An elderly Chinese immigrant who swam for eight hours to flee the country’s communist regime said she is appalled that her children are casting votes for Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral election.
Song Ying, 72, believes her two grown sons do not see the perils of the democratic socialist candidate’s far-left policies, which she described as alarmingly reminiscent of the circumstances she risked her life to escape more than 50 years ago.
‘Socialism has been a disaster,’ Song told the New York Times. ‘Everything I’ve seen and experienced points to that. It breeds laziness and kills the motivation to strive.’
Song embarked on the risky journey from Shenzhen, a small fishing village in China, to Hong Kong in 1976 to evade the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Chairman Mao Zedong.
She was one of the millions of refugees from mainland China who made the grueling trip to Hong Kong, then a British colony, between the 1950s and 1970s in pursuit of a life free from hunger and oppression.
In 1978, Song and her husband came to America and settled in New York City’s Chinatown.
With less than $200 in their pockets, the couple worked tirelessly to create the life they had dreamed of. Song became a reporter for a Chinese-language outlet, and her husband founded a telecom business.
Their sons went on to receive prestigious college educations, with one graduating from Cornell University and the other from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Zohran Mamdani has been leading in the polls leading up to Election Day on Tuesday
Pro-Mamdani demonstrators hold signs in support of the far-left candidate
Song, who is a three-time Donald Trump voter and cast an early ballot for Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral election, told the Times that her children are ‘Ivy League types,’ well-intentioned but naive.
She said they are blinded by Mamdani’s promises of free bus fares and affordable housing, and fail to see the unsettling similarities between his initiatives and communism.
Song represents a growing group of Chinese New Yorkers shifting to the right in their political beliefs.
A Times analysis of the 2022 New York gubernatorial race revealed that predominantly Asian neighborhoods across the city’s five boroughs shifted 23 percentage points to the right from 2018.
Cuomo, the Democrat ex-New York governor who resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, has the support of Trump, who recently said he preferred him over Mamdani in a 60 Minutes interview.
Joey Zhang, a Brooklyn Democrat, told the Times that she does not believe in the sweeping handouts that Mamdani has based his campaign on.
Like Song, Zhang can not understand why her children are on board with Mamdani.
‘The US has changed in recent years. It wants people to believe that everyone deserves the same, no matter the effort. But life doesn’t work that way,’ Zhang, who moved from Fujian, China, in 2003, told the Times.
An image of Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong
Children held signs in support of Mamdani. The candidate has promised to make housing in NYC affordable by taxing the wealthy
Performers in Bejing, China rallied around the Red Flag in support of the Communist Party (pictured)
Mamdani, 34, who has vowed to tax the rich to fund his progressive programs, has been dominating the polls leading up to Tuesday’s election.
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said Mamdani’s lead is ‘built on a coalition across key demographics’ in the city, including increasing his lead with black voters.
Since September, Mamdani has increased his support among black voters from 50 percent to 71 percent, while Cuomo has dropped 10 percent during the same time.
Mamdani’s base is also aided by massive support among young voters, with 69 percent of those under 50 revealing plans to vote for him.
Cuomo has garnered considerable support from East Asians, according to the Library of Congress Preservation’s AsAmNews, but the majority are expected to continue supporting Mamdani.
Roughly 1.4 million people living in New York City are Asian American and Pacific Islander, according to US Census data. Chinese Americans alone account for 8 percent of the city’s total population.
‘Mamdani won a lot of districts like Flushing, Queens, and Manhattan Chinatown over Cuomo, but it was close. It was very competitive,’ Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist based in New York, told AsAmNews.
According to polling done by JL Partners on October 30, Mamdani has maintained a significant lead on his opponents, Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Mamdani had the support from 42 percent of voters, while Cuomo trailed with 29 percent. Sliwa’s supporters only account for 19 percent of those who have already cast their ballots, according to the poll.
