From Maoism to MAGA : embracing democracy with authoritarian imprints

Abstract

Right-wing populism, notably Trumpism, has presented a formidable challenge to democracy. We explore the historical roots of Trumpism among the Chinese diaspora by analyzing nearly one million tweets from approximately 200 Chinese overseas opinion leaders between 2019 and early 2021. We develop a novel measure of authoritarian imprints, drawing on the usage of high-frequency words from the political discourse of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966‐1976). Leveraging computational text analysis, we identify both pro-Trump and anti-democratic stances in these tweets. Our analysis reveals that Chinese opinion leaders with strong authoritarian imprints are significantly more likely to support Trump and endorse anti-democratic actions, such as rejecting the 2020 presidential election result and advocating for unconstitutional means to overturn the result.