On May 7th, amid the visit of the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, to Europe, the mainstream American media Bloomberg published an article titled “America Just Doesn’t Get China’s People vs. the CCP”, written by columnist Karishma Vaswani. The core viewpoint of the article is that global political leaders need to differentiate between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese people. The timing of Bloomberg’s publication of such an article holds significant meaning.
The article begins by stating, “From Washington to Tokyo, Manila to Brussels, mistrust of Beijing is escalating. Xi Jinping launched a charm offensive in Europe this week, seeking to stabilize relations and ease concerns over electric cars and chips, the latest in a slew of economic band-aids from Beijing. But truly mending ties between the two countries requires global political leaders to stop conflating the CCP with the Chinese people. The CCP does not represent the hopes and dreams of 1.4 billion citizens.”
According to the latest survey mentioned in the article, for the fifth consecutive year, about 80% of Americans hold negative views of China, with 43% having very negative views. Additionally, 79% of Americans almost or completely do not believe that Xi Jinping will make the right decisions on international affairs. Half of the respondents see China as a competitor, while less than half view it as an enemy.
However, the article argues that “It is dangerous to view an entire country through the prism of the party” because “the Chinese people and the CCP are not the same”, and the United States should strive to “differentiate between Xi and the wishes of the CCP and the wishes of the Chinese people”, which is crucial for the U.S. Moreover, various signs indicate that the CCP’s policies are losing the trust of many Chinese people, especially among college students and the middle class.
Therefore, the article suggests that one way for the U.S. to strengthen its relationship with the Chinese people is to increase cultural exchanges, “interacting with individual Chinese citizens, rather than as stereotypes, is in our interest.”
Indeed, the CCP and China, and the Chinese people, cannot be equated. How can the “China” with thousands of years of civilization be equated with the “CCP” which has imposed itself on China for decades? And how can the CCP, not chosen by the Chinese people, represent the Chinese people? When did the people give it such powers?
In the author’s impression, in the past few years, more than one senior U.S. government official and lawmaker have expressed the importance of differentiating between the CCP and the Chinese people. For example, in May 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken, in a policy speech towards China, stated that there are profound differences between the U.S., the Chinese Communist Party, and the Chinese government, but these differences exist only between the governments and systems of the U.S. and China, not between the people.
On October 30, 2019, then-U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo, in a speech at the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, also clearly differentiated between the CCP and the Chinese people. He mentioned, “Today, China’s Communist Party government is not synonymous with the Chinese people. They challenge the U.S. and the world in various ways that they are trying to use.”
Furthermore, former U.S. House Speaker Gingrich, Trump-era White House Trade Commission Director Navarro, former White House strategist Bannon, General Spalding, and many members of Congress have all clearly distinguished between the CCP and China, and the Chinese people, stating that the CCP is not equivalent to China and does not represent the Chinese people.
This distinction is actually telling the Chinese people who have long been brainwashed by the CCP that it is not the Chinese people who threaten the U.S. and the world, but the evil CCP. Refusing to embrace universal values and denying Chinese people the autonomy possessed by those who also love freedom, the CCP is moving against the world.
As a result, the United States has been more explicit about who it is targeting. In recent years, U.S. sanctions against senior CCP officials and state-owned enterprises are the result of the U.S. distinguishing between the CCP and the Chinese people and China. This differentiation has made the CCP very angry and anxious, as it can no longer manipulate China and its people. Therefore, Chinese diplomats brazenly stated, “Attempts to sever the flesh-and-blood link between the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people are resolutely opposed by China… This trickery will never succeed,” and “The CCP has gained the trust and support of the Chinese people so deeply that distinguishing between the CCP and the Chinese people is a challenge to the entire China,” and so on.
However, after the CCP’s angry rhetoric claiming that “this trickery will never succeed,” mainstream U.S. media outlets have started openly urging global leaders to differentiate between the CCP and the Chinese people, openly stating that “the CCP does not represent the hopes and dreams of 1.4 billion citizens”, how can the CCP endure this truth?
Bloomberg’s call for global leaders to differentiate between the CCP and China, and the Chinese people undoubtedly represents a new turning point, indicating that the U.S. and the world are gaining a clearer understanding of the true face of the CCP. It represents a global trend of anti-communism, showing how the U.S. and Europe can more precisely target the CCP’s vulnerabilities.
It can be said that from the U.S. government, Congress, mainstream media, and ordinary people, to Western governments, congresses, media, and citizens, the effect of distinguishing between the CCP and China, and the Chinese people, is significant. Firstly, it helps the world understand who is the source of turmoil in the world; secondly, it will awaken more brainwashed Chinese people to think about who is the real troublemaker in China, and whose interests does the CCP truly represent; thirdly, it brings the CCP’s crimes to the forefront, no longer allowing them to manipulate China and its people.
Chinese people undergoing deep suffering also need to see the global trend clearly and understand that only without the Communist Party can there be a new China. Abandoning the CCP is the key to the future.