China expert Gordon Chang blasts admirers of China's heavy-handed government
Gatestone Institute fellow Gordon Chang joins 'Life, Liberty & Levin' to sound off on anti-lockdown protests across China.
Gatestone Institute fellow and China expert Gordon Chang sounded off when asked about how leftist figures in the Western world often show admiration for China's strongman system of governance.
Chang was asked such in the wake of organic protests cropping up across the world's most populous country in objection to coronavirus lockdown mandates and a fatal apartment fire in Urumqi.
"They're all wrong," he said, citing World Economic Forum boss Klaus Schwab, among other figures. "[Following] the fire on the 24th in Urumqi, immediately there were protests all around China: north, south, east, west. These were spontaneous. They were not coordinated. No leaders. People were on the streets."
Chang said Chinese civilians were additionally protesting the COVID mandates, which he said contributed to the Urumqi tragedy.
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"They also were saying, ‘Down with Xi Jinping,' the Chinese ruler, and, ‘Down with the Communist Party’."
Chang said the protesters understand the heavy-handed rule of the CCP under Xi is the "root cause" of their strife and suppression of human rights.
"Its system does not work."
Host Mark Levin added Schwab, the 84-year-old German engineer who now leads the globalist organization, has previously called China's system a "role model" in many respects.
In an interview with Chinese state press, Schwab reportedly said "we should be very careful in imposing system but the Chinese model is certainly a very attractive model for quite a number of countries."
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U.S. President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit meeting, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, in Nusa Dua, in Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Another global leader on the political left, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said in 2013 that China's "basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime" and that he has a "level of admiration" for the country in remarks reported by the Toronto Sun.
More recently in 2019, President Biden said the Chinese are "not bad folks, folks" — "China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man."
Biden's comment garnered bipartisan criticism at the time, from Donald Trump, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, retweeted a reference to Biden's remarks, captioning it, "This will not age well."
"Life, Liberty & Levin" host Mark Levin (screenshot)
In his interview with Levin, Chang said the Chinese citizens who are protesting would declaratively say people like Schwab are "wrong."
Lockdown orders and restrictions in China have become "ongoing well beyond disease control," he added.
"This has gone to the point of being able for the Communist Party to make sure that the Chinese people are actually imprisoned."
If the Chinese government was truly concerned about viral spread, it would be constructing new intensive care units and not reportedly larger holding facility–type installations that could be used in other ways.
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