The Communist Party of China officially limited its remarks on the criminal conviction of American former President Donald Trump on Friday but has allowed celebratory and mocking content to flourish on its regime-controlled Weibo social media platform, multiple reports documented.
A jury in New York convicted Trump on Thursday on 34 counts of falsifying business documents to obscure a crime, making him the first American president convicted of a crime in the history of the country. Trump has adamantly denied the charges, calling his conviction a “disgrace” and accusing the administration of election rival President Joe Biden of orchestrating the trial to damage Trump’s chances at the ballot. Trump is reportedly preparing to appeal the case, but the process will most likely not be resolved by the November presidential election.
WATCH — Donald Trump Speaks After Being Convicted on All 34 Counts: “This Is Far from Over”
C-SPANJudge Juan Merchan has set the date of Trump’s sentencing for July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry refused to address the matter directly, expressing hope that, whatever the outcome, it would benefit the Chinese Communist Party.
“I will not comment on the US presidential election or any other US domestic affair,” spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters on Friday. “We hope that whoever gets elected will be committed to growing sound and stable China-US ties, because it will be in the interest of both countries and both peoples.”
On Weibo, however — a highly regulated platform where opinions contrary to those of the Party are rapidly censored and used to diminish the “social credit” score of users — the regime allowed users to mock Trump and fantasize about a civil war in America. Translating several comments that the Chinese government permitted on Weibo, the left-wing outlet CNN found many laughing at the woes of “Comrade Nation Builder” (Chuan Jianguo), a nickname Chinese communists use for Trump. For years, Chinese censors have allowed pro-regime users to refer to Trump as “Comrade Nation Builder,” the implication being that Trump is hurting the United States and, therefore, helping build up China as the sole global superpower. Users have gone so far as to clamor for Trump, once banned from Facebook and Twitter, to join his “comrades” on Weibo.
Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
“Comrade Nation Builder Trump should not be fighting alone,” one user joked on the platform, as translated by CNN.
Another encouraged a mob riot in Washington, DC, in response to the news.
“It seems that in 2024, a civil war in America is not just a dream!” a user identified as an “influencer” reportedly wrote.
The outlet Insider found Chinese regime-approved Weibo users sharing AI-generated images of Trump “retiring” from his alleged double-agent work as “Comrade Nation Builder” in China, surrounded by adoring Chinese fans.
“Comrade Nation Builder, in the police station, in the courts, you must surely endure, we are waiting for you to retire so you can return and watch the sunset with us,” one user joked, according to a translation by Insider. The outlet narrated images appearing to show live shots as “Trump does taichi exercises with Chinese seniors, lugs groceries home from a wet market, and laughs with Chinese people on a subway.”
“The montage also bizarrely takes clips out of context to make it seem as though Trump is in a relationship with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,” Insider added.
I knew Chinese social media would react with glee to Trump's indictment, but I didn't expect them to take it this far.
— Matthew Loh (@ma2loh) March 31, 2023
The joke is that he's building up China by sabotaging the US. People are reposting this AI-generated montage of him retiring as a hero in China. pic.twitter.com/DIHZzEV6MZ
The Global Times, China’s most prominent English-language propaganda outlet, entered the fray with a semi-official opinion from the government on Friday, declaring that Trump’s conviction proved the “farcical nature of the presidential election and will further exacerbate political and social divisions.” The Global Times often disparages free, democratic systems as insufficiently representative of their peoples, arguing that totalitarian Chinese communism is a superior system. America, the Global Times has claimed, is a “low-quality democracy,” and holding elections “cannot truly reflect the essence of democracy.”
On Friday, regular Global Times commentator Professor Li Haidong posited that, following Trump’s conviction, “the attitudes of both parties further reflect the rottenness of American politics, and that the law now seems to be used as a political weapon.”
“However the farce develops, analysts agree that the drama will further aggravate political extremism and is very likely to lead to more chaos and social unrest,” the newspaper claimed.
CNN suggested that Beijing’s relative lack of commentary on the situation may be due to concerns that seeing a politician prosecuted in America may raise the appetite among increasingly beleaguered and persecuted Chinese people to see similar trials of their own leaders — as well as concerns that Trump may emerge as the next president despite his legal challenges.
“They don’t want to attack Donald Trump because if he becomes the president, they know the consequences. Instead, they’re likely to use it to showcase the problems of the US system,” Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, told CNN.
