The Democratic Socialists of America promise a future where everything is free. Lily Tang Williams grew up inside the version of that promise Mao Zedong built, and on this episode of The Jenny Beth Show she tells Jenny Beth Martin what it looked like from the bottom: eight families on one outdoor restroom and one faucet, a six-year-old in the ration line at 5 AM, and the month she lost the family's protein coupon. Williams was two when the Cultural Revolution began and twelve when Mao died. She explains what the Communist Party promised before it took power, what land reform and the people's communes actually delivered, and how a famine of 40 to 60 million reached her home province of Sichuan. She describes Mao's ten classes, five black and five red, her grandmother's year of struggle sessions, and the day a straight-A seven-year-old learned you cannot be too confident in a collective society. Then a law student at Fudan University, told in her second week that law is a tool for the ruling class to govern the masses, meets an American exchange student with a pocket Constitution who tells her that her rights come from God, not from government. She got out in 1988 with 100 dollars in cash. Lily Tang Williams is the Republican nominee for Congress in New Hampshire's Second District and a speaker for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. This episode opens The Jenny Beth Show's Surviving Communism series. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.
Guest: Lily Tang Williams is the Republican nominee for Congress in New Hampshire's Second District, running in a November rematch against Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander after winning the 2026 primary with 65 percent of the vote. Born in Sichuan province, she was two years old when Mao's Cultural Revolution began and grew up in workers' housing on government food rationing. She studied law at Fudan University in Shanghai, taught there as a part-time faculty member, and left China for graduate school in the United States in 1988. She is a speaker for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a small-business owner, and a mother of three.
Key topics:
• What the Chinese Communist Party promised before it took power, and what land reform and the people's communes delivered instead
• The famine that reached Sichuan, and what starving villagers did to survive
• Mao's ten classes, five black and five red, and how families were turned against each other
• School under Mao: shut down, reopened six days a week, and a six-year-old kept home a year to babysit her infant brother
• The lesson at age seven that taught her never to trust anyone
• Banned Taiwanese love songs, red revolutionary songs, and a child who saw Mao's face in the clouds
• Mao's death at twelve: "who lied to my generation?"
• Three years of study, four boiled eggs a morning, and the national college exam
• Choosing law at seventeen to make China a rule-of-law country, and what the law school taught in week two
• An American exchange student, a pocket Constitution, and the sentence that changed her life
• Religion under communism, and the mother who prayed in secret
• Two bosses at a Chinese university: one academic, one political
• No blue jeans, no dancing, no hair past the shoulders: college rules in 1981
• Lying to the Communist Party boss for permission to leave; "you don't own yourself"
• Landing in America with 100 dollars, meeting her husband the first night, and a surgery she hid from her family
• Socialist medicine: infected blood, a decade without a diagnosis, and bribing surgeons for a hospital bed
• Why she is running for Congress, and the rematch with Maggie Goodlander
• Blacklisted by the Chinese Communist Party, eleven years without seeing her family
• The Democratic Socialists of America's promises, set against what she lived
• How to help get out the vote before Election Day
Timestamps:
00:00 — Cold open: Lily Tang Williams, a little girl in Mao's Cultural Revolution
00:36 — The Surviving Communism series: what is coming in October
01:50 — Welcome: Lily Tang Williams, candidate for Congress in New Hampshire
03:58 — Two years old when the Cultural Revolution began; twelve when Mao died
04:35 — Eight families, one outdoor restroom, one water faucet
05:32 — "We supposed to be the ruling class": the 5 AM ration line
06:42 — What communism promised: everything free, land for the peasants
07:27 — Land reform and the people's communes: "promise not kept"
08:37 — The famine: 40 to 60 million; Sichuan had never starved before
09:46 — What starving villagers traded to survive
10:24 — Mao's ten classes: five black, five red
11:38 — Her grandmother's year of struggle sessions
13:05 — School under Mao: shut down, reopened six days a week
14:34 — Six years old, kept home a year to babysit her infant brother
16:19 — Too confident for the Young Pioneers: the lesson that ended trust
18:02 — Music, radio and "spiritual pollution": the banned Taiwanese songs
19:59 — "I saw his face behind the clouds": a 100 percent brainwashed child
20:28 — Mao dies: "who lied to my generation?"
21:30 — Three years of study, four boiled eggs, and the national exam
24:07 — Choosing law at seventeen to make China a rule-of-law country
26:00 — Two weeks into law school: law as a tool of the ruling class
27:21 — An American exchange student and a pocket Constitution
29:14 — "Your rights come from God, not from your government"
31:10 — Carry a Constitution: Jenny Beth Martin on why it matters here too
31:49 — Religion shut down; her mother's private prayers
33:30 — Faculty at Fudan, two bosses: academic and political
35:02 — Applying to American graduate schools: TOEFL, GRE, a sponsor
35:34 — No jeans, no dancing, no hair past the shoulders
37:10 — Hu Yaobang, disco and coffee shops: a short liberation
38:46 — "Climb the ladder, retire and die": deciding to leave
39:45 — Lying to the party boss for permission; "you don't own yourself"
40:41 — Landing in America with 100 dollars and a 1,200 dollar debt
41:26 — Meeting her husband the first night; the RA job that kept her here
42:37 — A lump, a surgery, and a secret kept from China
43:57 — Health care in China: infected blood and her mother's dementia
46:21 — Bribing surgeons for a hospital bed
46:49 — Jenny Beth Martin: what "free health care for everyone" looks like
47:33 — "How do you sue the government?" Who should decide your care
49:50 — Why she is running: "I fear the country I love becoming the country I left"
52:05 — 47 percent in 2024, 65 percent in the primary, a rematch with Maggie Goodlander
52:39 — Outspent four to one, no PACs: a happy warrior
54:17 — "Made in America, not a bot": the choice in New Hampshire's Second District
54:49 — How to help from outside New Hampshire
56:28 — 40 trillion dollars in debt; "every vote matters"
56:48 — Blacklisted by the Chinese Communist Party, eleven years without her family
57:13 — "The first one who survived Mao's regime to serve in Congress"
57:47 — Jenny Beth Martin: "You are an inspiration"
59:11 — Next week: the Surviving Communism series launches
01:00:22 — The Democratic Socialists of America's promises, and the reality
01:00:51 — Get out the vote: teapartypatriots.org, helpatthepolls.com, iwillsaveamerica.com
01:03:08 — Tomorrow: an angel mom on border security; close
Links mentioned:
jennybethshow.com
teapartypatriots.org
helpatthepolls.com
iwillsaveamerica.com