China’s steady slide toward totalitarian rule is the exact opposite of what’s in the interests of the United States and the world, not to mention the Chinese people. The concentration of power by Xi Jinping and his cohorts goes hand in hand with the Chinese Communist Party’s rising internal repression and external aggression, The Post’s Josh Rogin writes:
On a journalism fellowship last week in Taiwan — the only Chinese-speaking democracy on earth — our delegation asked Foreign Minister Joseph Wu what would happen if China were to become a democracy instead of a dictatorship.
“If we think about the possibility that China is going to change itself into a democracy, I think it’s a blessing for the rest of the world,” Wu said…..
No one is advocating for regime change policies in China, but the Chinese people’s demands for greater freedoms are not going away, either. As the famous Chinese democracy activist Wei Jingsheng wrote in “The Fifth Modernization,” a 1978 document that cost him 18 years in prison and permanent exile:
“People should have democracy. When they ask for democracy, they are only demanding what is rightfully theirs. Anyone refusing to give it to them is a shameless bandit no better than a capitalist who robs workers of their money earned with their sweat and blood. Do the people have democracy now? No. Do they want to be masters of their own destiny? Definitely yes.” RTWT
