A Chinese dissident now living in the West recently warned Americans that in many ways they are already living in an "authoritarian state" akin to Mao Zedong's infamous Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s and 1970s, but they "just don't know it."
Ai Weiwei, an artist and frequent critic of China's stance on democracy and human rights, sat down with PBS reporter Margaret Hoover during a Friday interview on "Firing Line," during which he discussed his new book, "1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows," and slammed the growth of "political correctness" in America.
During the interview, Hoover brought up a line from Weiwei's book in which the artist drew comparisons between Mao Zedong's nightly directives and former U.S. President Donald Trump's tweets.
"In your book, you were describing the directives of Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution that would be distributed publicly every night. And then you write — this is your quote — 'They served a function similar to Donald Trump's midnight tweets in office. They were the direct communication of a leader's thoughts to his devoted followers, enhancing the sanctity of his authority,'" Hoover said.