Chinese dissident and famed artist Ai Weiwei has warned the current wave of “dangerous” political correctness has more similarities with Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution than former President Donald Trump.
During an interview with PBS reporter Margaret Hoover on Firing Line, Weiwei was asked to comment on an excerpt from his book, in which he compared former President Trump’s “late-night tweets” with some of Mao Zedong’s communication strategies.
“They served a function similar to Donald Trump’s late-night tweets while in office. They were the direct communication of a leader’s thoughts to his devoted followers, enhancing the sanctity of his authority,” wrote Weiwei in his book.
When asked if this passage sought to portray Trump as an authoritarian, Weiwei had a surprising answer.
PBS asked Chinese dissident, anti-communist artist Ai Weiwei about authoritarianism, hoping he would condemn Trump.
He says Trump isn’t authoritarian—and calls out wokeness as authoritarianism akin to Mao’s Cultural Revolution. The host is visibly upset. pic.twitter.com/UctRu0Fpeq
— Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) November 15, 2021
“If you are authoritarian, you have to have a system supporting you,” Weiwei said. “You cannot just be an authoritarian by yourself. But certainly, in the United States, with today’s condition, you can easily have an authoritarian. In many ways, you’re already in the authoritarian state. You just don’t know it.”
“How so?” asked Hoover.
When Weiwei said “many things” in the United States resemble Mao’s Cultural Revolution, he pointed the finger at “political correctness.”
“Like people trying to be unified in a certain political correctness. That is very dangerous. You want to go deeper?” he said.
Weiwei said the dangerous political correctness stems from people who believe they are “purified by certain ideas.”
“You just think you’re purified by certain ideas that you agree with it. That is posing dangers to society, to an extreme divided society,” he said.
“Why do you think that’s happened here?” Hoover asked.
“I think, for a long time, the West’s material. We have much more than we needed,” he said. “And we are not caring about global situation. But, eventually, all the policies and the politics we play has to be examined under the global situation, such as China become a very powerful state. And how the West should deal with it.”
Weiwei asserted that the West would need to become strong within itself to take on China.
“In China, we have a wisdom — to deal with anything, you have to be strong yourself. I don’t think West is strong themself enough to deal with China,” he said.
Watch the full interview below:
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