Deng’
Many others perceive Mr. Trump in the image of Deng. “If we look at Trump without pre-established impressions, we can see that a theme of Trump’s beliefs is to focus on the U.S.’ own affairs… From this perspective, Mr. Trump is truly a student of Deng,” reads a paper released by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies under the Renmin University of China in November.
It called on people to rise above discussions of populism or other questions defined by the West. Instead, it stressed the necessity of analysing Mr. Trump from a new perspective. “Both Trump and Deng are at a historic crossroads where they want to bring about major changes in domestic and foreign affairs for their countries,” the article read.
