Wai Wah Chin, adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York, joined Chicago’s Morning Answer to discuss the latest New York City mayoral debate and what it says about the city’s political direction.
Chin said the debate between Andrew Cuomo, socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa offered little substance, but underscored the troubling rise of radical economic and social ideas in New York politics. “Mamdani didn’t hurt himself, but he showed he has no experience whatsoever,” Chin said. “He’s never had a real job and yet he talks about seizing property and running the city like a Marxist collective.”
She noted the hypocrisy of Mamdani’s rhetoric, pointing out that the candidate, who lives in a rent-subsidized apartment, comes from a wealthy family. “His mother is a Hollywood filmmaker, his father a Columbia professor, and they own property in Uganda,” Chin said. “This is someone who attacks wealth while living a life of privilege.”
Chin warned that Mamdani’s platform—free public transportation, rent freezes, expanded subsidies, and nearly doubling the minimum wage—would drive out taxpayers and damage an already fragile post-pandemic recovery. “You can legislate anything under the sun,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean you can make it happen. You can’t just declare sunshine by law.”
She also criticized proposals like free bus service, which she said ignore basic economics and safety realities. “The MTA is already losing money, and making it free will only add to the chaos,” Chin said. “In New York, when you remove responsibility, you don’t get safety—you get disorder.”
Drawing on her background as a Chinese immigrant, Chin warned that New York’s embrace of socialist policies mirrors the early stages of authoritarianism she witnessed in her native country. “When the government starts controlling everything, quality of life falls for everyone,” she said. “Free this, free that—it means everyone ends up with less. And when you silence dissenting voices, you lose freedom along with prosperity.”
Chin said that many New Yorkers, frustrated by crime, high taxes, and ideological overreach, are quietly planning to leave the city. “People are tired of being punished for working hard,” she said. “The tragedy is that the people who stay will pay the price for the bad ideas of those in power.”