Whenever leaders from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) make overseas visits, they typically encounter two different groups: one group is waving flags to welcome the CCP leaders, while the other group is protesting against these CCP leaders.
According to inside sources, many members of the welcoming group are actually bribed to “welcome” the leaders. Xin Fei from The Epoch Times interviewed Mr. Zhang Weiguo, a renowned veteran in the media industry, to find out more.
The following article is the edited transcript of Mr. Zhang’s responses.
A Self-Orchestrated Act by the CCP
Spending money to bribe the CCP’s “welcoming committee” is a typical strategy used by the CCP. Let’s just say that if the U.S. Embassy were to organize such welcoming activities in China, the media would most likely attack President Bush.
Initially, some western observers may simply think that this is part of the Chinese traditional culture. However, they should realize that the CCP is actually behind these fabricated scenes. This is a gimmick and an attempt to show a “united front”. Thus, this phenomenon actually exposes the CCP and is worth probing further.
The CCP’s intention is to deceive people in China. This welcoming gimmick will not work on Westerners. It can only deceive the Chinese people, who have restricted access to independent media. On the surface, the CCP appears to have a glamorous image overseas – but this is a self-constructed image, and the welcoming party is a self-orchestrated act.
An Indication of the CCP’s Lack of Confidence
Some years ago, there was a major scandal after the Chinese embassy paid overseas students to welcome Jiang Zemin [former leader of the CCP]. This incident was exposed by the media. It was also reported that when Zhou Enlai attended the Bandung conference, overseas Chinese, disguised as the welcoming party, were mobilized to protect him. For such a high-level leader, this is an outrage.
To make it worse, the internet has stories of people in the welcoming party who were cheated by the CCP; some people did not even receive the promised money. This is a disgrace to the CCP, the organizers and the participants.
In contrast to democracies in the West, the CCP pays attention to outer appearances at the expense of substance. This is a major characteristic of the CCP’s political behavior, and it also reflects the CCP’s fundamental fear.
The CCP is Not China
The CCP is not equivalent to China. People from the PRC have been intoxicated by the CCP’s culture for a long period. They still hold many vague concepts and cannot distinguish clearly between things like “loving the nation” and “loving the Party,” the difference between the state and the people who govern it, and the difference between China and the CCP. This is something which needs to be revisited.
At home, the CCP depends on bribery and corruption; overseas, it spends money to create a welcome scene. Isn’t this making a mockery of the Chinese nation and her leader?
To overseas Chinese people, it would seem that the most important things to do are to help China integrate into current global dynamics, and to efficiently transmit democratic ideas, rather than creating all this fanfare.
Overseas Chinese are Also the Victims of CCP’s “United-Front” Work
The CCP by its very nature opposes the western democratic world. For overseas Chinese living in these countries, tension is thick between the CCP and Chinese immigrants. The overseas Chinese people reflect the Chinese immigrants’ wish, on the one hand, to strive for the rights and interests of western mainstream society, and on the other, the CCP’s influence in them that causes a clash with the values of the mainstream society.
The CCP leaders often visit foreign countries, manipulate overseas Chinese groups and corrupt some of the overseas Chinese. Some people then become the CCP’s accomplices, spies, and informants, causing the overseas Chinese loyalty to their new country to waver.
The conflict and influence this causes is far-reaching. In fact, these people are also the victims of the CCP. Overseas Chinese need to recognize this kind of poison.
Other immigrants, such as Russian, Vietnamese and Cuban immigrants, have a deep understanding of the autocratic system they left behind, and take a firm stand against it. Only the Chinese immigrants are easily divided, and may even welcome the leaders of the CCP onto American soil. Their degree of “loyalty” to autocracy is clear at a glance by the mainstream western society.
CCP officials at all levels may be in the overseas Chinese embassies or use different identities to hide and fit into other corners of society. However, these CCP members are usually not diligent or fulfilling their duties. This phenomenon harms the overseas Chinese immigrants and causes the western mainstream society to look down even more on the CCP leaders.
Especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and China’s so-called “emergence,” the United States and the western world are beginning to investigate and clean up the CCP’s overseas spies, informants or people who gang up and have different kinds of relationships with the CCP’s interest groups.
The dealings of the CCP with overseas Chinese is in itself a measure of the CCP’s “united front” work. It fragments overseas Chinese and also embarrasses the local countries. These are some of the unusual characteristics among overseas Chinese groups.
People Who Protest and Demonstrate are Indeed Patriotic
When CCP leaders visit foreign countries, there are protests and demonstrations by overseas people everywhere they go. Contrary to the so-called “welcome” organized by the government, the protests and demonstrations are organized spontaneously by overseas people and represent the values of the western society and mankind’s civilization. They stand for freedom and independence.
Their voices cry out against the CCP’s despotic rule, repeatedly telling the CCP leaders that the CCP is an illegal regime. Indeed, these are China’s true patriots, for they have a deep respect for China and the Chinese people. If they did not love their country, would they make the effort to raise people’s awareness about the CCP’s damaging effects on China? In fact, the CCP has no legitimacy in western democratic society. It is a political group whose values are anti-human nature, anti-society, and anti-mankind so shouldn’t people indeed protest? Until it changes its political nature, it can never change such the protesting reactions against it.
It is actually a healthy sign of a democratic society for people to protest tyrannical rule. Those who are “welcoming” the CCP are actually themselves deceived, and even disloyal to the real China.
Mr. Zhang Weiguo was the former political law editor of World Economy Guidance, reporter in Beijing, member of the editorial board and member of Shanghai Young Journalists Association. After the Tiananmen massacre, he was imprisoned for 20 months. Later, he came to the Center for China Studies at UC Berkley as a visiting scholar. Now, he is the chief editor of New Century Net and ChinaEweekly (www.chinaeweekly.com), special commentator for Radio Free Asia, director of the Institute of Chinese Strategic Studies, and director of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century.
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