Why Some Chinese New Yorkers Are Voting for Donald Trump

By Jane Yi Zhang/Kings County Politics News Service

NEW YORK, NY — Many people think of Donald Trump supporters as white, male, blue-collar Americans. And with Trump’s anti-immigrant policy, new immigrants would naturally vote for his opponent, right?

Surprisingly, that assumption is often false among Chinese immigrants in New York City, many of whom are vocal Trump supporters. The most zealous of them share Chinese-language articles on their social media platforms, trying to draw more Trump supporters from friends and family.

On WeChat, a Chinese messaging and social media app, the Trump-for-president articles are plentiful. A few recent headlines:

• “Why So Many Chinese Americans support Trump? Are They All Uneducated Fools?”
• “Trump Has Won the Debate. Don’t Listen to Those ‘Intelligent Yet Idiots’.”
• “Do You Really Know Trump? Here are 5 Stories.”

Most of these articles mention little about Clinton or Trump’s policies as introduced during the presidential campaign. The first article, for example, lists new acts in effect under the Obama Administration — projecting that if Clinton takes office, these policies will remain unchanged. Some of the discontented new immigrants from China, it seems, would rather bet on Trump than see things stay the same.

Trump supporters who circulate this type of article on social media appear to be mainly in their 40s and 50s. Most appear to have grown up in China, then immigrated to the U.S. in their 20s.

Multiple Chinese-American immigrants who spoke to Kings County Politics said they feel uncomfortable whenever NYC officials introduce new policies encouraging illegal immigrants to live in the city as residents. Most recently, Mayor Bill de Blasio rolled out IDNYC, a card that acts as an official ID for undocumented immigrants, and Action Health NYC, a health care program for low-income and undocumented immigrants.

“I work hard for my money. Why should I share it with people who don’t work or scamming the system?” said Tan Man Li, 45, a city employee and Brooklyn resident who emigrated from a southern city in China to NYC when he was 26. He said he thinks the Obama administration is too generous to the poor, while the middle class is excluded from benefits programs.

“The current welfare system only creates parasites,” Li said.

Li said he believes he and Trump are like-minded. Instead of being politically correct, he said, Trump has put into words the same gripes Li has held for years. “Undocumented immigrants are illegal," Li said. "If they didn’t come here legally, they have no right to stay here."

Li is not alone among Trump's Chinese-American supporters in thinking the current welfare system is draining taxpayers’ money. Yiping Wu, 54, a hedge-fund consultant at an NYC firm, argued to Kings County Politics that Democratic Party policies are creating social problems.

“The democrats keep adding benefits, but where does the money come from?” asked Wu, a new immigrant who arrived in NYC when he was 27. Trump’s firm stance on sending undocumented immigrants out of the country, Wu said, would help lower governmental costs.

Wu said he also has concerns that educational opportunities for Asian-Americans will be compromised after the Fisher v. University of Texas case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the University of Texas’s race-conscious admissions program was lawful under the Equal Protection Clause. Wu said he's worried this decision may eventually hurt Asian students' chances of being admitted to U.S. schools.

In New York City in particular, the American dream for Chinese parents has long been to send their kids to an elite, specialized high school, then to a top-tier college. Other ethnic groups, however, have complained that Asian students now hold over half the seats in the city's nine elite high schools; and in response, a few years ago, some politicians introduced laws to change the admission process, allowing more black and Hispanic student to enroll.

This made many Chinese parents furious. “We come here for the second generation, for our kids,” Wu, father to two children, told Kings County Politics. “The Democrats are segregating Asian students, denying their hard work.”

Wu said he thinks Trump would provide fairer opportunities to Asian-American students.

A few other liberal Democratic policies have further pushed Chinese-Americans toward Trump supporters. Obama’s policy to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice in public schools, for example, shocked many Chinese parents. Others are afraid that Obama and Clinton's push to accept more refugees from Muslim countries would threaten national security — especially after domestic terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Orlando and NYC.

“Trump can be a big fat liar in regards to the changes promised, but I’m willing to bet on him because I know for sure Clinton would not make any changes to this country,” Li said.

Pictured: Chinese Trump supporters gathered outside Trump Tower on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. Photo by Jane Yi Zhang/Kings County Politics. A version of this story originally appeared on the Kings County Politics news site