[Opinion] The 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party and the Crisis of the Zhongguo Dream

Lee Yong-jun, Former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador for North Korean Nuclear Issues

Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping reaffirmed last week, on the 100th anniversary of the Party's founding, the continuous advance toward the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." The dream of a powerful China’s revival, known as the "Chinese Dream," has been the top national priority since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

To achieve this, China has mobilized diplomatic, military, and economic means to pursue external expansion. It began illegal territorial expansion by asserting sovereignty over vast areas of the South China Sea, aiming to expel U.S. military forces from the Western Pacific and dominate East Asian hegemony. Economically, it has launched the Belt and Road Initiative, providing large-scale conditional loans to developing countries to expand its influence.

Today’s Chinese Communist Party is entirely different in character from the CCP of 100 years ago in 1921, which was founded under the banner of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism. Contrary to its founding ideology, it now pursues a contradictory goal of admiring the great powers and imperialism it once sought to overthrow and dreaming of the revival of the feudal suzerain state, the Chinese Empire.

Illegal territorial expansion in the South China Sea using military force, high-handed diplomacy and military threats toward neighboring weak countries, and economic exploitation through loan provision are hardly different from the behavior of Japanese imperialism in the past. Abandoning Deng Xiaoping’s dictum of "hide your strength, bide your time" to cultivate power in the dark for at least 100 years until strong enough, the Xi Jinping regime’s "Chinese Dream" is essentially about regaining the glory of the old Chinese imperialism that ruled and commanded neighboring countries as vassal states.

China’s aggressive expansionist policy has caused many of its long-time allies in Asia and Europe to turn their backs, creating significant setbacks to China’s hegemonic challenge. ASEAN countries, which traditionally showed more favor toward China than the U.S., have turned anti-China over the South China Sea issue. Germany and France, which have confronted the U.S., Italy, a traditionally pro-China country, and Australia, a representative pro-China country with the highest economic dependence on China in the Asia-Pacific region, have all recently joined the anti-China front due to issues such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uyghur human rights and the origin of COVID-19. Even South Korea, which has shown a notably pro-China stance among Northeast Asian countries, is showing signs of change following the May U.S.-ROK summit and attendance at the Group of Seven (G7) summit.

Public anti-China sentiment is also rapidly increasing worldwide. According to a Pew Research survey conducted in Washington, by the end of last year, South Korea’s anti-China sentiment rose to 75%, more than double the 37% recorded in 2015, ranking fourth globally. This reflects China’s high-handed diplomacy, THAAD sanctions, and its support for North Korea’s nuclear program.

Anti-China sentiment in other major countries also surged: Japan 86%, Sweden 85%, Australia 81%, the United Kingdom 74%, the United States 73%, Germany 71%, and France 70%.

The Biden administration succeeded in officially forming a united front against China with all G7 and NATO member countries participating just five months after taking office. This was less a diplomatic achievement by the U.S. and more a result of China’s own wrongful actions causing it to lose international support and isolate itself.

Building on this international atmosphere, the U.S. is expected to expand the united front against China focusing on four areas: collective diplomatic and military cooperation, advanced technology restrictions against China, criticism and sanctions over human rights issues, and efforts to investigate the origins of COVID-19.

If a high level of economic decoupling is implemented by the anti-China coalition, which includes most of the world’s major liberal democracies and advanced capitalist countries, China’s pursuit of hegemony as well as its sustained economic growth could face serious crises.

Given South Korea’s excessive economic dependence on China, it is time to learn from the recent breakdown in China-Australia relations and wisely expedite building a balanced and diversified economic structure to reduce dependence on China..

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.