Misconceptions about China

In the West, there are some misconceptions about China. The below is how we address them according to our personal understanding. Hopefully it can be helpful to others.

We understand China's human rights situation. But US-China relations are very complicated. There are many other aspects that we have to consider, too.

-From what someone does at home, we can predict what he will do in the community. If a regime harvests organs from its own innocent citizens, how can we expect it to respect lives in other countries and be a responsible member of the international community? The CCP's interference with the UN's efforts in Darfur is an example.

-Human rights is fundamental to many other problems that we are having with China. No human rights, no labor rights. One major reason for the huge U.S.-China trade deficit is the cheap labor in China, which is a direct result of inadequate labor rights in China. This arrangement is harmful to both the Chinese people and the American people.

-You must have seen the news about contaminated food and drugs from China. Although this is the first time that it has reached Western society, it has been going on in China for years. It is just one manifestation of the moral degradation in China due to decades of CCP rule. When those who believe in "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance" are being persecuted, what are the Chinese allowed to believe in? If we keep on ignoring the human rights situation in China, more and more such problems will come out of China to harm us.

-China's economy is growing and the country will, in the long run, gradually become more free and more democratic.

-As the articles "China's Stubborn Anti-Democracy" in the "Policy Review" and "Shining Model of Wealth Without Liberty" in the Washington Post point out, trade by itself can't liberalize China, and a strong authoritarian regime can co-exist with a booming economy.

-On the other hand, we have seen US companies (Google, Yahoo, Cisco, Microsoft) bow to the CCP and compromise their values and principles. This is an example of how US businesses are changed by the CCP, the reverse of what we had hoped for. The US can't sacrifice its founding principles when engaging with China.

China has changed. It is no longer a communist regime. It is rising "peacefully."

-Internally, the CCP is still persecuting mainstream Chinese people, including Falun Gong and other religious groups, political dissidents, independent journalist, etc. The CCP still tightly controls and censors all media and the Internet.

-Externally, on May 11, 2006, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the leading research institute of the communist government in the People's Republic of China (PRC), issued the first Yellow Book on Socialism in the World. It laid out the Chinese strategy to spread socialism worldwide and replace the United States as leader of the world in the 21st century.

-As the articles "The Chip on China's Shoulder" in The New York Times and "Beijing Produces Videos Glorifying Terrorist Attack on 'Arrogant' US" in the Telegraph point out, China's communist regime intentionally brainwashes the Chinese people with nationalistic and anti-US propaganda through carefully crafted media campaigns.

-The CCP's military spending is much higher than reported. One of the top ranked Chinese military generals, Zhu Chenghu, publicly claimed in 2005 that if the US dares to intervene in the Taiwan strait affairs, China will start a nuclear war against the US. In early 2007, the CCP shot down a satellite. All of these raise serious security concerns for the US and nearby nations.

We don't want China to collapse catastrophically; that would cause huge problems for the US

-China and the CCP are two different entities. The disintegration of the CCP will not cause China to collapse. Among the leaders of China there are also good persons of conscience, many of whom have already quit the Party with pseudonyms. As the Nine Commentaries points out, China's ruling structure has both a government system and a party system. The party system is attached to and sits above the government system, and permeates into every corner of society. Disintegration of the party system will not cause the collapse of the government system. On the contrary, the end of communism in China will also bring an end to most (if not all) of the social and economic problems in China, as well as problems in US-China relations.

-China's economic growth has mainly enriched party officials and the elite, while the vast majority of the population has not gained much from it at all. The New York Times reported that there were 87,000 riots in China in 2005. And this number increases every year. The huge social disparity, the extreme corruption of party officials, the growing resentment among the people, the almost irrevocable damage to the ecology and environment, the deterioration of moral values, and the US- China trade deficit are all intensifying as the communist regime continues. The sooner the CCP is dissolved, the less China and the rest of the world will have to recover from.

-The current movement to spread the Nine Commentaries and encourage people to withdraw from the CCP is a peaceful approach for China to move away from communism. It is making the Chinese people ideologically and spiritually ready for a new, free China. It will also disintegrate the party culture and lead people on the path to revive authentic Chinese culture.

-The dissolution of the CCP is historically inevitable. It is only a matter of time. For a country as large as China, the main force of change has to come from within. And that is exactly what is happening right now. If the US doesn't want to miss this historic moment and would like to become an ally of the Chinese people and of the future, free China, the US needs to support those who are quitting the CCP and encourage the free flow of information into China with funds and support.