1. The United States Proposed Peaceful Transformation as Early as the 1950s

In the 1950s, the United States proposed the idea of “peaceful transformation”—the peaceful transformation of communist countries. This was first put forward in the 1950s by the renowned U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1889–1959) and was formally adopted as national policy by President Eisenhower. Dulles was a well-known hardline anti-communist. In 1956, Khrushchev’s report denouncing Stalin gave Dulles hope that the Soviet Union might undergo peaceful transformation. However, Dulles never found a viable way to peacefully transform communist regimes. With his death in 1959, the idea of peacefully transforming communist parties faded away. In the 1960s, the United States sent Peace Corps volunteers to some poor countries, but most of their work involved charitable assistance and had nothing to do with peaceful transformation.

Dulles’s intention to promote peaceful transformation in communist-ruled countries made Mao Zedong extremely sensitive and anxious. Mao said: “Peaceful transformation is impossible in my generation, impossible in the next generation as well, but by the third generation there will be danger.” Mao therefore proposed countermeasures against peaceful transformation and emphasized training communist successors.

In 1972, U.S. President Nixon went to Beijing and bowed and shook hands with Mao Zedong, possibly harboring hopes of peacefully transforming the Chinese Communist Party. However, Nixon stepped down because of the Watergate scandal. His visit was limited to a “journey of breaking the ice,” and any potential peaceful transformation again came to nothing.

2. The Collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and Its Revival

It was not until 1991 that the Soviet empire collapsed. The collapse was mainly due to its inability to withstand the pressure of the arms race, economic decline, and public dissatisfaction with worsening living conditions. The renowned American scholar Francis Fukuyama (born 1952) published The End of History and the Last Man, which gained worldwide fame and concluded that “liberal democracy is the final form.” However, the Soviet ideological problem was never truly resolved. In the 2000s, Putin revived dictatorship and resurrected the dream of a Greater Russian Empire. In 2022, Russia even sent troops into Ukraine, attempting to annex it, and brandished nuclear weapons to threaten Ukraine, which had given up 3,000 nuclear warheads.

In 1996, another prominent American scholar, Samuel Huntington (1927–2008), published The Clash of Civilizations. He argued that the threat posed by conflict between communism and Western liberal democracy had been resolved, and that future global conflicts would be “civilizational conflicts,” particularly between Christian civilization and Islamic civilization, and secondarily between Western and Eastern (Chinese) civilizations. In reality, civilizations have never truly clashed; civilizations only influence and absorb one another. What Huntington actually described was religious conflict. Both Christianity and Islam regard the figures they worship—Jesus and Allah—as the one true God. Historically, countless religious wars were essentially two “true gods” fighting each other. Yet both sides also believe that Jesus and Allah are sons or messengers of the same God, sent by God to the world. If both recognize that they share the same God, then where is the conflict? What civilizational clash remains?

Huntington also failed to see that although the Soviet Union had disintegrated, its ideology had not been resolved. Putin, a rebranded communist, established one-man dictatorship and lifelong leadership, and still launched a war against Ukraine. The world’s primary contradiction remains that between communism and the free world—especially with the Chinese Communist Party still in existence. The CCP has never acknowledged the collapse of the Soviet Union as a lesson.

3. Clinton’s Failure to Peacefully Transform China

President Clinton granted the Chinese Communist Party permanent Most-Favored-Nation trade status. Massive economic assistance was intended to peacefully transform the CCP, but eight years of such policies only fattened the regime. Freedom and democracy did not appear; Jiang Zemin remained authoritarian and continued suppressing democracy. Peaceful transformation failed. The changes touched only the surface, while the core remained intact. Attempts to achieve peaceful transformation through economic aid ultimately failed.

The correct path lies in ideology. In 2006, a wave of enthusiasm for Confucius arose in China with the popularity of “Yu Dan Lectures on Confucius.” Television stations responded to the spiritual needs of the public, calling upon traditional Confucian thought to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of communist ideals. Within just two years, a “Confucius fever” swept across mainland China. Yu Dan, with her attractive image and fluent eloquence, spoke endlessly about her personal insights from studying the Analects. However, she focused mainly on personal cultivation and did not address Confucius’s ideas on governance, touching only the surface of Confucian thought. Yu Dan lectured both domestically and abroad and was also warmly received among overseas Chinese communities.

4. Hu Jintao’s Failed Effort to Erect Confucius, and America’s Indifference

Eventually, however, Yu Dan displayed celebrity arrogance abroad. Her outbursts of anger over service dissatisfaction damaged her reputation and exposed that her Confucian “self-cultivation” remained only at the level of words. Media coverage ruined her image, and she could no longer continue. The Yu Dan craze came to an end. Yet the seeds she planted had begun to sprout. The Confucius fever did not stop. By 2000, a film about Confucius was produced, and Hu Jintao personally attended events to encourage it. This development culminated in the spring of 2012, when Hu Jintao approved the erection of a nine-ton (including the base) statue of Confucius on the east side of Tiananmen Square.

The Confucius statue was hugely popular. Ordinary people went to worship it. When the news reached the “supreme elder” Jiang Zemin, he became extremely sensitive. He remembered Mao Zedong’s words: “If Confucius is brought back, the Communist Party will be finished.” Jiang Zemin ordered the statue removed. Three months later, in the dead of night, without public knowledge, a massive crane lifted the Confucius statue into a museum. To this day, it remains stored away.

The attempt to peacefully transform the CCP through the revival of Confucius suffered a major setback, yet the United States stood by and remained indifferent. In 2014, after Xi Jinping came to power, ostensibly to repay Hu Jintao, he swiftly handed over two chairmanships. He quietly visited Qufu, Confucius’s hometown, picked up a copy of the Analects, and said, “I must study and research this carefully.” He also lectured at the Party School on Confucius’s ideas of self-cultivation, winning praise from the public and from Hu Jintao. All of this, however, was merely for show. Later, Xi stopped talking about Confucius altogether.

5. Reviving Confucius and Laozi Is the Only Path to Peaceful Transformation

Reviving Confucius is the true path to peacefully transforming the Chinese Communist Party—there is no other way. Mao Zedong already stated it plainly: “If Confucius is brought back, the Communist Party will be finished.” The Communist Party only has appeal in inciting the poor to rebel; Marxism has long gone bankrupt. Confucius, by contrast, possesses rich intellectual and cultural resources sufficient to overcome the CCP’s defects and achieve a great civilizational revival. As long as Xi Jinping is in power, the CCP cannot truly revive Confucius. Even the establishment of Confucius Institutes is a sham. Xi Jinping’s real aim is to return to Mao Zedong’s path; Mao and Confucius are fundamentally incompatible. The United States must seize the initiative in reviving Confucius and support Hu Jintao, who was sidelined by Xi and who genuinely wished to revive Confucian culture.

The first step should be to buy back the nine-ton Confucius statue that Jiang Zemin ordered removed and erect it in front of the U.S. Capitol, symbolizing America’s leadership of the Confucian Century. If Xi Jinping refuses to sell it, the United States should create an identical statue and erect it in front of the Capitol, thereby firmly holding the initiative in reviving Confucius.

The United States should promote the idea that Confucian teachings are of the same nature as Christian doctrine—that Confucius and Christ are brothers. President Lincoln long ago said, “Confucius belongs to America.” Emerson said, “Confucius is the Washington of philosophy.” American media frequently quote Confucius.

Mao Zedong’s crimes were monstrous and he has long been despised by the people, yet Xi Jinping revived Mao, pretending to study Confucius while actually strangling him, deceiving the public. Xi’s ability to revive Mao stems from the fact that Mao has never been thoroughly criticized; Party media still revere Mao, while Confucius cannot raise his head. Criticizing Mao and reviving Confucius must proceed simultaneously. The United States should strongly fund all efforts that criticize Mao and honor Confucius.

Once Confucius is revived, the peaceful transformation of the CCP will arrive. Peacefully transforming the CCP is far easier than transforming the Soviet Communist Party, because China has Confucius, while Russia does not. Once Confucius is truly revived, communist ideology will truly collapse and will never be able to return. China and the United States will return to the path of friendly relations seen in the era of Empress Dowager Cixi and President Roosevelt. Cixi once made an exception to invite an American female painter into the palace to paint her portrait for three months, producing a giant portrait that was presented to Roosevelt, with a formal acceptance ceremony held at the White House. The painting is still preserved in an American art museum today, showing the depth of that relationship. For 300 years—from the Qing dynasty through the Republic of China—China and the United States never came into conflict, until the advent of Mao’s communism. With the revival of Confucius, Sino–American friendship will be rebuilt. Peaceful Confucius guarantees Sino–American friendship.

6. The Revival of Confucius and Laozi Requires Strong American Support

The United States rose onto the world stage in the 20th century. Theodore Roosevelt completely overturned Washington’s principle of “only mind America’s own affairs.” In 1907, Roosevelt sent the most advanced U.S. warships to circle the globe for over a year, displaying American strength and announcing America’s arrival as a global power. Thereafter, in World War I, once the United States entered the war, the outcome was decided. In World War II, U.S. participation for three years determined victory. Roosevelt allied with Stalin to defeat Hitler, helping Stalin rise and expand the communist empire. Truman, obsessed with American-style two-party politics during the Chinese Civil War, forced the Nationalist army to halt fighting for four critical months, allowing the Communists to counterattack and win, leading to the loss of China—an error attributable to Truman.

In 1972, at a critical moment when Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution had failed and Lin Biao had fled and died in a plane crash, Nixon flew to Beijing and effectively rescued Mao. In 1989, during the million-strong pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square, President Bush stood aside and did not support it, resulting in the downfall of two General Secretaries, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, and the failure of the democratic movement. In the 2000s, Clinton, obsessed with economic aid, fantasized that the CCP would peacefully transform into a free democracy, but instead only fattened Jiang Zemin, with no freedom or democracy emerging. During Biden’s presidency, the United States stood aside during the struggle between Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang’s opposing faction, allowing Xi to secure an unprecedented third term.

Russia’s current politics and China’s current politics are both closely tied to America’s decisive influence. America’s leadership in world affairs over the past century is an indisputable fact—success or failure alike depend on the United States. For a hundred years, the world has watched America perform on the global stage. China’s rise and decline have always had decisive American influence behind them.

When Hu Jintao’s effort to erect the Confucius statue failed, peaceful transformation was interrupted. Then Xi Jinping came to power and revived Mao, while the United States again made the mistake of indifference. Had the United States supported Hu Jintao’s revival of Confucius at that critical moment, Xi Jinping might never have come to power. China’s present situation is, for better or worse, inseparable from America. The world cannot do without American leadership.

Today, once again proposing the revival of Confucius and Laozi still requires the United States to play a leading role. If President Biden remains inactive, the revival of Confucius and Laozi will find it difficult to achieve anything substantial.