Churchill warned us about the Soviets. If alive today, he would warn about China. China is telling us all we need to know. They are coming for us, so be ready.
Every five years China’s Communist Party gathers to set policy, worship Communist leaders, vanquish critics, make clear who is in charge. That just happened, and it sounds as much like Stalin as Stalin ever did. Worse, it sounds like things we are hearing closer to home.
China’s permanent leader, Xi Jinping, made clear critics are unwelcome, demonized, removed, disappeared. He removed one during the event. He made clear China expects to dominate. He made clear there is only one Party, Communist, and he is leader.
In true Soviet spirit, Xi wants “a more egalitarian economy,” but without capitalism, Christians, Jews, Muslims, equality, free speech, freedom from persecution, fair trial, or liberty. Nada.
Criticize him, or Communism, or the State, or dare to speak for liberty, ask about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, seek more children – let alone talk “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” – and you are likely to be an “enemy of the state,” detained, interrogated, your home invaded, things taken, you arrested, maybe even “disappeared.” That’s how Communism works.
Mr. Xi’s power quest does not stop at home. He aims for “a first-rate military,” to advance Communist China’s long term aims, which keep getting closer. He demands “more fighting spirit” from China’s Communists. He has now set up “service centers” in America and the West.
He demands a bolder embrace of the personality cult, saying the Party “must more consciously uphold Comrade Xi Jinping’s stature as the core of the Party center and the core of the entire Party.” In other words, if you must worship, make it Communism and the Party leader.
At XI’s direction, “countervailing influences” who question Communist policies – or are suspected of doing so – were dismissed. Getting the Party’s evil eye were contenders for power, including number two Communist, Premier Li Keqiang, disinvited.
Those in their 60’s and early 70’s were ousted for “age,” despite Mr. Xi being 69. If age is the real problem, Xi must have strong opinions about Biden, almost 80, who forgets where he is.
The Party had other business, and Mr. Xi sounds more like Stalin with each new decade. Big news included a new “anti-corruption czar,” close to Xi, and a “disciplinary commission,” plus choosing “the next Politburo” by a group “packed with Mr. Xi’s allies.”
Eerie how much of Chinese rhetoric shows up in Biden’s speeches, making critics “enemies of the State,” turning the Justice Department into a “disciplinary commission” for “anti-corruption,” urging his party members to “pack” institutions to produce pre-set political outcomes.
But China is on a rip, despite a weak economy. Old ways were rubber stamped, including “non-election elections,” sanitizing brutality for progress, elevating one-party control. They then affirmed preparation to battle the US militarily, ideologically, and economically – using our democratic openness to push their victory.
Xi reportedly sees a “showdown” with the US as likely, another reason he is now embarked on an unprecedented third term as the nation’s supreme leader, glibly quoting Mao – who killed tens of millions: “Don’t fight unsure wars, and don’t fight unprepared battles.” In other words, win.
Stalin’s famous quotes are the naked truth about Communism – Soviet and Maoist. Mao built Chinese Communism on the Soviet model, departing only to accelerate his consolidation, coercion, and killing in the name of “progress for The People,” a “Green Revolution.”
Said Stalin, freshly relevant: “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” He added: “Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands, and at whom it is aimed.” And: “Death of one man is a tragedy – death of millions is a statistic.”
Is it not interesting that Mao revered Stalin, Xi reveres Mao, Xi is on the march, and Biden’s team, when not giving Xi compliments, is just plain silent, or dubs critics “enemies of the state”?
Of course, liberty-centered Americans are hardly pliant, not cowed Communists. Our Bill of Rights is real, will stay so if elections are kept fair, our Supreme Court left un-packed, governors defend States’ rights, and voters step up to say, “leave us alone!”
The remarkable thing about China’s Communist Congress was not the boldness of a one-party state redefining, demoting, and oppressing in the name of “progress.” It is not the summary way people “disappeared.” It is not even the speed of China’s ambitions. It is our silence.
As China’s Communists declared an intent to wage ideological, economic, and military conflict with us, there was no Reagan-like, Truman-like, Kennedy-like response. Why not? Where is the joining of battle, defense of freedom, democracy, the two-party system, with all its benefits? Nowhere.
And that is why China is on a rip, why they are rising in global eyes and their own, so sobering. If America stays silent, bows and courtesies, steps gingerly around China’s illegitimate Communist ideology, China wins. Where is Biden? Nowhere. Churchill and Reagan had it right: Freedom requires a fight. Engaged, do not walk away. China is coming.