- FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES - Matt Pottinger China Program Chairman - FEB 28, 2023 -
Chairman Gallagher, Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi, and distinguished members of the Select Committee: If any of the Xi Jinping quotations I just displayed in that three-minute film surprised you, you are far from alone.
INTRODUCTION
That’s because China’s supreme leader and the Party he commands are masters at disguising their true intentions. They are masters at presenting an illusory image to the outside world while speaking, planning and acting in very different ways behind closed doors. Those quotations you saw, some of them from once-secret speeches and internal textbooks, are but a few reflections of what Chinese Communist Party (CCP) really thinks. The success the CCP has enjoyed presenting itself as constructive, cooperative, responsible, normal, is one of the great magic tricks of the modern era. Chairman Xi might actually agree on that point: He refers to the Party’s propaganda and influence activities as a “magic weapon” for advancing his regime’s interests. You could say the CCP is the Harry Houdini of Marxist-Leninist regimes; the David Copperfield of Communism; the Chris Angel of autocracy.
Dual messaging—that is, deceptive external propaganda for foreign ears twinned with authoritative internal-facing guidance for CCP members—comes naturally to the CCP. Here are just a few recent examples:
On Friday, Chinese leaders outwardly urged “peace talks” to resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine.[1] At the same time, however, Beijing was conniving internally to provide Moscow with lethal arms[2] that would prolong the most destructive European conflict since World War II. Publicly, Beijing feigns neutrality with calls for “respecting the sovereignty of all countries.” Behind closed doors, it has described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “a counterattack” and “the only action that could be taken.”[3]
In December, Beijing announced “boosting domestic demand” and “confidence” as the top economic priority for 2023, which drove a stock market rally. Beijing dispatched emissaries to Davos to reassure international business leaders that the “rectification” campaigns that have obliterated many private businesses across China over the past couple of years are mostly over. Internally, however, Xi Jinping simultaneously issued an authoritative set of “side notes” that weren’t translated into English, and which call for deepening the Party-state’s control over Chinese companies. “[I]t is necessary to strengthen the Party’s overall leadership over economic work and adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping’s economic thought,” the document intoned.
At the 20th Party Congress in October, as Xi awarded himself a second decade as China’s most powerful dictator since Mao Zedong, external-facing propaganda made comforting references to “Reform and Opening.” Internally, however, Xi was revising the Communist Party Charter to emphasize the Marxist-Leninist concept of “struggle”—that process of identifying, isolating, and mobilizing against the Party’s domestic and foreign adversaries.
Beijing’s doublethink[4] is ubiquitous once you learn how to spot it. Concentration camps holding more than a million ethnic Uyghurs and other minorities are called “vocational training schools.” Beijing’s dismantling of the rule of law in Hong Kong and the jailing of local journalists is passed off as “one country, two systems.” The use of covert operations to interfere in foreign elections[5] is hidden behind slogans advocating “a community of common destiny for mankind.” Special units of China’s premier spy agency which infiltrate and influence U.S. scholarly and policymaking circles are called “think tanks” and “civil-society organizations.”[6]
Even a great magician would agree, however, that sleight of hand works best when the audience indulges a willingness to suspend disbelief. For too long, too many of us in the United States have done just that: We’ve indulged the wishful view that if we open our markets wider to China, transfer more of our technology, invest greater sums of money, and train more Chinese technocrats, government scientists, and military officers, we might finally persuade China’s leaders to see the world how we do. A policy of engagement, we told ourselves, would result sooner or later in the liberalization of China’s economy, society, and perhaps even its politics.
Given our remarkable, peaceful triumph over the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War three decades ago, it was once reasonable for us to believe Communism wouldn’t last all that much longer in China either. But Chinese leaders, we now know, have shown tremendous determination to avoid the fate of the Soviet Union, less by emulating democracies these days than by exploiting, outmaneuvering, and undermining them.
There’s no longer any excuse for being fooled about Beijing’s intentions. The canon of Chairman Xi’s publicly available statements is too voluminous, and the accumulated actions of his regime too brazen, to be misunderstood at this late hour. The proverbial fig leaf has blown away, exposing the regime and its deep hostility toward the democratic West and the liberal international order. What follows is a brief tour of the worldview of China’s supreme leader,[7] followed by a few principles the United States and other democracies should adhere to in order to protect one another and counteract Chairman Xi’s autocratic vision.
“…CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY PERISH….”
Beijing’s rhetoric, particularly when it is directed at foreign audiences, is admittedly often confusing and ambiguous. But Chinese leaders’ most revealing statements are not the ones they make at Davos or the United Nations, but when they speak to their fellow CCP leaders. Chairman Xi’s internal speeches, which serve as guidance to the Party faithful, are sometimes kept secret for months or years before appearing in Chinese-language publications.
One key to understanding Xi is to look at his interpretations of history. It is well known that Vladimir Putin once declared the Soviet Union’s collapse to be the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century. Less widely understood is the extent to which the Soviet collapse also haunts Xi and how it functions as a fundamental guide to his actions.