As Chinese president and communist dictator Xi Jinping visits San Francisco, Glenn speaks with a survivor of Mao's cultural revolution who is warning Americans about what's to come. "Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning" author Xi Van Fleet believes that "wokeism is Maoism with American characteristics." When she sees California Democrats praising communist China, she believes they want the same control, but are just using different methods to achieve it: "We fell for it in China. We got slavery," she warns. Plus, she gives her message to San Franciscans welcoming Xi Jinping with the Chinese flag: "Where are the social justice warrior protesters against the genocide by Xi Jinping of the Uighurs in China? They're not to be found."
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: There is -- you know, Xi Jinping is now in San Francisco. Because we cleaned it up for him, so it's nice.
What's happening in our country is truly frightening. We're doing things that I've never seen ever in America before. And that's one of them.
Xi Van Fleet is somebody who grew up in Communist China. She lived through the horrors of the cultural revolution. She was a schoolgirl. And she was forced into the countryside, along with the other young Chinese for reeducation after high school. She escaped communism. Came to America.
30 years later, she sees the signs, that are exactly the same as Mao's Marxist cultural revolution.
She's just written a new book, called Mao's America.
A survivor's warning. Xi, welcome to the program.
XI: Thank you so much for having me back.
GLENN: Oh, you're welcome. I -- I like talking to people who lived in communism or under dictators. Because they have completely clear eyes on what we are seeing today.
XI: Yes! Yes.
GLENN: You say that wokism is Maoism with American characteristics. What does that mean?
XI: That's what I mean. What you just said, that things are happening here. That have never before.
It's because you -- like many, many Americans, don't know what happened in China. And what happened in cultural revolution.
And we know, because we lived through it. And that's exactly the same thing. Why I say, Maoism is American characteristics. It's the same thing.
The identical -- identity politics, cancel culture. Weaponization of young people. Indoctrination in school.
All this happened in China, and happened to me.
And it's a little different here is that in China. Mao used class to divide people. And divide people into red class, and a black class.
Basically, one is the enemy of the state.
And one is the ally of the -- the government, and the party.
And here, they use something different.
They use red. And they use candor. They use sexuality. And it looks like it's different. But it's the same. It's indoctrination of children. It's exactly the same.
GLENN: Well, this is something that the communists learned in the 1960s, when honestly The Beatles song Revolution came out and said, if you're walking around with the posters of Chairman Mao, nobody will listen to you anyhow. And they realized that class would not do it in America. They had to do it based on race.
But tell me about the four Olds. I don't think most people understand this.
And this to me, shows how close it is to the Chinese cultural revolution.
XI: That is the Chinese-style cancel culture. And they are very specific.
It is the old culture. Old idea. Old habits. And old customs.
Those things, to be eradicated. To get rid of, to be destroyed.
Statues. Names of streets. Names of stores.
Names of food labels. Names of institutes. All has to be changed.
To be politically correct.
Why do they do that?
Why do they do cancel culture?
Because they want to replace the transition with something new.
And in China, that is Maoism, and here is Maoism with American characteristics.
GLENN: So Mao was much more open about what he was bringing in. Wasn't he?
I mean, here, they keep denying, any of this is happening.
And it's all there. We can see it. But they deny it. Mao was open in saying, this is what the new China will look like.
XI: Yes. And that's the -- the part that is very deceptive. Mao had power.
What he was doing, is to have absolute power.
He was -- he feels that he was losing control of the party. But he was in control. So he had to -- he can't be open about many, many things. But here, they have to -- they have to hide their true intentions. They use this very well, very attractive slogans. And then a lot of people fall for it.
And that is the problem.
With Marxism.
And I'll give you a beautiful picture of what it stands for.
And people don't know.
They fall for it.
And I tell people, we fell for it too.
In China, and what did we get?
We got slavery. And we got really the absolute tyranny. And that's what's going to happen here. So people, wake up!
And how you wake up. Not to find out yourself. If you find out yourself, that will be too late. And I hope they're wise enough to hear from people like me, who lived through it.
And then really learned from history.
And that's what we don't have here.
GLENN: So people -- help us out on this.
Because I think Antifa. BLM. Social justice warriors on the campus, et cetera, et cetera.
I think those are like the brown shirts. Or the Red Guards. From China.
But people will say, no. These are just honest people trying to X, Y, Z.
What is the difference between BLM and Antifa? And the social justice warriors.
And the Red Guards.
XI: Yeah. No difference. Because they're all indoctrinated to believe what they are told.
And I told Red Guards, you think they're dismounters? No. They were -- a lot of them from elite universities and -- and -- and middle schools.
And they're from wealth. They're from families.
They were not monsters. But they turned into monsters because of indoctrination.
The first killing, that took place during the Cultural Revolution was downed by a group of young girls in the most prodigious middle school in Beijing. And they were like 12 to 16.
They beat and tortured and killed their principals.
And there's no consequence. And after that, killing becomes commonplace.
And why will they go after the teachers?
Because they were told, those need control. And those need power. Were the ones, who want to take us back to the capitalism.
And so for -- for young kids, what are -- the people in power. They're teachers. They're principals.
So they were the ones -- the first ones to be the targets.
GLENN: So here in America, you just said, they didn't -- they weren't -- they weren't held, and they paid no price for it.
Here in America our justice system has been completely dismantled. You know, defund the police. All of this stuff.
Crime is on the rise. It doesn't seem like anybody is punished.
If you're on the right side, you're not punished.
In China, did they do the same thing?
Did they dismantle the justice system and the police?
XI: Yeah. That's called smashing the system. The whole justice system, including the police and the court were dismantled. So there's no consequence.
No one can stop. They're there to challenge the red guard.
And the Chinese version of defund the police.
GLENN: So Xi, I have been -- I have been talking about this coming for two decades almost now.
XI: I know.
GLENN: And it is now here. How much time do we have?
What period is this like in China? How far away from losing it, are we?
XI: We're very, very close. Actually, we are losing -- but I do think that there is a hope.
And I -- just three years ago, I was a quiet, shy Asian-American. I don't share my opinion with people.
You know, I was just quiet.
I became a voice. And because I know, if I don't speak up. And stand out.
To fight back, we will lose our country. And I don't want to live under communism again.
During my speeches across the country, and there's all sorts of people. Parents, just like me.
Three years ago, they required to never pay attention to the school board.
They never got involved in local politics. Or any politics.
I met so many of them. Now they're committed. Because they are waking up. They are committed. And so that's our hope.
And that's exactly how we save this country. We have to be --
GLENN: Did those people exist in China?
XI: No.
Because at that -- no. If you do that, it's too late.
Because those people don't exist. Because you can only find them in prisons. In gulags, or in the graves.
GLENN: Xi, I can't thank you enough. What do you think just on another subject, what do you think of President Xi's trip to San Francisco, and how San Francisco cleaned itself up for that?
XI: I know. I just read about it, and they have people welcoming him with -- with Chinese flag. Which to me, that is a murderous flag.
GLENN: Hmm.
XI: And I said, where are the social justice warrior protesters against the genocide by Xi Jinping, of Muslims in China. Where are they?
GLENN: They're not to be found.
XI: They're not to be found, exactly.
GLENN: Not to be found. Thank you so much, Xi.
I appreciate it. Xi Van Fleet. The name of her book is Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning.
She compares the cultural revolution to the cultural revolution here in America to the Chinese one.
And it is well worth a read. And share with somebody that you know, who maybe has a possibility of waking up.
By the way, she was at the pro-Israel rally yesterday in DC. So thank you so much.
Xi Van Fleet. Mao's America.
