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Donald Trump is copying the wrong things from China

America is getting authoritarianism without the good stuff

    • A section of the East Wing of the White House being demolished as part of the construction of a new ballroom extension of the White House. What the US gets out of Trump's flirtation with authoritarianism are gilded ballrooms, detention centres and profound stress on the foundations of American institutions.
    • A section of the East Wing of the White House being demolished as part of the construction of a new ballroom extension of the White House. What the US gets out of Trump's flirtation with authoritarianism are gilded ballrooms, detention centres and profound stress on the foundations of American institutions. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
    Published Wed, Oct 22, 2025 · 05:39 PM

    US PRESIDENT Donald Trump rarely passes up an opportunity to praise Chinese President Xi Jinping. Over the years, Trump has regularly buttered up China’s leader, calling him “brilliant”, “perfect” and “fierce”, and averring that “there’s nobody in Hollywood like this guy”.

    During his second term, Trump has gone further, directly copying elements of Xi’s China. When the American president announced his tariffs in April, his choice of “Liberation Day” sounded, to my ears, after working for years in China, more like Beijing’s terminology than that of a capitalist superpower.

    While Americans speak in terms of freedom and liberty, it is the Communist Party that describes its victory over the Kuomintang as the “war of liberation”, delivered by the People’s Liberation Army.

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