China Cannot Fight Cultural Marxism With Marxism

The U.S. is debating how to handle China's ascent.
National Interest: America's 'China Consensus' Implodes

Other entrants into the new Kennan sweepstakes have ranged from former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), recommending efforts from mysteriously working through differences and living happily ever after in an Asia-Pacific community on the one hand, to fashioning a new containment “grand strategy” on the other. That these are the conclusions of two major reports, both released in April, suggest the intellectual and political elite see U.S.-China policy is in dire need of rethinking.

Rudd calls for a “New Framework of Constructive Realism for Common Purpose.” It is a comprehensive analysis with many thoughtful, ambitious recommendations for updating regional and global institutions to accommodate China’s rise. But Rudd may be overestimating the degree to which there is a commonality of interests and underestimating nationalist pathologies in the both United States and China. It is difficult to envision developing joint positions on a panoply of issues from an East Asian security system to human rights, and not least, building a functioning Asia-Pacific Community as he advocates.

On the other hand, a more pessimistic Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) report calls for a new grand strategy to counter-balance China, in effect, containment, starting from the premise that “the American effort to ‘integrate’ China into the liberal international order has now generated new threats to U.S. primacy in Asia.” [as if U.S. policy, not China’s market reforms, were the driver]. As with Rudd’s report, the CFR report contains many sensible proposals, most building on current efforts to strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness, expand trade networks and security partnerships and intensify diplomacy with Beijing.

No matter which path the United States chooses, it will use cultural and ideological weapons against China. Which is why this is a doomed enterprise by China: Chinese university revives research on official ideology to head off suspicious values

The Marx building is part of the university's "Six Marx Projects" that kicked off this year. Another highlight of the project is the launch of "Ma Zang," a grand collection of Marxism classics and documents. In the Chinese tradition, "Zang" means collection of sacred sutras or treasures.

Currently, there are only three collections of scriptures named "Zang" in the Chinese language: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The launch of the Marxism collection as "Zang" put it on an equal footing with the other three major Chinese traditions.

Sun Daiyao, deputy dean of the School of Marxism at Peking University, told the Global Times, "'Zang' is a collection of treasures. Marxism isn't a religion and it should not be a religion. It is the mainstream and ruling ideology in China."

Meanwhile, since last September, Tsinghua University has included a course on Marxism on its Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Within four months, the course had attracted around 1,000 Tsinghua students and more than 100,000 students outside of university.

Marxism in the United States morphed from traditional economic Marxism to cultural Marxism beginning in the 1960s. Race and sex replaced economics. The proletariat became victim groups and the bourgeois were replaced with oppressors. Feminism, for example, now fits almost entirely within a cultural Marxist framework. Russia handles this by putting feminists in jail, passing anti-homosexual propaganda laws, and leaning on Orthodox Christianity. China also tries force, but turning to Marx instead of tradition is a recipe for trouble. Tradition is a non-confrontational response to Western values because it offers an alternative, where Marxism is itself a Western idea. Without an internally generated alternative, values that are otherwise attractive to the public will be combated with cruder weapons such as nationalism.

The Chinese don't appear clueless though: Pressure from Chinese Authorities Forces Ex-Detained Feminist to Shutter Organization

A women’s rights organization linked to two of the five Chinese feminists whose detention in March set off an international outcry ceased operations after pressure from the authorities led most of its staff members to quit and funding dried up.

Furthermore, China is taking a page out of Russia's playbook and shutting down Western front groups: Will China Close Its Doors?

The draft “Foreign NGO Management Law,” released last month, is part of a package of legislation that includes strict laws on national security and antiterrorism. With this slate of broad and far-reaching statutes, President Xi Jinping, who evidently feels Communist Party rule is vulnerable to ideas from the outside world, is aiming to be the toughest leader since Mao.

If the NGO draft becomes law, the international cultural, educational and technical exchanges that have become commonplace and so essential to China’s astonishing development may come to a grinding halt.

Under the proposal, foreign-based nonprofit organizations would need to be vetted by China’s security police before they conduct activities in China. The law does not define “activity,” so security agencies will have free rein to decide whether to put a stop to an organization’s plans in China — and there is no provision for independent review of their decisions.

The only flaw in their battle plan is the reliance on Marxism. Even if it wasn't a hollow ideology to ordinary Chinese, Marxism is very easily corrupted into cultural Marxism. I'm not even sure how China would even go about confronting the U.S. on these issues because it lacks any counter weapon. Putin has the ultimate counter: Christianity. The Orthodox Church survived communism and Russian (and Eastern Europeans) recognize cultural Marxism as a reformed or deformed version of what they confronted before.

Unable to counteract cultural Marxism with traditional values, China will increasingly be bombarded by Western secular values. Even if it shuts off direct Western influence, it will find Western values springing up seemingly autonomously.

The drafters of this law do not understand how China has benefited from its opening up. All they see are sinister “foreign agents” instigating change. It would be a mistake for China, and unfortunate for the rest of the world, if its leadership caves in to its most radical elements and tells the world that, while foreign investment is welcome in China, foreign ideas are not.

It's up to China whether it wishes to resist Western influence, as it is for any nation. However, Marxism is itself a Western idea. Until China uproots Marxism, it will be fertile ground for Western influence. They will be fighting uphill as Western secular values influenced and shaped by Marxism flow downhill. Putin has tilted the playing field in Russia's favor, as have the various Islamic forces that have repelled Western influence. If China chooses to double down on Marxism, the U.S. can defeat the CCP with kindness. Take whatever actions are needed to combat nationalism and the party will find it near impossible to separate Western secular values from Chinese secular values. The other issue, which no one may be thinking about today, is that while Russia likes to have China on its side against the U.S., a weak China is in Russia's long-term interest. The best strategy for Russia is to steer China and America into direct conflict as they successfully did in Korea, delaying the Sino-Soviet split by 20 years.