China specialists Xin Haonian and Li Tianxiao, who were recently interviewed by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), both said that a major goal of Hu Jintao, head of the Chinese Communist regime, in visiting the United States this week is to ameliorate China's domestic tension.
Dr. Li Tianxiao, news critic and columnist, told NTDTV that Hu is applying the "U.S. card" in his domestic game.
Explaining how this works, Li said that for a long time Chinese communist leaders have been using official visits to the United States as a means of demonstrating their power in front of domestic rivals. The former head of the Chinese communist regime Jiang Zemin was an example, he said, adding, "China still orbits the U.S."
In enumerating the factors behind Hu's need to strengthen his power, Li first singled out the threat posed by the nearly 10 million people who have withdrawn from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations, saying that it was "vital."
He said the second factor was the relay hunger strike initiated by the human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. "It keeps going," Li said. "The Chinese communist regime has already started splitting. Some high-ranking cadres are in fact directly supporting Gao Zhisheng."
Li said the third factor was the increasing number of protests in China. Some 87,000 protests, often violent, were officially recorded last year, a sharp rise from 74,000 the year before.
"The Chinese leadership is very worried," said Li. "What could be done under such circumstances? We know that foreign relations are extensions of domestic politics. So they are trying to find in the realm of foreign relations some way to reduce the shock in domestic politics."
Xin Haonian, author of the book "Which is the New China?" and Editor-in-Chief of the Huang Hua Gang Magazine, depicts a more gloomy picture of China's domestic situation. Xin told NTDTV in an interview that when Jiang Zemin came to power in 1989 he was faced with extreme domestic instability and great international pressure.
In that situation, Xin said, what Jiang did domestically was to rule the country with corruption by directing the people's attention to material gains and nothing else. Internationally, he said, Jiang tried to improve China's relations with other countries in every aspect.
"What [Jiang] left to Hu is a completely rotten mess," Xin said. He added that the "mess" was most obvious in two ways: "all out corruption of the CCP" and "the people's extreme discontent with the CCP."
"The situation that Hu is facing is a matter of life and death for the regime," said Xin. "He has to save the CCP, save this regime."
According to Xin, the toughest problem Hu faces in saving the Chinese communist regime is the Taiwan issue, which Xin said challenges the CCP from two perspectives: the implementation of democracy and national unification.
On the one hand, Xin said, Taiwan's current status shows that China clearly has not achieved unification. On the other hand, if Taiwan were a province of China as the CCP claims, its adoption of democracy had defied the CCP's assertion that democracy is not suitable for China.
Due to its treaty obligations protecting Taiwan, the United States plays a crucial role in this matter, Xin said. "On July 14, 2005 General Zhu Chenghu of China's National Defense University openly told foreign reporters that if the U.S. intervenes in a war between China and Taiwan, China would be the first to use nuclear weapons to wipe out hundreds of American cities, and China would not mind sacrificing all the cities east of Xi'an."
When asked if the CCP would really go to war with the United States because of Taiwan, Xin's answer was a categorical "no."
Xin said Hu Jintao maintains a twofold strategym characteristic of the CCP: open threats and friendly visits. "In order to have a hand-shaking relation, Hu has quite shamelessly demanded head-of-state treatment and a state visit."
Li Tianxiao said that among the United States' major concerns in U.S.–China relations, including the Taiwan problem, trade deficit, nuclear threats and human rights, the most important is human rights. He said that the CCP is a dictator that oppresses human rights domestically, and does not respect them internationally.
Hu met with President Bush for lunch on Thursday at the White House.
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