The kill line v Chinamaxxing: a window into how China and the US see each other | China

In two normally fragmented online worlds, the last few months have seen something of a reflection. On TikTok and Instagram, young people are diving into the joys of Chinese culture, from drinking hot water to playing mahjong, under the banner of “Chinamaxxing.” But on the Chinese internet, the US is losing its decades-long dominance of soft power, giving way to a darker trend: the kill streak.

The kill line is a dangerous place. In games, this term refers to the point at which a player’s strength is depleted to the point that one more hit would lead to complete destruction. In China, the term refers to the risks posed by daily life in the United States.

In recent months, Chinese media has been abuzz with discussions of the so-called “kill line” that exists in US society. Social media posts, news articles, podcasts and blogs describe visions of the United States as a dystopian capitalist hell. In a video shared by a government-run account on RedNote, a homeless man is seen talking about how he earns a six-figure salary. (The post claims that the video is from the US and that the man made $450,000; in fact, the clip is a old video About homelessness on the streets of London).

Another case that has gone viral is that of former Nickelodeon star Tylor Chase, who was recently spotted homeless on the streets of California. A Chinese news anchor said:: “Tylor’s fate confirms the existence of a ‘kill line’ in American society in which the middle class falls towards the lower class… This ‘kill line’ reveals the dual nature of America: Winners achieve ultimate success, while losers fall into an abyss of no return.”

In total, hashtags related to the US “killing streak” have been viewed more than 600 million times on China’s social media platform Weibo.

Chinese propaganda has long portrayed the west as a land of poverty and immorality. One day in 1968, in the early years of the Cultural Revolution, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, People’s DailyHe has published at least three articles describing the United States as a version of hell, ravaged by widespread famine and an elite class of billionaire “bloodsuckers.” One described the United States simply as “heaven for the rich, hell for the poor.”

But ordinary people still tended to view the United States as a land of opportunity and prosperity, especially after China began opening up in the 1980s and there was a greater flow of information between the two countries.

This changed in late 2025.

The latest trend started in November, when a Chinese student living in Seattle posted a post. five hour broadcast To Chinese video sharing site BiliBili. In the video, which has since been viewed more than 3 million times, he describes seeing hungry children on Halloween and the harsh realities of life for disadvantaged people in the world’s largest economy. Soon the term “kill line” took on a life of its own.

In January, Qiushi, the official theoretical journal of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article. comment He noted that this killing streak “reveals the structural economic fragility of American society.” A few weeks later, a Chinese state media journalist he asked US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has repeatedly spoken about the so-called kill line in Davos. Confused, Bessent mentioned Trump’s economic policy and then said: “I don’t understand the question.”

“We have known for a long time that China respects the United States, regardless of the official rhetoric,” says Wang Haolan, a research fellow at the Asia Society in New York. However, Wang says that many events, from the 2008 economic crisis to the election of Donald Trump and the United States’ fight against the Covid-19 epidemic, have turned this admiration into a curiosity about the “turmoil” in the country.

Influential nationalist commentator Ren Yi, who blogs under the name President Rabbit, says Trump’s re-election and the US-China trade war are the most important reasons why Chinese people have lost respect for the US. “Chinese people are now much more critical of the United States. Their attitudes towards America are constantly changing, and this is closely linked to the changing balance of power between the two countries,” says Ren.

Although there are poverty issues in China, social and cultural factors mean people are less likely to take to the streets, according to Ren. “In China you can always get support from both your immediate and extended family, there is always someone to help you.” The Chinese who look at the problems in the United States “don’t get it.”

Homelessness is a growing problem in the United States. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., more than 771,000 people will face homelessness in 2024; This was an 18% increase over the previous year and a record increase.

It is more difficult to quantify the problem in China because of the so-called internal passport system. hukou, It usually counts people by where they were registered at birth, not by where they live. Millions of domestic migrants live in crowded and unsanitary accommodation on the edges of major cities, often moving between dormitories depending on their jobs, but are not officially considered homeless.

While severe poverty is hidden from public view, the government’s success in eradicating extreme poverty – a milestone that Chinese President Xi Jinping has said was reached in 2021 – is frequently promoted in the official narrative.

Many Chinese see some truth in the idea that the possibility of an all-out social catastrophe is more likely in the United States than in China.

But while internet users in China gawk at the idea of ​​the United States being torn apart by poverty and chaos, the opposite is true for their American counterparts. With “Chinamaxxing,” American teens are enjoying traditional Chinese lifestyle hacks like drinking hot water or wearing slippers indoors. The slogan of the trend? “You met me during a very Chinese period of my life”.

The Chinese government is exaggerating this. Beijing is on a tourism push that has loosened visa requirements for visitors from several European countries, most recently including the United Kingdom. Influencers willing to tell a rosy story about the most appealing aspects of life in China, while bypassing more sensitive topics such as human rights and political repression, are welcomed with open arms. Meanwhile, in the United States, which, unlike China, largely allows journalists to report freely on the worst aspects of society as well as its best, the government’s most thuggish behavior is broadcast to millions of viewers, damaging its global reputation.

A useful distraction?

Some commentators see the kill streak meme as a way for Chinese people to vent or distract from their own frustrations at home. According to official statistics, almost one in five young people aged 16-24 is unemployed. Some economists estimate the real level could be much higher. Low wages and slow growth have led to an era of economic pessimism that the government is eager to combat. Promoting the “kill line” that supposedly exists in the United States may serve as a distraction.

“China currently has its own various social problems, but announcing that the West is also in a bad situation, or even suggesting that the West is worse than China, creates an image that gives people a sense of psychological comfort,” says Wang Qinglin, a Chinese writer living in Germany. “Someone who is initially critical of the Chinese government may shift to a more positive attitude after seeing these problems in western society.”

Ren says some people “find positive energy by observing the misery of people in the United States.”

Commentators who attempted to draw a more explicit connection between the killing streak meme and China’s internal problems were quickly censored.

In a later-deleted article, legal blogger Li Yuchen wrote that nationalism attacking the United States had become a lucrative niche for influential people. “This doesn’t solve any of your problems; your stocks won’t rebound, your mortgages won’t decrease a dime,” Li wrote. Such ingredients are “like a cheap dose of a ‘patriotic aphrodisiac’.”

Henry Gao, a professor at Singapore Management University’s Yong Pung How School of Law, says official support for the US’s so-called “kill line” shows that the Chinese government is trying to distract from economic problems at home.

“This is a recurring pattern in China, where attention is often directed to perceived problems in other countries when significant domestic challenges arise; the United States is often the first target,” Gao said.

Additional research by Lillian Yang