US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the ruling Chinese Communist Party. According to him, between the American and Chinese systems lie "fundamental differences" that affect the national security of the United States.
“We also understand that the Chinese Communist Party offers its people and the whole world a completely different model of governance. In this model, the party of Leninism rules, and everyone should think and act as the communist elites desire. This is not the future that I want, and perhaps not the future that anyone present could want. This is not the future that other democracies want, and not the future that the people of China want, ”said Pompeo, speaking at the Hudson Institute in New York.
In a short speech entitled “Challenge of China,” Pompeo said that the United States has long promoted the growth of the PRC economy, hoping that this country will become more market and democratic, but these hopes have not been realized.
Instead, Beijing allegedly took advantage of unilateral cooperation with the United States and even created an entire army of lobbyists in the United States, effectively promoting Chinese interests.
According to the US Secretary of State, "The Chinese Communist Party is a party of Marxism-Leninism focused on the" struggle "and international domination." At the same time, Pompeo said that the Trump administration does not identify the Chinese Communist Party with the Chinese people and is even ready to cooperate with Beijing if the system of trade relations between the two countries becomes more transparent, market and competitive.
- Demonstration in honor of the 70th anniversary of the PRC
- Reuters
- © Thomas Peter
Mike Pompeo promised in the coming months to make a series of statements on this subject. In particular, he said, China is carrying out a global campaign to influence world public opinion, and American "freedom of speech" needs protection.
Pompeo also noted that "Beijing is actively creating its own international space and participating in the work of international organizations in order to justify its authoritarian system and expand its reach."
Ideological struggle
Mike Pompeo's keynote address is not the first attempt by the American leadership to demonstrate that it is opposing not so much the PRC, but the Chinese Communist Party. So, on October 24, US Vice President Mike Pence criticized the CCP.
In response, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Tsui Tiankai, at a conference in Houston, warned Americans against such attempts, saying that "drawing a line between the party and the people means defying all of China."
On October 21, the US ambassador to China Terry Branstead said that Washington was going to introduce new restrictions on representatives of organizations controlled by the CCP, but did not explain which ones. Earlier, the United States announced new rules regarding the work of Chinese diplomats in the country. Now they must inform the State Department in advance of their meetings with officials or visits to educational and scientific institutions.
According to the head of the Center for Political Economic Research at the Institute of the New Society, Vasily Koltashov, these statements indicate that Washington is moving the confrontation with China into an ideological plane.
“This statement shows that the US’s struggle with the Eurasian centers of capitalism and especially with China, which is seen as the main rival in Washington, is no longer a commercial one. Having become convinced that it is impossible to win in a commercial format, the American elites are more and more shifting to the need to wage an ideological war, as was done in relation to the Soviet Union. ”
At the same time, experts note that China does not at all strive to conduct propaganda among American citizens.
“The very ideas of the Chinese Communist Party are not the ideas of a world revolution or the liberation of the working class. These are the ideas of China's success, the prosperity of the Chinese, the prosperity of the Chinese economy. All this is completely uninteresting to the American layman, ”Koltashov emphasizes.
In turn, Nikita Daniuk, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts at the RUDN University, said in an interview with RT that Washington is used to the role of “defender of democracy” on a global scale, so the decision to use this tool in confrontation with China is predictable.
“The United States has long positioned itself as the main defender of the liberal world order. In the event of a confrontation with China, America will not be prevented by the assistance and sympathy of those who in the rest of the world support this world order, ”he said.
The Phantom of Socialism
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized both socialism and socialist countries such as Cuba and Venezuela during his two and a half years in power.
Similar statements were voiced by officials of his administration. For example, last year John Bolton, who was then Trump's national security adviser, called Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba "the hideous hotbed of communism."
On September 25, from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump announced that the “ghost of socialism” is one of the most serious problems facing the world community. The US President accused the socialist and communist regimes of the death of 100 million people in the 20th century and called for the protection of democratic rights and freedoms.
Often from the lips of Trump one can also hear accusations of adherence to socialist ideas against his domestic political opponents - the democrats. The benefit in the Democratic Party in recent years has intensified the left wing, advocating "democratic socialism." The most famous representative of this trend is Senator Bernie Sanders, who in 2016 actively claimed the role of Trump’s main rival in the presidential election.
- Donald Trump
- © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
“I agree with the elderly citizens of our country and reaffirm that the United States will never become a socialist country,” Trump said at the beginning of October at a speech to his supporters.
According to Koltashov, now "Donald Trump is under pressure from the left." More and more Americans want social reform, especially affordable healthcare and education.
“This pressure is embodied by Bernie Sanders and some of the new bright leaders in the democratic field of American politics who come up with moderate social democratic slogans. However, because of the extreme social backwardness in the USA itself, they look terribly radical, ”the political scientist emphasizes.
The positive attitude of a significant part of Americans towards socialist ideas is now recorded in many sociological studies. A YouGov poll released at the end of October, commissioned by the Communist Victims Memory Foundation, notes that 70% of the millennial generation (23 to 38 years old) are ready to vote for a socialist candidate in the election.
Similar moods were recorded by polls in 2017-2018. At the same time, the number of millennials positively related to communism increased by 8% (up to 36%) compared to 2018.
Marion Smith, executive director of the Communist Victims' Memorial Fund, said such sentiments among American youth testify to "historical amnesia against the threats of communism and socialism."
In June, the American sociological service Pew Research Center noted that attitudes toward socialism and capitalism in the United States were strikingly different among supporters of the Democratic and Republican parties. So 65% of Democrats spoke positively about socialism, and 84% of Republicans, on the contrary, negatively perceive this term.
More positively than other groups of society, women (46% of all respondents), blacks (65%) and Hispanics (52%) belong to socialism. Only 35% of white Americans perceive socialist ideas in a positive way.
Preemptive strike
According to experts, criticism of socialism by the Trump administration is due to domestic and foreign policy factors.
In foreign policy, it is a convenient tool to oppose China and the left-wing governments in Latin America, which advocate the continent's independence from the United States.
In the United States itself, Trump needs to maintain the support of the Cuban diaspora, which is important for winning the 2020 presidential election in one of the key states - Florida. Most of them are irreconcilable anti-communists.
As Reuters noted on October 30, criticism of socialism now prevails in political advertising, which Trump's campaign headquarters launches on Facebook in Spanish. At the same time, the theme of the fight against illegal immigration dominates in English advertising.
According to Daniuk, the White House also needs anti-communist rhetoric against China to strike at the democrats.
“Trump and his team are trying to equate the support of the Democrats, who are becoming more socialists like Bernie Sanders, and the support of the Chinese communist system,” the expert notes.
According to Koltashov, it is the left-wing democrats who pose the greatest political danger to Trump.
- Bernie Sanders
- © Johannes EISELE / AFP
“Trump will be able to cope with some right-wing democrat easily, because such a candidate will be able to counter the president’s affairs only with unfounded accusations,” the expert notes. - And if you nominate a left-wing candidate, for example, Bernie Sanders, then this will be a serious threat to Trump. Because Sanders will reason in the spirit of social reform, improving the lives of ordinary Americans at all costs. And it’s difficult for Trump to oppose this. Therefore, he has to parry this threat in advance and tie it to China. ”