Sister Shi is probably the most famous supporter of Trump among sinophone communities, as she has attracted more than 500,000 followers from Weibo, the largest microblogging website in China, which has more than 229 million daily active users. While many scholars, lawyers or influencers on Weibo prefer not to reveal their political preference, Sister Shi identified herself as a diehard supporter of President Trump.
As one of the few free speech refuges in China, Weibo users are extraordinarily passionate about engaging in political discussions there under anonymity. Sister Shi’s account, which is named “Sister Shi Digs into American Politics,” provides a perfect place to discuss American politics as she translates news stories or rumors that are censored in China.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Chinese Trump supporter are arguably the most stigmatized group in Asian American communities now. It is contradictory for Chinese immigrants or people of Chinese descent to support Trump, given that he has been employing a firm anti-China rhetoric policy. Meanwhile, Trump insists on calling the novel coronavirus that has ravaged the entire world as “Chinese virus,” which has brought Chinese Trump supporters unprecedented derision and resentment. As such, those who still opt to vote for Trump in 2020 have been regarded as “race traitors” who “lack basic humanistic values and dignity,” according to Xijin Hu, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, China’s official mouthpiece newspaper.
Sister Shi immigrated to the U.S. about 30 years ago as a fresh college graduate. Now she works in her own company based in Honolulu as a financial advisor. She is grateful for the upward mobility that American society bestowed on her.
“America allows me to do a successful small business and have a happy family. That may be the American dream,” says Shi.
Coming from China, where the political presentation is entirely different from the democratic system in the U.S., Sister Shi was amazed by the Constitution’s core values, which also inspired her to participate actively in political discussions and activities.
“I support political parties and presidential candidates who support modern American principles,” says Sister Shi, “which includes freedom, small government, free-market economy, law and order, and the belief in God.”
“The Republican Party and President Trump’s policies are much closer to these principles than the Democrat parties and Joe Biden,” Shi said.
Sister Shi is not alone among her compatriots. While more than half of Asian Americans would vote for Biden, there is still 30% of them would pick Donald Trump, according to a survey conducted by AAPI Data, a nationally recognized publisher of demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, last month.
“There is, actually, a huge undercurrent of conservatives in the Chinese American community, especially among middle-aged first-generation immigrants,” says Lanxin Li, a Ph.D. candidate of sociology at London School of Economics and Political Science.
Sister Shi is one of them.
“I own a business, and I have saved about $8,000 in federal income tax under Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” Shi says. “Based on a Gallup poll, 61% of Americans [are] better off than they were three years ago. I am definitely one of the 61% of Americans better off than I was three years ago.”
In Sister Shi’s opinion, the progressive ideas proposed by the democrats are fundamentally immature and contradictory to the core American values that she admires.
“Biden and Democrats want to increase personal income tax and corporation tax to fund their socialist agendas, including Kamala-Harris-sponsored Green New Deal. They also want to increase government agencies in number and size. They want to change private medical insurance to a single-payer, government-controlled health care system. They want to rejoin those costly and ineffective global organizations such as Paris Agreement, World Health Organization,” Shi says.
“That is just a terrifying possibility,” she concludes after complaining about “sins” that left-leaning politicians made for about 10 minutes in the phone.
On the contrary, President Trump upholds small government approaches that give Americans freedom of choice to make their own life’s decisions, “including where and when to wear a mask, or whether to close businesses because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Shi emphasizes.
Sister Shi grew fairly discontent with the overwhelming criticism and disapproval against President Trump from the mainstream media in both America and China, which prompted her to voice up for President Trump on social media platforms. She tried to share her arguments for Trump’s presidency and news stories favoring him on Twitter and Weibo and became an unexpected success on Weibo.
“It may be because I’m not perfectly proficient in English, or there’s a severe lack of political discussions from ordinary citizens in China,” Shi explains her success.
In addition to sharing censored news stories and rumors, Sister Shi, like many other Trumpers, endeavored to brush aside Trump’s criticisms. The criticism that she counters most frequently is the accusation that Trump is racist, as his use of the term “Kung Flu” or “Chinese Virus” has set off a huge blowback when the rhetoric has caused discrimination and hate crimes.
Sister Shi reiterates her point in the interview, saying that the racist criticism is merely a lie from left-leaning media and the Democratic party.
“When we look at the past 70 years of Trump’s life, no one close to him, including his lawyer, Michael Cohen, ever noticed, recorded or claimed any of his language or action were racist,” says Sister Shi.
From Sister Shi’s point of view, many of Trump’s offensive remarks are interpreted in another way. For instance, she goes against the public interpretation of the stigmatic connotation of the term “Chinese Virus” but claims that it only indicates where the virus comes from.
Moreover, Sister Shi argues that since the Trump administration scrapped the Affirmative Action, which has been deemed discriminatory against Asian Americans, Trump himself can never be accused as a racist. The left-leaning media, in her opinion, is “lowering the bar of racism.”
“Everyone knows that the best way to destroy someone is by labeling this person as racist,” Shi says. “If they can smear Trump’s racist because they don’t agree with his policy, they may do the same thing with anyone they don’t agree with. That is horrible.”
Further, as Trump has sowed discords and created unprecedented polarization within the U.S., people who experienced the process become ruthless as well. The attack on Trump would often escalate to ad hominem attacks on Sister Shi as she stands in line with him. But Sister Shi is pretty easy with personal attacks.
“Social media is a different venue because we don’t see each other online,” she says. “Someone will bully you if he disagrees with your viewpoints because they know online bullying usually has no consequences. People who make claims on social media…should prepare about all kinds of wrath, clamor and slander coming to you,” Shi says.
As a devoted Christian, Sister Shi develops her own philosophy to forgive the overwhelming attack against president Trump and herself. She says that she spends tons of time updating her Weibo account for four reasons: to inform, to persuade, to inspire and to entertain. These are also the objectives of her daily life. Therefore, as long as she could transmit the latest news and share her opinion with the lightest restrictions (there’s still keyword censorship in Weibo), her purpose is fully fulfilled. Therefore, being an influencer on Weibo, which attracts hateful comments every day, did not not affect her real life but “better enhanced my life,” Shi says.
When it comes to the upcoming election, Sister Shi maintains her optimism about it.
“I think Biden and Trump will come out very close. It may trigger many lawsuits in swing states. It’s funny that Trump says he would leave America if he loses,” Shi laughed.
Xiangyuan Chi 