The Chinese Communist Party leadership believe they are in the midst of an \u2018intense, ideological struggle\u2019 for survival and that to win they must defeat the West<\/p>\n
TANNER GREER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n MAY 17, 2020<\/p>\n [Taken from https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/news\/articles\/china-plans-global-order<\/a> ]<\/p>\n The People’s Republic of China now commands the world’s largest population, its second-largest economy, and a military-industrial complex and high technology sector second only to America’s. Behind this great mass of men and material stands Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. Xi, supported by the class of Chinese communists who rule along with him, believe it is their role to guide China\u2014and the rest of the world\u2014into a new age. China’s military expansion, massive economic investment in controlling global trade routes, and escalating information operations all point to a struggle for dominance that puts it in direct conflict with the West.<\/p>\n In their internal speeches and planning documents, China’s communist party leaders\u00a0describe their perceptions of this struggle<\/a>\u00a0quite openly<\/a>: As Beijing sees it, China\u2019s success depends on discrediting the tenets of liberal capitalism so that notions like individual freedom and constitutional democracy come to be seen as the relics of an obsolete system. [\u2026]<\/p>\n Despite the concessions made to market-price mechanisms that have helped drive China\u2019s recent economic boom, Chinese communists believe that they lead an ideological-political system distinct from and in opposition to those of the capitalist world. Circumstance forces temporary cooperation with the self-interested capitalists, but these two systems cannot be permanently reconciled. [\u2026]<\/p>\n As proud self-declared Marxists, the Beijing leadership has carefully studied the failures of past attempts to \u201cconstruct a socialism superior to capitalism.\u201d From the failings of the Maoist era, the Chinese communists\u00a0learned that economic and technological modernization cannot happen in a vacuum<\/a>. In many Chinese minds the People\u2019s Republic of China\u2019s technological stagnation under Mao blends together with the Qing dynasty\u2019s unfortunate discovery that scientific advances in the West had left their military obsolete. The lesson in both cases is the same: If China is to grow strong, it must be integrated with the world outside it.<\/p>\n But there are dangers to \u201copening up\u201d to the outer world. This is the lesson Chinese communists draw\u00a0from<\/a>\u00a0extensive<\/a>\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0of the<\/a>\u00a0Soviet failure<\/a>. The party\u2019s official explanation for the collapse of the Soviet Union\u2014which has been communicated to party cadres through speeches, party school education, and\u00a0even a full-length documentary<\/a>\u2014is that its demise had nothing to do with the weaknesses of its planned economy or the tensions inherent in a multinational empire masquerading as a people\u2019s republic. In the telling of the Chinese Communist Party, the Soviet Union began to die the day Nikita Khrushchev denounced the cult of personality surrounding Joseph Stalin. Though the reformist policies of destalinization were only intended to strengthen the communist system by eliminating its errant and excessive aspects, it ended up eroding the foundation of the value system that made the USSR cohere. Once it became possible to question the party leadership, the Soviets lost the ability to shore up the \u201cideological security\u201d of their regime. In these circumstances, Chinese communists studying the USSR\u2019s dissolution now conclude, Gorbachev\u2019s decision to \u201copen\u201d the system and expose formerly culturally quarantined Soviet peoples to the enticements of the Western order was a suicide pact.<\/p>\n Xi Jinping endorsed this explanation for the Soviet collapse\u00a0in a 2013\u00a0<\/a>address to party cadres<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWhy did the Soviet Union disintegrate?\u201d he asked his audience. \u201cAn important reason is that in the ideological domain, competition is fierce!\u201d The party leadership is determined to avoid the Soviet mistake.\u00a0A leaked internal party directive from 2013<\/a>\u00a0describes \u201cthe very real threat of Western anti-China forces and their attempt at carrying out westernization\u201d within China. The directive describes the party as being in the midst of an \u201cintense, ideological struggle\u201d for survival. According to the directive, the ideas that threaten China with \u201cmajor disorder\u201d include concepts such as \u201cseparation of powers,\u201d \u201cindependent judiciaries,\u201d \u201cuniversal human rights,\u201d \u201cWestern freedom,\u201d \u201ccivil society,\u201d \u201ceconomic liberalism,\u201d \u201ctotal privatization,\u201d \u201cfreedom of the press,\u201d and \u201cfree flow of information on the internet.\u201d To allow the Chinese people to contemplate these concepts would \u201cdismantle [our] party\u2019s social foundation\u201d and jeopardize the party\u2019s aim to build a modern, socialist future.<\/p>\n Westerners asked to think about competition with China\u2014a minority until fairly recently, as many envisioned a China liberalized by economic integration\u2014tend to see it through a geopolitical or military lens. But Chinese communists believe that the greatest threat to the security of their party, the stability of their country, and China\u2019s return to its rightful place at the center of human civilization, is ideological. They are not fond of the military machines United States Pacific Command has arrayed against them, but what spooks them more than American weapons and soldiers are\u00a0ideas<\/em>\u2014hostile ideas they believe America has embedded in the discourse and institutions of the existing global order. \u201cInternational hostile forces [seek to] westernize and divide China\u201d warned former CPC General Secretary Jiang Zemin more than a decade ago [\u2026] Xi Jinping has endorsed this view, arguing that \u201csince the end of the Cold War countries affected by Western values have been torn apart by war or afflicted with chaos. If we tailor our practices to Western values … The consequences will be devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n But how exactly does one go about combating a values system? One could silence those who champion it. This is the repressive logic behind the vast system of censorship and surveillance the party has built to control the traffic of ideas among the Chinese people. As communist anxieties have intensified over the last decade this system grows more blood curdling: The Chinese internet has been\u00a0flooded with disinformation<\/a>; prominent\u00a0dissidents<\/a>,\u00a0journalists<\/a>,\u00a0lawyers<\/a>,\u00a0historians<\/a>,\u00a0academics<\/a>,\u00a0businessmen<\/a>, and\u00a0activists<\/a>\u00a0who have voiced opposition to Xi\u2019s program have been censored, imprisoned, and \u201cdisappeared\u201d;\u00a0universities<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0corporations<\/a>\u00a0have had party cells inserted within them; thousands of\u00a0churches<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0mosques<\/a>\u00a0across China have been demolished; and\u00a0somewhere close to a million<\/a>\u00a0Uighurs \u201cinfected with extremism<\/a>\u201d have been placed in concentration camps. [\u2026]<\/p>\n Though surprising to most Americans, the truth is that this was just an especially prominent example of a practice the party has long used to silence those who speak against it\u2014be they living inside\u00a0or<\/em>\u00a0outside of China. In its drive to control the outside world, the Chinese state has not hesitated to\u00a0threaten foreign companies with cyber attacks or hold their employees hostage<\/a>, cut\u00a0celebrities<\/a>,\u00a0corporations<\/a>,\u00a0industries<\/a>, and even\u00a0entire<\/a>\u00a0countries<\/a>\u00a0off from the Chinese market. They\u00a0bribe foreign<\/a>\u00a0government officials<\/a>,\u00a0buy foreign media<\/a>\u00a0organizations<\/a>,\u00a0astroturf protests<\/a>, stir up\u00a0online mobs<\/a>\u00a0against<\/a>\u00a0or send goons to personally intimidate prominent foreign\u00a0researchers<\/a>,\u00a0activists<\/a>, or\u00a0media personalities<\/a>.\u00a0Chinese diaspora communities<\/a>\u00a0have been especially vulnerable to these tactics. A cocktail of\u00a0surveillance<\/a>,\u00a0blackmail<\/a>,\u00a0harassment<\/a>,\u00a0intimidation<\/a>,\u00a0bribery<\/a>, and\u00a0threats<\/a>\u00a0to<\/a>\u00a0family<\/a>\u00a0members in<\/a>\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0have\u00a0silenced critics<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0brought one<\/a>\u00a0Western-based Chinese-language publication\u00a0<\/a>to toe the party line<\/a>\u00a0after another<\/a>. When the party has enough leverage to win the contest of ideas by silencing them at their source, they do so. [\u2026]<\/p>\n For the party, censorship of hostile ideas and intimidation of those who voice them is only a stopgap solution. To secure their victory, liberal values do not just need to be silenced. They must be\u00a0discredited.<\/em><\/p>\n The Chinese communists\u2019 plans to discredit and dismantle the liberal values baked into the existing global architecture are incredibly ambitious. They imagine a future reality where even the notion that China could be more successful, wealthy, or powerful if it were free would sound too ridiculous to take seriously. Xi Jinping has given a name to this future world. He\u00a0calls this vision<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca community of common destiny for mankind.\u201d This future community of nations would give Chinese communism the moral recognition it is now denied. The party-state would be lauded, in Xi\u2019s words, as a new \u201ccontribution to political civilization\u201d and a new chapter in \u201cthe history of the development of human society.\u201d Power blocs and existing military alliances would soon melt away as the various nations of the Earth are drawn into China\u2019s economic orbit. No country would be compelled to shift their regime to the Chinese model in this scenario, but most would recognize that the Chinese social and political system has \u201cdemonstrated socialism\u2019s superiority.\u201d Many would gladly adopt the tools Beijing has perfected to manage economic and political problems to shape their own societies. Democratization, free markets, and universal human rights would no longer be enshrined as the bedrock of the world\u2019s most important international institutions or be seen as the default standards of good governance. They would instead be reduced to a parochial tradition peculiar to a smattering of outcast Western nations. [\u2026]<\/p>\n The billions Chinese investors have plowed into infrastructure in developing countries under Xi\u2019s \u201cBelt and Road Initiative\u201d are a key part of this plan. Each BRI-branded project, the party hopes, moves humankind another step closer to a new global order organized around economic partnership with Beijing. In Xi\u2019s words, each is a chance to \u201cwelcome [other countries] aboard\u00a0our<\/em>\u00a0development train.\u201d<\/p>\n China\u2019s grandstanding in favor of trade and against protectionism is similarly motivated. By increasing China\u2019s economic integration with the world, Xi has argued, \u201cthe world also deepened its dependence on China.\u201d As the largest trading partner of most the globe, Xi believes that China is finally positioned to begin to \u201ctransform the global governance system\u201d and shape the \u201cnew mechanisms and rules\u201d that will determine \u201cthe long-term systemic arrangement of the international order.\u201d<\/p>\n Xi does not expect this contest over the future world order to be resolved quickly. In 2013 he warned cadres that \u201cfor a fairly long time yet, socialism in its primary stage will exist alongside a more productive and developed capitalist system … [And there will be a] long period of cooperation and of conflict between these two social systems\u201d before China has \u201cthe dominant position.\u201d [\u2026] To make that future a reality requires convincing the world that,\u00a0in the words of Yang Jiechi<\/a>, \u201cWestern governance concepts, systems, and models [no longer] grasp the new international situation or keep up with the times.\u201d Only when the world is persuaded that Yang is correct\u2014that liberal ideals like pluralism, individual rights, and constitutional government are anachronisms of a past age incapable of solving 21st-century problems\u2014will Chinese communists no longer fear that their bid to restore China to greatness will be derailed by the ideological plots of their enemies.<\/p>\n From this context many actions taken by the Chinese party-state suddenly make more sense. The PRC\u2019s decision to allow Chinese diplomats and propaganda accounts\u00a0to spread anti-American coronavirus conspiracies<\/a>, for example, are hard to understand until you realize that the people spreading these conspiracies believe they are engaged in an \u201cideological struggle\u201d with the values of a hostile liberal order. The stakes of this struggle could not be higher: They believe that the future of the global order and the survival of their regime is at stake. Americans should not be surprised when they act like it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Chinese Communist Party leadership believe they are in the midst of an \u2018intense, ideological struggle\u2019 for survival and that to win they must defeat the West TANNER GREER MAY 17, 2020 [Taken from https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/news\/articles\/china-plans-global-order ] The People’s Republic of China now commands the world’s largest population, its second-largest economy, and a military-industrial complex and … Sigue leyendo China\u2019s Plans to Win Control of the Global Order<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4666,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions\/4666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}