They Mean What They Say – China Is Channeling Mao For A Reason

The Chinese state media outlet Beijing Daily just published an opinion piece widely viewed as representing the Chinese leadership’s official stance on the ongoing trade war with the US. The article was entitled “Today, It Is Necessary to Revisit On Protracted War.” On Protracted War is the title of a series of lectures given by Chinese Communist Party's leader Mao Zedong in 1938. In those lectures, he laid out the strategy the Chinese Communists would use to defeat Japan. It has come to be regarded as one of the best summaries of the Chinese Communist Party’s approach to conflict.

Given that we now find ourselves in a broad, open-ended fight with China, we might want to pay close attention to their invocation of Mao’s doctrine.

The Beijing Daily article drives home several key points:

- Trump is trying to strangle China. He is aggressive. He is ruthless.

- There is no room for compromise.

- If China gives way, Trump will only become more aggressive. China must resist.

- American assurances cannot be relied upon. A deal would mean nothing.

- Time is on China’s side.

- Anyone who believes China should compromise is guilty of having an “erroneous viewpoint”. Given what happens to people in China who are judged to have “erroneous viewpoints,” that’s not a good thing.

This invocation of Mao is not an aberration. Since taking power in 2012, President Xi Jinping has repeatedly called on the party to relearn Mao’s works, especially “On Protracted War”.

“Many of the problems we face are medium- and long-term, and we must understand them from the perspective of a protracted war,” he told a Politburo meeting in July 2020, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Only weeks ago, China quoted Mao in responding to American moves in the ongoing trade war. The Chinese Foreign Ministry posted this quote from Mao from 1953 during the Korean War.

“We are Chinese. We are not afraid of provocations. We don’t back down.”

The post also included footage of Mao delivering the remarks.

So what does this tell us?

The CCP is not thinking about coming to the table. It is preparing for the long haul. Any idea that this confrontation is going to end sometime in the near future with a rational business deal between commercial entities is misguided. We may still not get it. The CCP does. This is a fight for survival.

This fight was never about economics. We may think that way. The CCP does not.

This is a battle for national supremacy. There can only be one winner.

The CCP believes we do not have the stomach for a long fight. We will lose heart. Our morale will suffer. We will quit. They have good reason to. We have made a habit of starting fights we are not prepared to win in recent decades.

There will be no deals. Nowhere is there even the hint of reaching an agreement or backing down. In fact, the whole focus of On Protracted War was on shutting down any discussion of trying to negotiate or compromise. The lectures are built on the bedrock that only uncompromising resistance can lead to victory. To compromise is to surrender and to be lost.

The Chinese are prepared to suffer great privation to win. There is considerable historical precedent to suggest this is true.

In 1938, following his delivery of the On Protracted War lectures, Mao made his focus the solidification of his base area and digging in for the long haul. Land was redistributed. Small industries were established to produce those items the people would need to survive, paper, soap, clothing, and shoes. Weapons were assembled. Radio communications were established. Coal and salt were mined.

Perhaps most importantly, the Chinese Communists intensified their focus on indoctrination. There could be no tolerance of defeatism or independent thought. There would be no discussion of surrender, compromise, or defeat. The struggle would continue for as long as necessary.

We have, for a very long time, lied to ourselves about the nature of the fight we are in with Communist China. In some cases, that is because people have truly not understood that we are in a life and death struggle with a mortal enemy. In other cases, I am afraid those telling the lies knew exactly what they were doing and cared only about the profit they were making, not the long-term consequences of enriching an evil, totalitarian enemy.

In any event, the battle is joined. We are finally confronting the main enemy and moving to rectify the horrifying mistake we made decades ago when we entangled ourselves economically with the CCP. At long last, we are fighting back.

This is a fight we must win. That means digging in for the long haul. That means crafting a strategy for victory. In doing so, we might want to listen to what the CCP is saying. It is channeling Mao for a reason.