Communist Party ambition has no boundaries

Part three of three

China’s aggressiveness is destabilizing what passes for today’s world order, but Communist Party leaders fear their own overthrow more than they do foreign conflicts.

In fact, since a virulent pro-Communist Party xenophobia would be fed by foreign conflicts, they might even be seen as desirable. In such skewed political calculations, World Wars can emerge. The Communist Party leadership has no first-hand experience with the many hard-won lessons that the U.S. and the USSR learned during the Cold War. Both Americans and Soviets developed the wisdom to play out the conflict of personal freedom vs. central control without sparking an atomic armageddon.

Instead of this legacy of careful Cold War balance, the Communist Party hearkens back to the late-19th Century Great Power aggressiveness that ultimately provoked the First World War. Like these industrial empires, today’s Communist Party sees the world as an arena of cutthroat competition, where for China to rise others must fall. This Social Darwinism suffuses their popular culture as well as their national policy. In the struggle for survival, conflict is inevitable and no policy can be seen as too violent or extreme so long as it is effective.

What is alive and well in Communist Party leadership is the traditions of Mao Zedong, which Xi Jinping is self-consciously emulating; even to the extent of having himself named “Chairman.” Mao’s rule involved the intentional murder of 80 to 120 million Chinese in peacetime. His “Great Leap Forward” caused purposeful starvation, and his “Cultural Revolution” destroyed almost every human relationship and tradition that pre-dated his rule. To put this into perspective, Hitler’s rule murdered from 15 to 20 million victims and Stalin’s rule murdered from 20 to 60 million victims. Absolutely nothing was allowed to stand in the way of Mao’s ambitions, which made him by far the worst mass-murderer in human history.

As we contemplate the legacy of 70 years of Communist Party rule, Americans and others from around the world should consider this newest threat to human dignity and freedom. The ambition of the Communist Party has no boundaries, and their desperation about being overthrown has no limits. Mao’s legacy is of total control, and today’s technology makes this vision of a human hive more possible than ever before. The market reforms that have made China wealthy are limited by Party policy, much as Cartel Capitalism in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The prospects of the global market producing continuing improvement in living standards is dim, fueling Communist Party fears.

Finally, generations of “one couple-one child” has destroyed the traditional heart of Chinese culture, the family. Simultaneously, this policy has resulted in a massive surplus of military-aged men. Such circumstances may entice the Communist Party to risk war to achieve both domestic and foreign objectives. Late-19th Century Imperialism in the nuclear age makes what should be unthinkable possible.

Taken together, this 70-year legacy means that the Communist Party should be subject to the closest scrutiny, and their adventurism overseas should be opposed with the utmost seriousness. Commercial and technological ties should be carefully reevaluated. And, all of us should hope that one day the people of China will throw off the shackles of Communist rule and claim their rightful place alongside the free peoples of the world.

- • •

Ralph K. Ginorio teaches history at Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy. His take on what’s next for China will be published online this weekend.