U.S. President Donald Trump has found support from two unexpected groups in the country: Mainland Chinese liberals who reside in the U.S., and middle-aged conservative Chinese Americans.

Trump's appeal to different groups of people from China

According to Inkstone, Trump's appeal to Chinese liberals stems from their own antagonistic experience of the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, the conservative segment is drawn to Trump over issues such as race-based affirmative action in American universities, and a perception of how the country's conservative culture is similar to that of their forefathers, both the Financial Times (FT)and Nikkei Asia reported.

A 31-year-old engineer awaiting his green card summed up the stance of the conservative group as such, according to FT:

“People value family, promote hard work and oppose many modern ideas, such as homosexuality and sexual freedom.”

Chinese activists appreciate Trump's tough rhetoric against China

Inkstone further reported that the appeal of Trump for Chinese liberals, who are not in favour of the Chinese Communist Party's policies, lies in what they perceived as tough rhetoric by Trump against the Chinese government.

In addition, sources who spoke to the Hong Kong-based media suggested that the number of Chinese liberals who support Trump are in the majority.

One such figure is Chen Guangcheng, an activist who spoke up against China's forced abortions under its one-child policy, CNN reported.

In 2012, Chen fled from house arrest in the Chinese province of Shandong to the U.S. embassy in Beijing. Following a diplomatic spat between the two countries, he was allowed to leave China to settle in the U.S.

On Aug. 26 when he spoke at a Republican National Convention, he praised Trump and accused former U.S. President Barack Obama of conducting a policy of appeasement towards the Chinese government. 

Chen further called on Americans "to support, vote, and fight for President Trump for the sake of the world."

Another activist who supports Trump is Guangzhou-based Sui Muqing, a pro-democracy survivor of the 1989 Tiananmen protest.

In 2015, he was detained for almost five months at an unknown location in China amidst a crackdown on human rights activists and lawyers, Hong Kong Free Press reported.

According to Inkstone, he was criticised recently after he tweeted that former First Lady Michelle Obama was "uglier than a gorilla" in the wake of her campaign for presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Self-proclaimed "human right lawyer" @lawyer_sui in China claims: "The three biggest threats in the world are: Communism, Muslim, and Black."
(In Chinese, "Red" represents Communism and "Green" Muslim).
The same @lawyer_sui called Michelle Obama "gorilla" mutiple times. https://t.co/cK3OShuYN7 pic.twitter.com/7UeHoCAgi2

— Shell S (子皮) (@shell_zipi) August 23, 2020

Sui has since dismissed the criticism.

Not all Chinese liberals support Trump

Not all of China's liberals are supportive of Trump, however.

Teng Biao, another U.S. human rights lawyer who has settled in New Jersey after fleeing from China, has criticised Trump for his stance on Xinjiang, along with his labelling of the Tiananmen and Hong Kong protests, and added that he will never support him.

I will never ever support a person who told a dictator to "keep building" the #ConcentrationCamps in #Xinjiang and who labeled #Tiananmen democracy movements and #Hongkong protests as "riots".

unforgivable.

— Teng Biao (@tengbiao) August 27, 2020

Chinese American conservatives: Campaigning for Trump on the app he threatens to ban

As for the conservatives, both FT and Nikkei Asia reported that much of their campaigning for Trump is taking place on an app he is threatening to ban over national security concerns -- WeChat.

For this particular group, their support for Trump stems from how they perceive him as a President who shares their views on illegal immigration, refugees and education.

They have also cited WeChat as a place where they can freely speak their minds in support of Trump, given the app's relative isolation from the larger American populace.

A data analyst based in Portland, Mo Fan, was quoted by FT as stating,"I've seen some examples of Trump supporters posting, and leftist groups finding out where they work and putting pressure on their employer."

Conservative Chinese Americans agree with Trump on immigration & education

These conservative Chinese Americans also agree with Trump on race-based affirmative action when it comes to education, an area that is traditionally important to them.

An investigation concluded that Asian Americans, along with white applicants, were illegally discriminated against in college admissions, and the controversy might just help Trump gain some Asian votes.

In an interview on KCRW, the author of the Nikkei Asia report, Marrian Zhou, explained that the Chinese Americans who support Trump are the generation of immigrants who migrated to the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s, and who views immigration and education as big issues.

"They believe that Trump is standing up for them," she said. 

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Top image via Asian Pacific Americans for Trump Facebook