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journals. Quite possibly, an individual would not encounter information
challenging the politically correct interpretations. It thus became easy for
people to conclude that the narrative they constantly heard was the way
things actually had been, and were. The message of CCP propaganda became
for them the truth.
Regarding the content of the campaign of “Patriotic Education,” a
“Dictionary of Patriotic Education” published in 1991 provided a “com-
pete and systematic reference” for use by “educational workers of all sorts”
and “propaganda workers” in party organizations and factories. It defined
“peaceful evolution” thus:
A strategic plan in which imperialist countries use methods other than
war to achieve internal transformation of socialist countries. The ex-
istence of socialist countries in the world poses a severe challenge to
the existence and development of capitalism. Therefore, capitalist forces
will always use subversion to exterminate socialist countries and the
socialist system.^29
“Peaceful evolution” was a type of “smokeless world war” in which capi-
talism was trying to destroy socialism. Methods used included military pres-
sure, ideological infiltration, seduction via economic cooperation, flying the
human rights banner, and developing pro-Western forces within China. The
goal was to cause socialist China to join the capitalist system.
How accurate was (and is) this vision of a long-term US strategy to un-
dermine and ultimately overthrow China’s CCP government? There is no ev-
idence of US strategy to overthrow the CCP government or the PRC state
itself. Authoritative periodic statements of US national security policy, Asian
policy, and China policy consistently indicate that, since 1972, the US objec-
tive vis-à-vis the PRC has been to cooperate in areas of common interest as
part of a broader effort to build a basically cooperative and friendly relation-
ship. This finding is bolstered by the memoirs of dozens of US presidents, cab-
inet secretaries, national security advisors and ambassadors who also depict
the US objective toward CCP-ruled China as a quest for cooperation. This
conclusion is bolstered further by a half dozen studies of US China policy by
reputable scholars who have delved into the histories and archives of that pol-
icy and found there essentially the same quest for cooperation with the PRC.
But that is only part of the picture. There is abundant evidence that US pol-
icies have sought and still seek to nudge China, slowly and gradually, toward
liberalization and eventually democracy. When testifying before congressio-
nal committees to request funding for radio broadcasts or exchange programs
with China, or justifying expanded trade with China, heads of executive
agencies have frequently advanced these justifications. When leaders of lib-
eral democratic countries decided to financially support exchanges of jour-
nalists, scholars, or aspiring young leaders, or to support “bewitching” radio