Visiting Chinese Leader Preparing for War, Scholar Says

A well-known Chinese dissident asserted that visiting Chinese leader Hu Jintao is preparing for a war with Taiwan.

Hu, who is the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party will be in the U.S. for a little more than a week, visit with President Bush at the White House on Sep 7, and address the United Nations on Sep 14th. A number of well-known Chinese figures spoke of their opinions of Hu at a Saturday forum, sponsored by the Washington Forum and The Epoch Times at the Montgomery County Council Office Building in Rockville.

Wei Jingsheng, Chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition and perhaps China’s most renowned dissident, spoke (via phone – due to illness, he could not attend the forum) of a number of actions Hu’s government was taking to prepare for war.

State-owned factories in southern China, which are virtually bankrupt, have been receiving orders for weapons production for the past two years. This military build-up is in step with the recent March law against Taiwan secession. Additionally, China has recently conducted joint military exercises with its old ally, Russia, on the Shandong Peninsula, an area similar and not too far from Taiwan.

Initially, the plan was to conduct the exercises in Zhejiang, which is across the straits from Taiwan, but China realized that this might be viewed as too confrontational.

In addition, Wei asserted, China is attempting to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Europe so as to prevent their united opposition to its invasion of Taiwan. For example, China is strongly opposed to Europe’s arms embargo on it and is trying to get the European Union to rescind the ban. Yet China’s foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, admitted that China really didn’t want these weapons and didn’t have the money to buy them anyway! The reason for the China’s complaint, according to Wei, is to drive a wedge between the United States, which is upset with the European Union for considering lifting the ban, and its European allies.

Chen Kuide, Chief Editor of the internet magazine Observation and executive chairman of the Princeton China Initiative, explained how Hu Jintao has carefully worked his way to the top and is attempting to consolidate his power. Chen believes the Chinese Communist system has two reference points: Mao Zedong on the left, and Deng Xiaoping on the right. Chen thinks that the vision of any CCP leader is constrained by this left-right framework.

“For more than two decades, people see that when Mao’s leftist ruling leads to serious grievances and complaints from the people, Deng’s method will ensue,” said Chen, referring to a focus on economic development. “When corruption becomes rampant as a result of economic development, and...the rich-poor gap gets too wide, the CCP leaders return again to Maoism…The leadership keeps swinging between the two poles.”

Maoism leads to impoverishment, violence, the Cultural Revolution, China looking inward, ideology, and repression. Deng Xioaping’s policies, by contrast, are much less ideological and more practical, look more outward to the world, and were responsible for China’s economic boom. China’s communist history can be understood as its leaders swinging from one pole to the other.

Hu Jintao, who Chen believes is no more than an opportunist, wants to shift the country back to the Mao pole. This is due to the general social discontent in the country and the widening gap between the rich and poor.

“The right is much more vulnerable now,” said Chen. When Hu first took power, he made a pilgrimage to “holy” sites of Communist Party’s history. He tightened up the CCP’s media control, stating in an official speech how the Party can learn from the example of North Korea in terms of ideological control. He tightened up the cooling down of macro-economic overheating using political methods. He wants to arrest economic reforms. He continues the policies of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Chen observed that the CCP leaders are unable to get beyond the two pole reference and “become integrated into the mainstream of the international political arena and bring a new order to China’s political scene.” This new order would go beyond Mao-Deng dichotomy and introduce democracy to the political landscape. As it is now, the country is nearly completely surrounded by democracies: Taiwan, Japan, and India. While democracy is generally accepted as the only legitimate form of government by developed nations, Deng Xiaoping wasn’t able to take this step and massacred the democracy activists in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Zhang Tianliang, a writer for the The Epoch Times (Chinese), told an interesting anecdote that he thought revealed something of Hu Jintao’s humanity. In September 1967, Deng Xiaoping family was forced out of the Zhongnanhai, the central government compound in Beijing. In September 1968, a group of red guards incarcerated Deng Xiaoping’s son, Deng Pufang, in a lab active with radioactive poisonous materials and closed the door. Deng Pufang knew that if he stayed too long in the room, he would die. So he tried to escape through the window. He fell to the ground from about 8 meters height, and his spine was severely damaged.

Zhang tells the story, “At that time, Hu Jintao borrowed a three-wheel bicycle with a loading deck and took Deng Pufang to the hospital. Hu did not say a word to Deng because at that time, Hu was also persecuted by the internal struggles of the CCP. He would bring himself more trouble if he said anything to Deng. However, Hu carried his ID with his name on his chest. Deng remembered the name. Hu saved Deng son’s life. When I heard this anecdote, I didn’t know whether it was true. But I found a similar story in the “Hong Kong Economic Journal” on January 30, 1994. Later on, Hu was promoted by Deng and became a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the age of 40. Also, at age 43, he became the youngest Provincial Secretary.”

From this story, we see Hu’s humanity, said Zhang. “He didn’t choose to ignore Deng because of internal struggles. Although he took a huge risk, he did what a human being should do.”

On April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners appealed to the National Appealing Bureau, which was the first mass appeal of Falun Gong and demonstrated its huge following. It was also the same date of a Tsinghua University alumni reunion where Hu and his wife met a Falun Gong practitioner, Zhang Mengye, who introduced Falun Gong to them. On the night of April 25, Hu saw the TV news about the appeal. Zhang described Hu calling Zhang Mengye to tell him “to take care of himself.” Zhang concluded that there is still a difference between Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, and that the core evil in communism hadn’t yet penetrated Hu’s humanity.