(Minghui.org) Having persecuted Falun Gong for more more than 25 years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently launched a wave of attacks against both Shen Yun and Falun Gong overseas.
Fundamentally, the CCP cannot tolerate Falun Gong or Shen Yun because the traditional values they promote contradict the CCP’s own nature of hatred, brutality, and deception. But the recent attacks differ from the start of the persecution in some respects. While former CCP leader Jiang Zemin started the persecution in 1999 because he could not tolerate Falun Gong’s popularity, this time the CCP not only aims to weaken and replace the U.S. as the most powerful country but also seeks to shift accountability for the crimes it has committed in the persecution of Falun Gong to the U.S.
Two Faces of the CCP
For decades, the CCP has targeted the U.S. for being the leader of the free world. Deceptive articles were spread all over China, such as “The American middle class is not as good as Chinese migrant workers,” “Living with 2,000 yuan in China is better off than living with 3,000 dollars in the U.S.,” and “America is rotten to the core.”
At the same time, the CCP packaged anti-American ideas as patriotism and promoted the notion that “war between China and the U.S. is inevitable.” It has brainwashed Chinese people into believing that the U.S. “will always oppose China” and that the U.S. empire “will never give up its intention to destroy us.” The hatred incited by these lies have contributed to violent incidents like the stabbing of four U.S. college instructors in Jilin City. The case triggered condemnation from the international community, but CCP officials said perfunctorily that it was an “accident.”
However, the CCP’s anti-Americanism has two faces: in addition to deep-rooted hatred, it also shows “love” with ulterior motives.
After Donald Trump was elected as the 47th President of the United States, the CCP suddenly started to “love” the United States with great fanfare. Not only did it arrest and sentence the 12 “little pinks” (young Chinese nationalists who post pro-CCP content online) who spread rumors that American zoos abused giant pandas, but it also deleted anti-American comments on the U.S. Embassy in China’s Weibo account. CCP media even launched a campaign to “tell good stories about the U.S.-China friendship.”
The CCP calls this strategy the “two hands of revolution.” One hand is firm, and the other is soft. The regime puts on one act in public while doing the opposite behind the scenes. When wolf warrior diplomacy ran into a wall with Trump, the CCP started pretending to be a friendly country by launching strategic fraud.
On the topic of “friendly relations between the U.S. and China,” history shows the U.S. helping China quite a few times out of good will, while there are few examples of the CCP being friendly to the U.S. Rather than showing gratitude, it consistently repays the U.S. with animosity.
To gain a better understanding of this history, we will first review how the U.S. has helped China over the years.
Historical Assistance Provided by the U.S. to China
CCP textbooks portray modern Chinese history as one of imperialist aggression against China, with the United States being the worst. In reality, among the great powers, the United States caused the least damage to China. Moreover, China has benefited greatly from its relationship with the United States.
1. The second largest trading country with the Qing Dynasty (Qianlong era):
The first American merchant ship to China, the Empress of China, arrived in China in 1784. It opened the door to trade between the two countries, and both sides benefited equally. Americans obeyed Chinese laws more than other countries, and the U.S. soon became the second largest trading country with China after Britain. The Chinese obtained a large amount of gold and silver from this trading.
2. Equal treaty with the Qing Dynasty (Tongzhi era):
In 1868, the U.S. and China signed the Burlingame Treaty. Burlingame was President Lincoln’s envoy to China. He was cheerful and friendly to China. At that time, there were many Chinese working in the U.S. The U.S. urged China to send consuls to the U.S. The Qing Dynasty simply appointed Burlingame as the imperial commissioner to represent China in various countries. Burlingame’s first stop was the U.S., where he gave a speech promoting Chinese culture and praising China’s love of peace. He negotiated with the U.S. on behalf of the Chinese government to safeguard China’s interests and signed the Burlingame Treaty. This was the first equal treaty signed between China and a foreign country after the Opium War.
3. The Open Door Principle in the Year of Xinchou:
In 1901, the U.S. proposed the Open Door Principle, mainly targeting China (Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty). At that time, Russia, France, Britain and other powers had spheres of influence in China. The Open Door Principle proposed by the U.S. protected the integrity of China’s sovereignty. In particular, it prevented Russia from encroaching on northeastern China and curbed the territorial division of China by the powers.
4. Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program:
Out of the indemnities the Qing Dynasty agreed to pay the Western powers in 1901, the U.S. received 7.32%, or about 30 million taels of silver. The U.S. returned more than 10 million taels of silver to fund education, including sending Chinese students to study in the U.S. and building Tsinghua College, which later became Tsinghua University.
In 1924 (the Republic of China, with Cao Kun, Huang Fu, and Duan Qirui as presidents), the U.S. returned another 12 million dollars, which China used to establish the university section of Tsinghua and the National Peking Library New Library (one of the most advanced in the Far East at the time), which was the predecessor of the Ancient Books Branch of the National Library of China.
In 1929, China used the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship to send 47 students to study in the U.S. After completing their studies, the graduates returned to China. Among them were experts who were later honored by the CCP for their contributions to atomic weapons research. In addition, returned indemnity funds were used to establish Yenching University and Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
5. Flying Tigers and the “Hump” route:
In July 1941, U.S. General Claire Lee Chennault called on veteran pilots to form the 1st American Volunteer Group (the “Flying Tigers”) to support China’s fight against Japan. Chiang Kai-shek was the President of the Republic of China at the time. In order to break the Japanese blockade of strategic materials against China, the U.S. Army Air Force Air Transport Command (ATC) and the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) began flying the “Hump” route across the Himalayas.
Because of the great difficulty and risks of flying over high terrain, it was also called the “Death Route.” According to official data, a total of 1,579 U.S. pilots and crew members died or went missing, and the U.S. lost 468 aircraft on the “Hump” route. The Flying Tigers made an indelible contribution to China’s victory in its War of Resistance against Japan.
6. Abolition of unequal treaties:
In 1943, in order to assist China’s resistance against the Japan invasion, the U.S. took the lead in abolishing all unequal treaties signed with China since the Opium War. Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan all followed suit and abolished the unequal treaties. From then on, foreign concessions and consular jurisdiction disappeared in China, and China (the Republic of China at the time) became an equal member of the international community.
7. Marshall Mediation and the Truman Doctrine:
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the U.S. appeased the Communist Party, which damaged the sovereignty of the Republic of China. The Soviet Union obtained many priority rights in the Northeast, leaving the root of the Communist Party's rebellion. From the end of 1945 to 1946, President Truman sent General George Marshall to mediate the war between the Kuomintang and the CCP.
The U.S. did not hesitate to cut off the arms supply of the Kuomintang army and force Chiang Kai-shek to form a democratic coalition government with the CCP. The CCP pretended to agree to peace talks but secretly continued to disrupt transportation, attack the Kuomintang army, and delay negotiations. Marshall’s mediation ultimately failed, but it made the Kuomintang army lose the favorable conditions and opportunities for an armed suppression of the CCP. At the same time, the economy of the Republic of China was dragged down, and the CCP lived on.
In 1947, the U.S. formulated the Truman Doctrine to counter the global red disaster, but the strategy deliberately let the CCP go. Since the beginning of the Pacific War, some figures in the U.S. government, such as Joseph Stilwell, Marshall, Truman, and others harbored illusions about the CCP and promoted a series of policies that constrained the Republic of China, favored the CCP, and condoned the CCP’s theft of power in the Republic of China.
8. Permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council:
In 1945 (during the Republic of China), due to the efforts and persistence of the United States, CCP representative Dong Biwu participated in the Chinese delegation at the United Nations Founding Conference in San Francisco and signed the United Nations Charter together with other representatives. The U.S. made a crucial contribution to China (the Republic of China) becoming one of the founding countries and five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
From July 9 to 11, 1971 (during the Communist China period), Henry Kissinger, Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs, made a secret visit to China and held talks with Premier Zhou Enlai. After that, the U.S. accepted the People’s Republic of China (i.e. communist China) to obtain the right to represent the United Nations. On October 25 of the same year, the United Nations passed Resolution 2758, recognizing that the representatives of the Communist Party of China government were the only legitimate representatives of China in the United Nations, and that the People's Republic of China was one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
9. Nixon meets Mao and Zhou, Carter establishes diplomatic relations with the CCP:
From February 21 to 28, 1972, U.S. President Nixon visited China, met Mao Zedong in Zhongnanhai (the CCP’s central leadership compound) and held talks with Zhou Enlai and other top officials. This visit was later called “the week that changed the world” and opened the door to the second appeasement policy toward the CCP in U.S. history. Before the end of the visit, the two countries signed the Shanghai Communiqué, and the U.S. began to withdraw troops from Taiwan.
In 1977, Carter entered the White House. On January 1, 1979, the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with the Republic of China and established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. By this time, it had been about seven years since Kissinger’s secret visit to China.
The relationship between the two countries soon entered a honeymoon period. Key U.S. allies, including Japan, Australia, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), successively severed official relations with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with the CCP. Gradually, the international community came to accept the CCP over the Republic of China.
10. Bush Sr.’s appeasement of the CCP:
After the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989, the Bush administration opened backdoors for the CCP, such as approving a special exemption order to allow Boeing to sell four commercial aircraft to China, relaxing military sanctions, allowing Chinese officials to return to the United States, and continuing the “Peace Pearl” plan to upgrade Chinese fighter jets.
In half a year, the administration sent two letters to Deng Xiaoping and dispatched special envoys to Beijing, emphasizing that the United States was willing to work with the CCP to overcome difficulties. In fact, the United States did help the CCP overcome difficulties.
11. Clinton helps the CCP join the World Trade Organization:
In July 1999, CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched a persecution against tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners. Practitioners from all over the country who had no way to appeal to the government went to Beijing to speak out for Falun Gong. As a result, a large number of practitioners were arrested and detained. The CCP also planned to sentence several members of the former Beijing Falun Gong Research Association in October. That October, President Clinton called Jiang Zemin twice, hoping to reach an agreement on the CCP’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In March 2000, Clinton made a speech decoupling trade from human rights and said that China’s entry into the WTO would bring economic freedom and a greater voice to the people. Clinton set up a “China Room” in the White House to lobby anti-China members of Congress. In May, Clinton invited former presidents Carter and Ford and dozens of former politicians to the White House to urge Congress to approve permanent trade privileges for China and build momentum for China’s entry into the WTO.
With U.S. help, communist China officially became part of the WTO on December 11, 2001. The last stronghold of communism became a formal member of the free world trade community, providing the CCP with the economic growth it needed to chase its ambition to rule the world.
(To be continued)
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