Chapter 19
The Hundred-Year Marathon Just Awakens from a Dream

II. Two Hundred-Year Plans: Picking Up Fragments of Wisdom

However, it is not entirely baseless to say that China aims to fully surpass the United States by 2049. When CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping first took office, he proposed the “two Centenary Goals”: to build a moderately prosperous society by the CCP’s 100th anniversary in 2021, and to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in 2049. The so-called “great rejuvenation” must mean restoring China’s former strength. After all, for thousands of years, China was the world’s number one power. Before the Qing dynasty, China’s GDP accounted for over half of the world’s total, and it only began to decline after the Opium War. It is natural for a nation to want to regain its past prosperity and glory; even Trump’s campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again.” But to say China harbored ambitions to replace the US as hegemon during Mao Zedong’s era is rather incredible, since China was very poor at the time. However, recalling the Great Leap Forward slogan “surpass Britain and catch the US,” Pillsbury’s statement does have some trace of truth.

Pillsbury wrote in his book that this plan to surpass the US within a hundred years is not written on paper or locked in Zhongnanhai’s safe, but is in the hearts of China’s successive leaders. They have never slackened, always striving toward this goal — to wash away a hundred years of national humiliation. They want to deceive the world, show weakness to Americans, avoid attracting the attention of the superpower, and yet obtain comprehensive American assistance. To illustrate the art of Chinese strategic deception, Pillsbury ranges from the Thirty-Six Stratagems to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, from the Warring States struggles to the chronicles of Wu and Yue, from the Chinese game of Go to the concept of “shi” (strategic momentum), from the Battle of Red Cliffs to other battles where the weak defeated the strong. In short, for thousands of years, the Chinese have perfected deception into a consummate art — a thoroughly utilized strategic tool. What pains Pillsbury most is that Americans themselves helped China achieve the great goal of surpassing the US!

However, despite his verbosity, Pillsbury seems to have forgotten Zou Rong, the revolutionary pioneer of the Chinese revolution, who over a hundred years ago proposed the idea of a hundred-year marathon to overthrow the Qing and defeat foreign powers, without any worship of foreign powers by either the Kuomintang or the CCP.

In the conclusion of his last testament book The Revolutionary Army, Zou Rong wrote—

“Our 400 million Han Chinese men and women, old and young, consider revolution a duty for all, and revolution as necessary as daily food and drink. Do not despair! Do not give up! Your territory occupies two-thirds of Asia, your people are one-fifth of the earth’s population, your tea supplies billions worldwide, your coal can fuel the world for two thousand years. You are the harbingers of the Yellow Peril, the divine race’s power. You have politics — govern yourselves; you have laws — obey yourselves; you have industry — manage yourselves; you have military — organize yourselves; you have land — protect yourselves; you have endless wealth—wield it yourselves. You truly have the full qualifications for revolutionary independence. You should lead your 400 million compatriots, plead for your people, plead for your homeland. Throw your heads, expose your livers and brains, fight with your eternal enemies, the Manchus and the Aisin Gioro clan, charging through gunfire and smoke; then sweep away the devils who violate your sovereignty; cleanse the stains from your national history; let your homeland’s honor soar; raise your independence flag high into the clouds; ring your freedom bell in Yucheng; build your independence hall at the center; erect your monument in the high winds; your god of freedom points left to the sky, right to the earth, appearing for you. Alas! Heaven clear and earth white, a thunderclap wakes the sleeping lion after thousands of years to dance — this is revolution, this is independence.”

Long live the revolutionary independence of the Han race! Long live the Republic of China! Long live the freedom of the 400 million compatriots of the Republic of China!

It can be said that Mr. Zou Rong was the true pioneer of the hundred-year marathon, and the CCP’s “two Centenary Goals” are but a mere picking up of its fragments.