China Expert Calls On Trump To Revoke Eileen Gu’s Citizenship

Minutes after Alysa Liu captured a historic Olympic gold for Team USA, the celebration quickly turned into something bigger.

Social media lit up not just over her flawless skate, but over her backstory: the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who fled communism and built a life in America. Within hours, the comparisons began — especially with another Bay Area-born superstar competing under a different flag.

“Alysa Liu > Eileen Gu” wrote Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy in a post on X, writing earlier, “The triumph of America over China!”

The contrast was unavoidable. Liu, raised in Oakland, skates for the United States. Eileen Gu, born and raised in California, made the controversial decision at 15 to leave Team USA and compete for China.

“Eileen Gu is unlucky that Alysa Liu’s patriotism stands in stark contrast to Gu’s betrayal of her country,” American lawyer and political analyst Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital.

Eileen Gu automatically renounced her American citizenship when she accepted Chinese nationality. It’s time for the Trump administration to yank her U.S. passport. https://t.co/YaU0P5DuJ3

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) February 23, 2026

Both athletes grew up in the Bay Area, raised by single parents who emigrated from China. But their family histories tell two very different stories.

Liu’s father, Arthur Liu, stood in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 pro-democracy protests. When Chinese troops cracked down on demonstrators, killing hundreds, his life changed forever.

He was later summoned by Chinese Communist Party authorities over his involvement.

“I refused to provide them any more names of students who had participated in the organization of the demonstrations. … I was going to take full responsibility for everything that had happened since at one time I was elected the President of the Guangzhou Autonomous Student Union of Universities,” Arthur Liu told USA Today.

Alysa Liu > Eileen Gu 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) February 19, 2026

“Going to prison for me was a matter of time.”

He fled by boat to Hong Kong, risking prison or a labor camp, before eventually settling in California. There, he raised Alysa and her siblings and put her on the ice at age 5.

“His persistence, and he’s brave too,” Alysa told Fox News Digital at a roundtable interview during the USOPC media summit in October. “We all knew about it, he had some stories for us, but we also found out from our other relatives, they would tell us as well.”

Gu’s mother, Yan Gu, also left China — but for academics. She studied chemistry and biochemistry at Peking University before earning a master’s degree from Stanford, according to The New York Times. She raised Eileen in San Francisco.

Gu debuted in a Freestyle Ski World Cup for the United States in January 2019. Months later, she switched allegiances to China as Beijing ramped up what became known as the “Chinese naturalization project,” recruiting foreign-born athletes with Chinese heritage ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

In announcing her decision, Gu said she hoped “to help inspire millions of young people” in China and “to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations.”

The move proved lucrative. Gu is now the highest-paid Winter Olympian in the world, reportedly earning $23 million in 2025 through endorsement deals with Chinese companies, including the Bank of China, and Western brands. The Wall Street Journal reported that Gu and fellow American-born skater Zhu Yi received $6.6 million in 2025 from the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau for “striving for excellent results in qualifying for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.”

While Gu won two gold medals for China in Beijing in 2022, Liu remained loyal to Team USA.

Ahead of those Games, Liu and her father were targeted in an alleged Chinese spying operation. One of the men later charged had impersonated a USOPC official and sought passport information from the family, according to The Associated Press.

Liu described the experience as “a little bit freaky and exciting.”

“You know what I mean? It’s so… unbelievable. You know what I mean like, that’s crazy,” she said.

Now, with Liu standing atop the podium in red, white and blue, the debate over loyalty, opportunity and national pride has only intensified — and all eyes are back on Gu.

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