Democracy Exists to Protect Human Rights, the CCP Persecutes Human Rights, and Its Collapse Is Inevitable【Know-Setting Lecture Hall Cao Xingcheng Yu Maochun】EP182

In this episode, Robert Tsao and Miles Yu delve into the essence of democracy and human rights, analyzing the characteristics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s totalitarian rule and its reliance on lies and deception. Both point out that democracy originates from the protection of inherent human rights, whereas totalitarian regimes view people as mere tools. They emphasize that the Chinese people should awaken, cast off despair, and through popular sovereignty and the persistent struggle for freedom, bring about the collapse of the CCP regime.

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The society of East Asia has traveled a very, very arduous path over the past few decades, and it has been quite remarkable; the United States has actually played a significant role in this. For example, the East Asian democratic movement that began in 1986 started in the Philippines, with the so-called people's power. At that time, the Marcos dictatorship assassinated an opposition leader, a senator, and it was his wife, his widow, who then ran for election. From that moment on, Taiwan followed suit immediately, and South Korea followed as well. Of course, adding Japan, which was thoroughly transformed into a democratic country by the United States after the war, East Asia has been a process of democratization. Now, the one that is resisting this seriously, leading the resistance against this unstoppable democratization movement, is the CCP.

Citing Mr. Sun Yat-sen, you might think Sun Yat-sen had many faults, but he said one thing that everyone can be encouraged by: "The revolution is not yet successful; comrades must still strive." Democratization is a very arduous path. Yes, I don't think revolution is good; revolution itself is undemocratic. Democracy is about popular sovereignty and self-determination for the people, whereas you are revolting against others. So, this Sun Yat-sen, his idea of unification by force itself—I say this poison has plagued China to this day. This matter of revolution versus reform is a relative thing. The term "revolution" in modern society began with the French. The French Revolution was very intense, yes, very extreme, because the French monarchy at that time was too corrupt and the gap between rich and poor was too vast, so you had to have a revolution. The United States did not talk about revolution; although it is called the American Revolution, the American Revolution was more of a slogan. It did not carry out massive purges or restructuring of the entire society or social classes. For instance, the Chinese Communist Party—the United States talked about independence, did it talk about revolution? It was a rhetorical expression. For example, in the United States, there was the so-called Boston Massacre, where four people died in 1770, but they played it up. So in American history, they took relatively small events and made them sound very big; there was an element of agitation in that went agitation in that.

However, you are quite right about how one should view this matter of revolution. For example, I once had a colleague in the United States—because I was a graduate student at UC Berkeley, and graduate students there are very left-leaning; they feel that American society is not much different from other communist totalitarian regimes. So, I often bring up the topic of how many people have died under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. I say the highest estimate is over 70 million, which is an astronomical number. The CCP is very much oriented toward socialism and communism. As someone who studies China, I would list them out—so many here, so many there—and he would feel very uneasy. Then he would say, 'So what? We had the Kent State University shootings. How many people did the Communist Party kill? That doesn't matter; look, we also had this Kent State massacre.' The Kent State University shootings occurred during the Vietnam War when students were protesting, and the Ohio National Guard opened fire on the radical protesting students, killing four people. The deaths of these four people are considered morally equivalent to the deaths of over 70 million people under the CCP. This is the logic of my peers who are China experts; the vast majority of them think this way. Their praise and adulation for the Communist Party basically stem from this perspective—it comes from their harsh criticism of American society.

So, I tell you, in American society, as a new-generation immigrant, I very much approve of and appreciate the freedom and democracy that American society provides. Therefore, I have a comparative perspective; without a comparative perspective, it is very difficult. The most famous foreign policy expert in American history, George Kennan, had a very profound understanding of the Soviet Union throughout his life, but his understanding of the United States was a mess, and his views on the CCP were also entirely wrong. When he died, The New York Times published a very famous and classic obituary, which stated very well that Mr. George Kennan understood the Soviet communist system very well, but he did not understand the United States at all. Many Americans who study China suffer from this common flaw. Actually, I have also noticed in Taiwan that everyone talks about democracy, democracy, democracy, but very few people know, 'Hey, where does democracy come from?' In fact, if you look at John Locke's theory, first, you must acknowledge that humans have natural rights—life, property, and liberty are inalienable. Because there are natural rights, the government's duty is to protect these natural rights, so the government's power must come from the consent of the people, and if the government does not protect the people, it should be overthrown, right?

Therefore, democracy exists because of the protection of human rights. You talk about the CCP and its 'great construction,' but in its eyes, your human rights can be trampled upon and stripped away at any time; it does not exist for you. So, its 'great' achievements are actually a threat to you; how can you sing its praises? Right? But in a democratic country, regardless of what people say—'there is no place like home'—in a democratic country, your human rights are respected, and you are respected. However, in a totalitarian state, you yourself are a tool, something that can be sacrificed, right? You see many things that actually have nothing to do with you, but the essential characteristic of a communist regime is that it suppresses the people under the banner of the people. Look at the whole world; all those countries that use the name of the 'people' are basically dictatorships: the People's Republic of China, the People's Liberation Army, the National People's Congress—none of them have the people. So, these things are just ways for it to rule the people by relying on the people, and to make the people feel that being ruled is a very fortunate thing. This is a very clever tactic of the Communist Party—it's a scam, after all; it cheats you out of your money, makes you help it count the money, and then makes you thank it.

So, what is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) most afraid of? It is the truth. It is afraid of the people awakening. What it fears most is the people awakening. When young people hold up a blank sheet of paper to protest, it poses a huge threat to the regime. Therefore, the mechanism of this regime is: either I put a 100% tight-箍咒 (magic headband) on you, or I collapse. A regime with this kind of logic cannot last long in the end. I now want to use popular sovereignty and self-determination to disintegrate the Communist Party and fight for sovereignty for the Chinese people. Secondly, I want to encourage the Chinese people to launch a massive recall—recall the Communist Party, right? Learn from our experience, recall the Communist Party; people have the right to petition. You see, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, although everyone talks about freedom of speech—and protecting speech is indeed important—actually, the first point it mentions is the right to petition. In mainland China, what kind of 'protecting the people' is there? Because this is a right guaranteed by the constitution, the U.S. Constitution has it too, so this is very important.

And it needs to be specific. You see, John Locke made a great contribution by saying that the purpose of a state's existence is to protect legitimately acquired private property rights and basic human rights. Mainland China doesn't have that. In mainland China, you might make some money, but the state can take your property away at any time. People like Jack Ma don't even have protection for their property rights. Chinese society is a totalitarian, autocratic government built on some very absurd logic, and it is also highly deceptive. However, this kind of thing cannot last long. So, for the CCP regime to want to be a world leader and point the way for the world, that is a very absurd thing. So sometimes when you think about it, you realize that while the CCP regime is certainly very evil, more importantly, it is a very, very absurd country. During the early Enlightenment, there was so much sharp satirical literature, like Voltaire, that sharply satirized the injustice and the contrast in social reality. Once the people realize the absurdity of this society, then the collapse of this society will not be far off. I hope—I am optimistic, but everyone's hope is very important. So, we do this research mainly because we feel that after the Communist Party collapses, how will everyone envision their ideal society? The Communist Party's greatest skill is making the common people feel hopeless, making you feel that there is no one else who can rule you except the Communist Party. So, we must turn despair into hope, because as you just said, Mr. Cao, you put it very well: sovereignty lies with the people. Hunan belongs to the people of Hunan; you Hunanese can go back and look at Mao Zedong's ideas in 1919, you can establish a Hunan Republic, you can look forward to your future, you don't have to rely on the Communist Party. Chinese people, Americans, Spaniards, British, Taiwanese—we are all human beings, and to be a human being, one must have the dignity of a human being. So, of course, you can say there are many forms of passive resistance, like lying flat, and these things are all fine, but they are very passive. To be a human being, one must stand tall. This is easy to say but hard to do, but after all, China today is not the China of the Mao Zedong era; there is still a certain amount of space to be a human being. If everyone learns to live with dignity and develops the habit of telling the truth, then I think this will converge into a torrent, and the collapse of the Communist Party will not be far off.

So I think that although Chinese society is a deformed society, it still has some contact with the outside world. In particular, the influence of Taiwanese society on Chinese society is, I think, enormous. Ordinary people cannot say it, dare not say it, or are not allowed to say it, but I think everything you are doing now, the various political operations taking place in Taiwanese society, regardless of the ups and downs, I feel that this process itself, this mechanism itself, is a tremendous source of inspiration for the people of mainland China. Because, after all, it is a Chinese-speaking world; if the people of Taiwan can do it, and the people of Singapore can do it, then why can't mainland China? Exactly. My Facebook often receives comments from Chinese people in simplified characters saying, 'You must keep working hard, we identify with you, keep it up.' Of course, I am not as famous as you, Mr. Cao, but I have also received letters or had contact with some friends, and what they say comes from the bottom of their hearts; it is very sincere. The CCP hates both of us, and the CCP's hatred is our glory. This is a form of mutual encouragement; that is how we encourage people.

Actually, I feel that everything I do, just like you feel that everything you do, is the most ordinary thing; I think it is the most ordinary thing. You are an extraordinary person, I think so, and I am a very ordinary person. During this major recall campaign, I kept saying that I was just Volunteer No. 3, and specifically No. 3, just running along with everyone else; this is the power of the people. Well, we had a very good chat today; in just a few words, we have talked about the hope for the future. Alright, let's end our conversation here for today. Thank you, Mr. Cao, thank you everyone, and thank you for giving me this opportunity.