[The Epoch Times, July 28, 2024](Interview and report by Epoch Times special reporters Chang Chun and Li Yuanming) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has increasingly emerged as the greatest threat to democratic nations. For the past fifty years, how has the CCP managed to successfully mislead Western democracies, particularly the United States? How did the democratic world in China awaken? Zhou Xiao, a tenured professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Hawaii and a PhD in political science from Princeton University, recently gave an exclusive interview to reporters.
The CCP’s Deceptive Foreign Propaganda and Its Use of Left-Wing Media and Intellectuals
When discussing the ways in which the CCP deceives Western democracies, Dr. Zhou Xiao first addressed the historical context of the Chinese Communist Party. Initially, the CCP exploited the international communist movement in the Soviet Union to mislead Western democracies. However, after the Soviet famine of the 1930s resulted in a loss of credibility for Soviet Russia, the CCP turned to the United Front, leftist media, and intellectuals to continue deceiving the Western left.
“French scholar Raymond Aron articulated it well: Marxism is like opium for intellectuals. The CCP has long formed alliances with Western leftist media and intellectuals, compelling Chiang Kai-shek to cease a series of anti-communist encirclements and suppression actions against the Communist Party,” Zhou Xiao stated.
For instance, Zhou Xiao noted that Anna Louise Strong’s description of Mao Zedong’s notion that “imperialism is a paper tiger” was introduced by Liu Shaoqi, and she authored an article on Mao Zedong Thought, becoming the first foreigner to elevate this concept to a theoretical framework.
Agnes Smedley played another significant role by collaborating with Zhou Enlai to report on the Xi’an Incident, an event that shocked both China and abroad, fundamentally altering the nation’s fate. When Zhang Xueliang relocated to Hawaii, Zhou Xiao interviewed him, and Zhang expressed feelings of betrayal.
Why do Western intellectuals engage in this behavior? Zhou Xiao explained that they sympathized with Mao Zedong’s peasant revolution, leading them to form a concept of private property that provided the foundation for legitimizing revolution and violence. Consequently, this extensive external propaganda aligned with the Communist Party’s political actions aimed at portraying it in a favorable light. Zhou Enlai utilized the Southern Anhui Incident to supply intelligence to the White House via Smedley and leveraged it to publish the “truth” regarding the Southern Anhui Incident in American media, thereby hindering U.S. assistance to Chiang Kai-shek’s China.
Zhou Xiao remarked, “The Chinese Communist Party employs deceptive propaganda and collaborates with leftist media and intellectuals to depict the Kuomintang as corrupt and chaotic. The Communist Party’s agenda is to lower rents, taxes, and interest rates while raising production levels and addressing wealth disparity. This utopian ideal had already captivated the understanding of the Chinese Communist Party among American intellectual elites before the civil war. Thus, this deception was quite alarming. For example, John Fairbank of Harvard University suggested that the Chinese Revolution was irresistible.”
“Zhou Enlai often visited the U.S. Embassy, which made the United States more sympathetic to the Communist cause at that time. They believed that the Chinese Communist Party was distinct from the Soviet Communist Party and represented a democratic force in rural China. An alliance with the Communist Party was seen as advantageous for the United States and their fight against Japan. The U.S. was unified in this front. Just as Sun Yat-sen had allied with Russia and the Communist Party, the CCP’s military strength and Soviet support rapidly expanded.”
An additional aspect is the so-called correct revolutionary line domestically. Zhou Xiao stated that “revolutionaries” united with farmers who sought to escape poverty, spending decades vanquishing all opponents within and outside the party, thus creating a vast Mao Zedong revolution.
For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, Joan Robinson, a leader of the New Cambridge School, participated in a military parade with Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square, becoming an ardent supporter of China’s communist revolution, increasingly distancing herself from the Nobel Prize in Economics due to her anti-capitalist and liberal stances.
“Hence, I contend that whether referring to China’s leaders, the Communist Party, or the Western leftists who ally with them, the primary action these individuals take for their ideals is to deceive, in order to uphold their imagined utopia,” Zhou Xiao explained.
Post-“Reform and Opening Up”: “Blue and Gold” Used to Penetrate the West
Following the so-called reform and opening up, the CCP employed the slogan of “peaceful rise” to mislead the West. Zhou Xiao explained that “peaceful rise” was aimed at foreign audiences, using alluring language to entice multinational corporations to invest in China. Through initiatives like the Thousand Talents Plan and the Confucius Institute, it infiltrated various sectors including politics, economics, culture, science, technology, and academia, particularly in the United States. This ultimately led to political intervention in democratic nations and created a favorable political climate for the CCP’s development.
For example, Chinese media have long placed paid illustration advertisements in major newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to promote their narrative externally. Xinhua News Agency typically utilizes China Watch and China Focus for its advertisements. Even advertisements in Times Square in New York City have provided the Communist Party with essential propaganda and editorial content.
Documents from the U.S. Department of Justice in June 2020 reveal that since November 2016, the English version of the CCP’s official media, China Daily, has spent over 19 million yuan in printing and advertising fees with U.S. media, including more than 11 million U.S. dollars on established outlets such as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Zhou Xiao explained that the Communist Party’s United Front has utilized “blue, gold, and yellow” strategies to infiltrate the West long-term. They have used monetary influence to penetrate major Western media, universities, and intellectual circles. Numerous instances of these “blue, gold, and yellow” strategies have occurred, facilitating various espionage activities. The operatives are no longer just active-duty military spies but have taken on roles as businessmen, professors, and international students, bribing and courting leaders of democratic nations.
“Blue, Gold, and Yellow” represents a range of tactics employed by the CCP in its global united front work. Blue refers to high-tech methods for stealing or surveillance. Gold denotes bribery, using money to gain influence. Yellow implies the active distribution of attractive individuals or involvement in illicit activities to coerce compliance.
Zhou Xiao provided an example, saying that a Chinese student could bribe several influential state officials in California, or utilize donations from the overseas Chinese community to persuade pro-CCP individuals to enter Congress, thereby bribing local politicians in Los Angeles.
Zhai Dongsheng, the deputy dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University, once spoke in a video about China’s influence on the American power elite, stating that “we have our old friends” within the core circles of power in the U.S. who can sway American politics and China policy.
Zhou Xiao noted that a new element called the “green gold plan” has emerged, which involves utilizing illegal organ transplant banks to enable politicians from various countries to receive organ transplants in China without long waiting periods when faced with health issues. The CCP leverages this situation to exert control over its adversaries.
America Awakens from the CCP’s Deception
Since the Trump administration, U.S. policy towards China has undergone significant alterations, culminating in a trade war between the U.S. and China that has continued through the Biden administration. There is now a shared consensus across both political parties in the U.S. and even throughout American society. Zhou Xiao believes three primary factors contributed to the awakening of the U.S. to the CCP’s deceptions.
Zhou Xiao reflected that initially, many believed that China’s reforms and opening up would gradually steer the country towards democracy. The general sentiment was that famed economist Milton Friedman’s visit would usher in economic freedom, inevitably leading to democracy, similar to Chile.
The events of June 4, 1989, marked the first significant moment of awareness for Americans. Following these events, twenty Western nations imposed economic sanctions on the Communist Party and ceased selling advanced weaponry. However, a group of business leaders still held a deep admiration for China, perceiving it as distinct from the Soviet Union—a mystical kingdom yet to be reached by the light of democracy. Hence, even after the events of 1989, individuals like Bush sought to engage with China.
During this period, Taiwanese businessmen flocked to China to capitalize on opportunities. As discussions arose labeling Taiwan as China’s adversary, many Taiwanese individuals chose to invest in China, reinforcing the belief that China was different from the Soviet Union. Gradually, Japanese and American entrepreneurs began to enter the Chinese market, until China joined the WTO and ultimately emerged as a major economic power rivaling the United States.
Post-WTO entry, China failed to align certain policies with WTO requirements, fostering perceptions of its resurgence and the West’s decline. China did not feel its ascent depended on the West, thus aggressively utilized economic and trade means as political instruments aimed at fulfilling its national political and military ambitions.
“This mirrors the Nazis’ tactics, employing unfair means such as restricting market access, creating dependence, manipulating global industrial chains, and stealing intellectual property and advanced technology to undermine opponents and gain strategic advantages,” Zhou Xiao argued.
Zhou Xiao believes that the protectionist tendencies observed in both current presidential candidates reflect a shared viewpoint. The liberalization of imports, especially from China, has drastically diminished U.S. manufacturing, prompting Trump to run a campaign focusing on opposing China (CCP) and globalization, which contributed significantly to his selection for the White House in 2016.
The second factor was the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan in 2019. The CCP’s concealment of facts and delays in response exacerbated the global spread of the virus.
“Countless lives have been lost, yet the Chinese Communist Party has exploited this epidemic to disseminate misinformation, employing ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy to substitute normal diplomatic interactions, wrongfully attributing the virus’s origins to the United States, attempting to evade accountability, and utilizing every means possible to hide the truth. They obstructed the World Health Organization and other governments from investigating the virus’s origin and uncovering critical information regarding Patient Zero and the situation at the epidemic’s onset. Their control is formidable,” Zhou Xiao explained.
“Gradually, awareness has dawned that the Chinese Communist Party bears significant responsibility for the global outbreak. Presently, 80% of Japanese individuals and over 70% of Americans hold negative views of the Chinese Communist Party, prompting the Democratic Party to alter its policies as well.”
“Xi Jinping has utilized government control during the epidemic to violently seize citizens’ property and suppress human rights through an authoritative and centrally planned economy. Even Western governments began drawing inspiration from China’s strategies at that time, enforcing vaccinations and mandating home isolation for primary and secondary students, a situation that completely challenges the principles of liberalism—resulting in the CCP virus existing in two forms: a real virus and a political virus.”
“This political virus promotes utopianism, not just in China but internationally, representing two simultaneous invasive viruses that are gradually becoming visible to the general populace.”
Why are both U.S. political parties united in opposing the CCP? Zhou Xiao believes the third aspect contributing to this unification is the Xi Jinping regime’s unwavering support for Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, reflecting a lack of moral integrity in supporting expansive aggression. This position has drawn condemnation not only from the United States but also from other Western nations, with the possible exception of Hungary, leading to the CCP’s heightened isolation.
Editor in charge: Sun Yun#
The Chinese Communist Party’s Deception: A Threat to the Democratic World
The Epoch Times, July 28, 2024 (Interview and report by Epoch Times special reporters Chang Chun and Li Yuanming) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has increasingly posed as the greatest threat to the democratic world. For over half a century, the CCP has successfully deceived Western democracies, particularly the United States. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Zhou Xiao, a tenured professor at the University of Hawaii, discusses the CCP’s tactics and the awakening of the democratic world in relation to China.
The CCP’s Deceptive Foreign Propaganda
According to Dr. Zhou Xiao, the CCP’s manipulation of Western perceptions began with the international communist movement influenced by the Soviet Union. Initially, the CCP exploited the Western idealism of left-wing intellectuals to further its cause. The use of propaganda was key.
Partnership with Left-Wing Media
Notable figures such as French scholar Raymond Aron highlighted the allure of Marxism among intellectuals, which the CCP adeptly took advantage of. Zhou Xiao explained how foreign leftist media and intellectuals helped portray the CCP as a legitimate revolutionary force.
Strategic Manipulation of Historical Events
Examples include Anna Louise Strong’s promotion of Mao Zedong’s ideology and Agnes Smedley’s collaboration with Zhou Enlai to influence Western narratives about the Chinese political landscape. Such alliances enabled the CCP to craft a favorable image while undermining its opponents.
The “Peaceful Rise” Narrative
Following the “Reform and Opening Up” policy, the CCP adopted the phrase “peaceful rise” to mislead international observers and attract foreign investment. Dr. Zhou emphasized the methodology behind this propaganda strategy, including:
- Thousand Talents Plan: Aimed at enticing skilled professionals into China.
- Confucius Institutes: Established worldwide to promote Chinese culture while subtlely spreading propaganda.
- Paid Advertisements: The CCP strategically placed paid content in major Western media outlets like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
The CCP’s Infiltration Tactics: “Blue, Gold, Yellow”
The CCP’s strategy, referred to as “blue, gold, yellow,” encompasses
| Color | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Blue | High-tech espionage and monitoring. |
| Gold | Bribery to influence Western politicians and institutions. |
| Yellow | Using sexual favors or compromising situations for political leverage. |
Awakening of the American Consciousness
Dr. Zhou believes that significant shifts in U.S.-China relations mark a collective awakening regarding the CCP’s deception. Key events that catalyzed this change include:
- The Tiananmen Square Protests (1989): Sparked international outrage and condemnation.
- China’s Entry into the WTO (2001): This event led many to originally believe it signaled a shift toward democratic reforms in China.
- The COVID-19 Pandemic: The CCP’s handling of the pandemic heightened global awareness of its authoritarian tendencies.
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan and the subsequent concealment of information by the CCP significantly shifted public opinion in the United States. Zhou Xiao elaborates on several impacts:
- Mass fatalities and the CCP’s responsibility became apparent.
- The political narrative surrounding the pandemic began to change, leading to a growing bipartisan stance against the CCP.
- The pandemic proved how the CCP used the crisis to suppress dissent and tighten its grip on power.
Conclusion
Dr. Zhou concludes that the combination of historical propaganda, new infiltration tactics, and recent geopolitical events has positioned the CCP not just as a revolutionary force but as a direct threat to democratic ideals globally. The coordinated response from the U.S. and its allies underscores a broader understanding of the nuances of the CCP’s influence and behavior.
