DSA's Praise for China Is Hypocritical and Reveals Dangerous Ignorance About Communist Authoritarianism
Source: "DSA members back Chinese Communist Party after CCP-sponsored VIP trips | Fox News." August 6, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
The author argues that DSA members are being hypocritical or foolish for praising China as a socialist role model, since China actually has all the things—military might, strict police, prisons, closed borders, and corporate control by the elite—that DSA claims to want to eliminate in America. The author suggests DSA members are being manipulated by Chinese propaganda, much like Communist regimes historically cultivated Western sympathizers to spread their influence.
Conclusion
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are dangerously ignorant or hypocritical for praising China as a socialist model, because China embodies the very authoritarian institutions (military, police, prisons, border enforcement, corporate control) that the DSA claims to want to abolish in the U.S., while also perpetrating human rights abuses like the genocide of Uyghurs.
Premises
- DSA members signed a pledge praising China as playing 'an objectively critical role in the global transition to socialism' after being treated as VIPs on CCP-sponsored trips.
- DSA advocates abolishing or defunding police, military, ICE, borders, the presidency, Senate, Supreme Court, prisons, and corporate ownership in the United States.
- China is the world leader in absolute state control through its military, police, spy agencies, and military-controlled courts—the opposite of what DSA claims to want to abolish.
- China operates prisons and labor camps holding millions, including the persecution, torture, and killing of Uyghurs, which constitutes genocide.
- China enforces strict, harshly-policed sovereign borders, contradicting DSA's opposition to border enforcement.
- China's corporate sector is fully controlled by Xi Jinping and his inner circle of billionaires, mirroring the corporate concentration of power DSA claims to oppose.
- The CCP strategically cultivates Western activists (as Lenin cultivated 'useful idiots') through VIP treatment to improve China's image and further its own interests, and DSA members' comments show they have fallen for this.
Assumptions
- DSA members' praise for China as a socialist model implies unqualified endorsement of the CCP's governance structures and practices, rather than a nuanced distinction between economic policy and political repression.
- The DSA's expressed domestic goals are meant literally and comprehensively as stated by 'a DSA member,' representing the organization's official position.
- The historical Leninist strategy of cultivating 'useful idiots' is directly analogous to and explains the CCP's current outreach to DSA members.
- Genuine ignorance, rather than a more sophisticated (if debatable) ideological position, best explains DSA members' statements about China.
- Support for a country's 'critical role in a global transition to socialism' equates to endorsement of that country's specific authoritarian institutions and human rights record.