WASHINGTON D.C.: Global investigation into the wealth and corruption of the CCP leadership will show that the CCP’s leaders are billionaires with untold wealth in New York, Switzerland, Dubai, London, Paris, and countless other locations.
A curious but often unreported fact about the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is that they are rich. The leadership is Communist, but also extremely wealthy. No Communist should be wealthy, it is like being a married bachelor, and the CCP are expert at hiding their wealth. Precisely how did the CCP leadership gain this wealth on their nominal salaries is an important issue for the global community to explore and, especially, for the Chinese people to know.
In an important effort in this regard, United States Senator Marco Rubio has inserted language into U.S. law which tasks the intelligence community of the United States to produce an unclassified—and thus publicly available report—on the wealth and corrupt activities of the leadership of the CCP. This includes the General Secretary of the CCP, Xi Jinping, and senior leadership officials of the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Politburo Standing Committee, and regional Party Secretaries. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) will also research this and produce a study to which all people around the globe will have access.
The answers to these investigations are certain to be startling and capture the corrupt nature of the CCP. It underscores that the CCP rules China, but it is not the legitimate government of China. The CCP is illegitimate for three reasons. First, because they were formed and nurtured by the Communist International, and their seizure of power in 1949 was made possible by Stalin with his full backing and support in the wake of the defeat of Japan.
Second, as with the other poison fruits of the Bolshevik Revolution, because they seek to sustain the tyranny of the failed ideology of Marxism-Leninism on the Chinese people. The dependence upon this imported Western ideology means that at root the CCP’s ideology of Marxism-Leninism, and its Chinese idioms, Maoism and later “Xi Jinping Thought,” are illegitimate for China.
This ideology should be thought of for what it is: the last surviving form of Western colonialism, and despite the CCP’s efforts, they cannot hide the fact that they are the product of this. The “Century of Humiliation,” that defined Western imperialism in China from the First Opium War (1839-1842) to the CCP’s victory (1949) in fact has not ended. More accurately given the CCP’s colonial origins, China will soon realize its second century of humiliation.
This causes a legitimation crisis in China that provides justification for the Chinese people to labour to overthrow the CCP. Its fall would permit China to evolve into a polity which is in accord with the historical political culture of China. As a product of Western intellectual thought, Marx, Engels, and Lenin, the CCP lacks even the legitimacy of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911/1912) who were foreign, Manchu rather than Han, but who ruled successfully in accord with China’s dynastic ideology.
Third, the CCP is vulnerable because of its abhorrent and contemptible leadership and the accelerated misrule of Communist dictator Xi Jinping. It possesses odious rulers who have forced China to endure decades of misrule. Seventy years of tyranny and wars against the Chinese people have led to scores of millions killed by the Chinese regime and the recognition by the Chinese people that the regime rules for itself, not for the people.
To call attention to the tyrannical and corrupt nature of CCP leaders, states can employ their resources to reveal the details of the corruption to the Chinese people and the world. This may be accomplished by employing their intelligence communities on this topic. Journalists may also find the topic worthy of investigation. Media, perhaps most importantly social media, may highlight the CCP’s wealth and corruption to publicize and inform global populations.
Moreover, the community of nations may come together to identify the sources and location of the wealth of the CCP. What Sen. Rubio has started may be broadened. There could be a global initiative to document the wealth of the CCP leadership. Global investigation into the wealth and corruption of the CCP leadership will reveal the outlines of that base regime. No doubt, it will find that the CCP’s leaders are billionaires with untold wealth in New York, Switzerland, Dubai, London, Paris, and countless other locations. While that has been long suspected, the revelation of the facts will be important for the Chinese people and the world to know.
The impact of this research would be magnified if other states, such as Australia, India, Japan, and EU members did as well. In Europe, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, among others, have taken important steps to highlight the risks of the PRC’s economic warfare against the EU, and might provide the European anchor of such a global effort.
Efforts to de-legitimate and undermine the CCP are important for three reasons. First, strategically, the most effective strategy to defeat the CCP’s ambition and to target the CCP’s demise. The CCP’s legitimation crisis is at hand. They failed, as all Communist governments do. The Chinese people know it, the Party does, and likely Xi himself sees the truth.
Second, by accurately identifying its weaknesses, such as the obscene and ill-gotten wealth of its leadership, policies may be developed that assist its fall and permit states like India, Japan, and the United States to prepare for its demise. The ideological crisis of legitimacy, the increasing paranoid rule of Xi and ever-tightening circles of fear among the Party leadership provide important paths to the fall of the CCP. Accordingly, the study of the wealth and corruption of the CCP leadership contributes to its legitimation crisis and hastens the end of the regime.
Third, exposing its corruption is essential for the global community to recognize its illegitimacy and that the CCP beyond the bounds of acceptable behaviour in international society. Thus, openly planning for a post-Communist China is an appropriate global response. The world has done this before. For instance, sanctioning the apartheid regime of South Africa while supporting Nelson Mandela in his struggle against the regime was ultimately successful. India, of course, led in this noble effort.
These actions that the global community, the Chinese Diaspora, and people of goodwill around the world may undertake will place the Party under pressure.
Knowing how many billions Xi, his family, and Party comrades have in overseas banks, properties, and other assets is significant to reveal the true corrupt nature of the CCP leadership, with specific amounts and locations documented. That will allow the victims of the CCP to move to seize those assets. Equally, it will allow the Chinese people and the world to see proof of the CCP’s gross misrule and abuse of the country and the Chinese people. Bold actions may spark the events that lead to their overthrow.
Paul Berkowitz covered Asia and the Pacific for the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Benjamin A. Gilman, who in 2001 was given the Padme Vibhusan award for Public Affairs.
Bradley A. Thayer is the coauthor with James Fanell of “Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure”.