The Democracy Activists Who Love Trump – The Atlantic
To speak to Wan Chin, the host of a YouTube politics show, is to hear echoes of American conservative radio: An invasion of immigrants is crossing the border, filling public housing and sapping up limited government resources, he told me; the coronavirus is a Frankenstein superbug weaponized in a Chinese lab; and President Donald Trump s Rambo way of leadership has finally called out China for its hostilities. When Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, Chin took to Facebook to wish him a speedy recovery from the mild flu, parroting the president s own downplaying of the virus s severity.
Chin isn t an American shock jock, though. In fact, he doesn t even live in the United States. He is, instead, an early and prominent advocate of Hong Kong s prodemocracy movement: His 2011 book, On the Hong Kong City-State, was a formative text for the localist movement, which seeks to promote and protect Hong Kong s identity and way of life, separate from that of mainland China. Chin, a former professor, peppered his opinions with historical references to ancient Chinese dynasties and arcane tidbits from folk tales. The walls of his office are lined with Chinese and Buddhist shrines, ornately carved out of dark wood. As he spoke, a woman entered and lit a small bunch of incense, the fragrant smoke twisting upward toward a red Make Hong Kong Great Again T-shirt hanging near the door.
Looks like the Atlantic is earning its CCP stipend. /joke