As President Xi Jinping was addressing the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where he called for building a strong military to defend the country and integrating Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, besides strengthening jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macau, it reminded how this communist nation can run with the hare and hunt with the hound. Just like their Islamist counterparts who thrive in a democratic setup, become the most ardent champions of liberty and free press when in minority, but don’t waste a moment to throttle them after coming to power, communists appropriate and infiltrate the organs of democracy till the time they are weak. They weaken the system from within, and when they are powerful, they openly confront it, as President Xi is doing these days. Maybe it’s this similarity between the ‘God-fearing’ Islamists and Godless communists that often make them collaborate when confronted with a common enemy, but the moment any of the two comes to the power, the other invariably gets decimated, as in post-Islamic Revolution Iran or “moth-eaten” Pakistan.
So, when one hears Xi make expansionist and belligerent claims, it showcases that the Dragon has finally decided not to conceal its claws dipped in blood. It believes it no longer needs to hide its hegemonic character under the veil of China’s “peaceful rise”, as Deng Xiaoping had charmed the world into believing. And, unfortunately, the world chose to follow the ‘Pied Piper’ Deng, even as his philosophy clearly exhorted the Chinese to “hide our capabilities and bide our time”. Deng never repudiated Mao Zedong; all he said was that the Great Helmsman was “70% right and 30% wrong”. The world thought market economy would invariably result in free societies, little realising that it would be the Dragon that would infect the West and its democratic institutions. As Philip P. Pan writes in his book, Out of Mao’s Shadow, “Prosperity allowed the (Chinese) government to reinvent itself, to win friends, and buy allies, and to forestall demands for democratic change.” So, while communist China further entrenched its autocratic hold over its people, in other countries it deeply infiltrated into democratic institutions and academic think tanks, often moulding public opinion favourable to the Chinese interests.
The communist regimes, whether in the erstwhile Soviet Union or China, have always been past masters in sanitising their otherwise sullied image and moulding popular opinions in their favour. In the late 1930s, when Mao was fighting with the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek, he invited Edgar Snow, a well-known American author, to China. Mao left nothing to chance and, as per his biographers Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, “dictated detailed instructions on handling Snow’s visit: ‘Security, secrecy, warmth and red carpet’.” The result was the creation of a mythical Mao, in Snow’s Red Star Over China, who was a true and an honest leader waging a concerted war against the Japanese and wanting “friendship with America”—a claim that fooled many, including in the US Administration. And one plausible theory suggests that had the Americans not fallen to this well-orchestrated image makeover, maybe it would have helped Chiang Kai-shek’s forces more resolutely and the fate of China and the world would have been different.
Today, amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic, the Dragon’s mask has fallen. With each passing day, the Wuhan lab theory is gaining more credence and credibility, so much so that even an old supporter of China in Dr Anthony Fauci refuses to defend the Dragon. To add to it all is the growing Chinese assertiveness beyond its borders whether in the Himalayas or in the South China Sea. China, with its insatiable hunger for land and resources, finds itself isolated with just a few Pakistan-like pariah nations by its side. President Xi plans to fight this out with aggression. In the process, he has opened many fronts for the Middle Kingdom. Though it won’t be right to write an obituary for the Dragon, as history suggests, such imperious, authoritarian regimes often fall suddenly. Unlike in the democracies, the rot persisting in a communist setup never comes out in the open in its lifetime. The world only knows about it after its demise, thus creating an aura of invincibility and infallibility during its lifetime. But when time comes, such states collapse like a pack of cards.
It’s time for the democracies of the world, led by India and the US, to unite. We may have faltered in the past to gauge the true nature of the Dragon, but not anymore. For, there may not be another chance coming anytime soon.