The New York Times published an post claiming President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing a Chinese-style” Cultural Revolution in America“. But victims of the Foreign Cultural Revolution told The Federalist they disagree— and suggested the Times is pushing socialist propaganda.
” They are wicked — evil”, said Xi Van Fleet, a victim of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. ” The New York Times is personifying the People’s Daily, the CCP mouth”.
Mao’s socialist government killed up to 2 million citizens and sent hundreds of its competitors to captivity during the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. This followed the death of 30 million people in a drought caused by Mao’s so-called Great Leap Forward.  ,
Van Fleet was born in China, survived the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and “was sent to labor in the countryside at the age of 16”. She escaped China at time 26 and has lived in America since 1986. She wrote the book Mao’s America, warning the United States about the potential for a social revolution in America.
The New York Times claimed that” ]t ] he young aides Elon Musk has sent to dismantle the U. S. government reminded some Chinese of the Red Guards whom Mao Zedong enlisted to destroy the bureaucracy at the peak of the Cultural Revolution”. In truth, however, the Red Guards were the harsh officers of socialism.
” The hallmark of Mao’s Cultural Revolution is the death of the ‘ Four Olds ‘” — old ideas, ancient traditions, ancient culture, and old patterns of thinking. ” He wants to replace all with his own high philosophy, which is Maoism”, Van Fleet said. ” In order to do that, he has to ruin everything. And how do they accomplish that? Younger people, the Red Guards”.
Van Fleet gave the Times the “benefit of the question”, but said people of the store should read her book to learn the true story.
” I have the kindness to grant them the benefit of the doubt. Read my book”, she said. ” Then I call them socialists. They are socialists, but I have the kindness to say they simply don’t understand history”.
The New York Times cited a doctor from Peking University who wrote an article” Contra Trump“. The Chinese professor implied Trump was advancing a” cultural revolution” by attacking the “deep state” — described as” a professional, rule-of-law bureaucracy” . ,
Lily Tang Williams, another victim of the Foreign Cultural Revolution, told The Federalist the Times ‘ post was” B. S”. She said it was “repeating CCP propaganda”.
” I survived it, Xi Van Fleet survived it, there are lots of Taiwanese Cultural Revolution individuals in this region, but The New York Times has no confidence and no honesty to talk to us”, said Tang Williams. ” And they’re quoting a teacher from Peking University who works for the CCP. Oh, that’s excellent news — thanks New York Times”.
Tang Williams was born in China’s western Sichuan territory to “poor working-class kids”. She grew up during Mao’s Cultural Revolution and experienced “extremely poor living conditions, food rationing, social chaos and oppressive Communist restrictions and indoctrination” . ,
Helen Raleigh, a top source for The Federalist, was even born and raised in communist China. She came to America as a college student with less than$ 100, but she has since become a successful political commentator and author. She wrote a book called Confucius Not Said about her mother’s struggling under the socialist plan.
” It’s so unpleasant for them to compare two vastly different situations and try to create a moral equivalency”, Raleigh said. ” Trump is constitutionally elected, Expand is cutting state waste. That’s utterly different from the kind of social, ethnic, and entirely violent death that the Cultural Revolution has done. … They use this really painful history and entirely different scenario to mislead National readers…”
Raleigh said she grew up in China with” no hit freedom”, and opposing Mao meant “you’re going to labour camp. You could be executed”.
The New York Times has shown a soft spot for socialism in the past. As Raleigh reported for The Federalist, the document published extreme takes like” People Had Much Sexual Under Socialism”. The release also asserted that marxism taught” Foreign women to wish big”. The author of the article accusing Trump of initiating an American cultural revolution — Li Yuan — previously argued about Covid that” ]t ] he Wuhan virus outbreak was a tragedy — until Beijing changed the narrative”. And despite the country’s violent and draconian lockdowns, Yuan claimed China was “enjoy]ing ] its own kind of freedom” . ,
Real Cultural Revolution
Van Fleet referred to Trump as an “anti-communist” and pointed out that” Mao was the father of Communist personality politics” — the same strategy the current left purposes.  ,
” He did that in China with school. He was able to identify individuals into two major classes: Black group and Red class. One is army, another is supporters of the revolution”, Van Fleet said. ” The only way to become … redeemed is to accept, adhere, and follow. Simply like today,’ You’re whitened, you’re usually a racist,’ but there is a way out — to become woke”.
” This is what The New York Times stands for. This is what the socialist Democratic Party stands for. This is what the departed stands for”, Van Fleet added. ” And how dare they? How dare they examine the Trump administration, which is the precise same …”
Van Fleet said the Red Guards came “from the state institutions, from the colleges that Mao controlled and the CCP controlled that did little but coercion”. She said these institutions produced “indoctrinated and ignorant and excited and naively dedicated kids”, similar to” yesterday’s BLMers, Antifa, and Hamas followers, and Zelensky supporters”.
” That’s what Mao tried to do, to make all these young people revolutionaries”, Van Fleet said. ” Here, they make the young people activists”.
Tang Williams fled China in 1988, coming to America and studying as a graduate student.
” They were trying to destroy National ideals, which brought me to this state”, Tang Williams said. ” America is going through a social revolution. That’s why I got active in politics, because they are using the same strategies and similar social revolutionary and strategies to eliminate the society”.
In the past, Tang Williams has pointed out the various similarities between America’s radical left and the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Tang Williams pointed to the obvious — if Trump were a dictator, he would not have faced so much persecution as president and while running for reelection.
” If Trump was dictator, he would not be framed, impeached, canceled as a sitting president. He would not be indicted, fined, arrested, raided and shot when he was running for president. Who is dictator? Not him”, she said. ” It is the left]ist ] Marxists]who] started the cultural revolution in the U. S. from Obama to Biden, Trump’s America First movement is a counter cultural revolution”.
In November, Tang Williams unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Republican in New Hampshire. But she gained publicity with a stunning performance while debating her opponent.
After she went on a speaking tour with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, the Chinese Communist Party put her on a” blacklist “in 2019, she said. Tang Williams recently received a threat over X that the People’s Liberation Army would” crush your doggy head. ” She said she has not seen her family in China for 10 years.
Tang Williams challenged The New York Times to a debate”. I challenge them — find five survivors of Mao’s Cultural Revolution from their side and I find the five from our side. All debate each other — great show.”
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
