Communist China’s October Congress

Here comes China’s top holiday – a celebration of Communism’s universal repression for the public good, the glorious “Democratic-Socialist” way of life – systematic repression of speech, worship, minorities, women, travel, self-defense, privacy, security at home, selectively applied justice, no appeals, dissident persecution, one-party rule, privilege, and justified lies. You guessed it – this is the Chinese Communist Party’s 20^th National Congress, October 16.

This year, things will be clear – as always. Repression’s benefits will be celebrated with a chorus of approval, or else. Lifetime leader Mr. Xi – like Caesar and the Soviets – will collect accolades and make his pronouncements of Chinese superiority and Communism’s inevitability. Stalin did that, too.

Based on recent rhetoric, China’s global dominance will loom big, people told to keep sacrificing their work, self-value, unborn children, Western rights, privacy, prosperity, faith, “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” for the greater good – of society and their selfless, rich leaders.

Expect to see 2,200 delegates, “representing” 96 million party members,” in a nation of 1.4 billion – disenfranchised, hoping not to get the knock at night, expecting nothing, no assets.

While the pretense of a “Congress” is to prevent a “cult of the personality” like Mao, they celebrate Mao. Xi looks up to him. Mao, of course, looked up to Stalin, both killing wildly.

Never mind. The Communist Congress is like Christmas, except for no hope, joy, faith, tolerance, religion, salvation, gifts, gratitude, or sense that the individual counts in God’s eyes or State’s. Other than that, it is Christmas – with promises of coal.

To get a feel for where one-party government leads, the big accomplishment in 2017 was to get approval for a “dogma” called “Xi Jinping Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” It was put in the Chinese Constitution – the way packing the Supreme Court would put pro-abortion “dogma” in our Constitution, to “live large” in Senator Feinstein’s famous phrase.

President Xi and President Biden have something else in common besides power consolidation and a special relationship with Hunter. Age. By tradition, Xi was supposed to retire at 68, but he mandated he keep himself on, so he did. Biden seems on a similar path.

More seriously, big issues lie before the Communist Congress this year. China’s indebted economy, Xi’s sliding foreign policy, and his recurring pitch for global dominance.

While the US economy sputters thanks to Biden’s energy and inflation policies, Xi has ramped up fossil fuels, especially coal. He is selling cars at breakneck speed, two percent electric. He produces 2.5 times the carbon emissions of the US. He is clever like a fox. Biden thinks he is a climate change guy and Xi tells Biden how smart he is to clamp down on energy independence.

Yeah…might be a good Communist Congress, or might not. The rub is that China’s population is restless. Mortgages ripped out from under them in 200 cities, corruption everywhere, the economy in debt, suppressing the Internet, cities locked down, surveillance unceasing, and watching the pants fall down on China’s Belt-and-Road initiative.

Perhaps the biggest thing, beyond gratuitous “hat tips” to Hunter’s dad, is foreign policy. China paired with Russia and then – invited to a “small incursion” – Putin bounced into and out of Ukraine. This did not play well in China.

On foreign policy, the truth is China wants to win and bury the West, just as Khrushchev wanted to – the way Reagan buried the Soviets – only this time, China is playing every chess piece to its advantage.

What is more, the Communist Chinese are smarter that the Soviets were. They’re more savvy and rich on Western money, the way Biden paid Iran for lots of nothing. China knows what our latest National Security Policy says – being announced just last week. 

Biden’s strategy says China is a mere “competitor,” naively hoping for a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is one big diplomatic curtsy. Only that does not work except in movies – seldom there.

Reimagining China as an potential ally, just a “different way” of seeing human rights, is to imagine they are a legitimate form of government – useless. Like the Taliban laughing at Biden’s tail-between-legs scamper and Saudi’s laughing at his begging, China knows Biden.

China knows we are locked adversaries, at loggerheads, one system favoring individual freedom, equality, human rights, constitutional order, moral norms, limited government, and the other power.

So, watch the rhetoric at this 2022 Communist Congress, even with internal Chinese weakness, wobbly economy, and foreign policy. They know Biden can be manipulated and they are at it.

Net-net, these are dangerous times. The reality is this: China is a head-to-head challenger on ideology and trade. We did not create ideological conflict but empowered their economy.

All that said, China is our adversary, do not think otherwise. They see themselves as our enemy in waiting. Xi’s world is a zero-sum, one wins, one loses. We need to take stock. On the military side, the “Chinese Dream” and “American Dream” are opposed. And their holidays are not ours.