As the People's Republic of China commemorates its 70th anniversary, as many as 80 million Chinese will not be around to observe the festivities.
Some will argue that Mao was an aberration and it is unfair to condemn the Chinese Communist Party for his excesses in the 1960s and '70s. Yet it is inconveniently true that his Thought and Teachings are still revered as gospel in communist doctrine today; his embalmed body lies in state in Beijing's Tiananmen Square; and his portrait dominates that special space at China's governmental epicenter.
Deng convinced the international community that a new China was just over the horizon as he encouraged Western investment in the Chinese economy.
Still, with Chinese and world public opinion clearly behind him, eager to support the next phase of China's return to normalcy, Deng suddenly reverted to true communist form, rejecting any notion that governing legitimacy should be based on popular will and the consent of the governed.
The initial outcry would not last long, given the allure of the Chinese market and the propensity of Western governments and scholars to give China's communist leaders the benefit of the doubt and explain away even its humanitarian outrages.
In recent years, Beijing revealed the full scope of its ambitions by taking a page from the expansionist playbook of Imperialist Japan in the 1930s and '40s. Even as it constantly stokes the embers of World War II to keep nationalist resentments smoldering, Beijing emulates the last century's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere with its nine-dash-line claim to the entire South China Sea, its land features and its vast natural resources.
Oct. 1 is an unhappy birthday for China and the world.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/463620-after-70-years-chinese-communism-threatens-the-world-more-than-ever
Some will argue that Mao was an aberration and it is unfair to condemn the Chinese Communist Party for his excesses in the 1960s and '70s. Yet it is inconveniently true that his Thought and Teachings are still revered as gospel in communist doctrine today; his embalmed body lies in state in Beijing's Tiananmen Square; and his portrait dominates that special space at China's governmental epicenter.
Deng convinced the international community that a new China was just over the horizon as he encouraged Western investment in the Chinese economy.
Still, with Chinese and world public opinion clearly behind him, eager to support the next phase of China's return to normalcy, Deng suddenly reverted to true communist form, rejecting any notion that governing legitimacy should be based on popular will and the consent of the governed.
The initial outcry would not last long, given the allure of the Chinese market and the propensity of Western governments and scholars to give China's communist leaders the benefit of the doubt and explain away even its humanitarian outrages.
In recent years, Beijing revealed the full scope of its ambitions by taking a page from the expansionist playbook of Imperialist Japan in the 1930s and '40s. Even as it constantly stokes the embers of World War II to keep nationalist resentments smoldering, Beijing emulates the last century's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere with its nine-dash-line claim to the entire South China Sea, its land features and its vast natural resources.
Oct. 1 is an unhappy birthday for China and the world.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/463620-after-70-years-chinese-communism-threatens-the-world-more-than-ever
No comments:
Post a Comment