Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1225-W845

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1225-W845

Release Date: July 9, 2019

发布日：2019年7月9日

Topic: Is Communist Regime Not an Enemy? -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：中共不是敌人吗？ -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

Note: Please use "Simplified Chinese (GB2312)" encoding to view the Chinese parts of this release. If this mail does not display properly in your email program, please send your request for special delivery to us or visit:

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Is Communist Regime Not an Enemy?

-- Wei Jingsheng

A few days ago, nearly a hundred American scholars and experts published an open letter entitled "China is not an enemy". The "China" they talked about means the Communist regime. The Chinese people began laughing after hearing this: Every day, the Chinese Communist Party proclaims that the United States is our enemy, and these Americans are saying we are not their enemy, are they stupid? Becoming friends requires a mutual attitude by both sides, but becoming an enemy only needs one side. Don't these Americans have any common sense?

Of course this is not so. Some of them are people I am familiar with, and I know that they are not only not stupid, but they are actually extremely intelligent people. But just as ordinary people in general can see at a glance, they are speaking on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the title is to provide cover for the Communist regime. It is a common method of sophistry, hiding the mistake in the main premise.

However, the article has at least two points that are correct. First, it acknowledges that the CCP is increasingly becoming a threat to the United States and the free world. This is a bit of a violation of the implication of the title. The second is to point out that President Trump's big mistake is that he should not attack allies on all sides. Since it is a war, even if it is a trade war, we must abide by the art of war that the ancients summed up from their failures: concentrate superior forces against the main enemy. Attacking the world and treating all sides as the enemy is the mistake of all losers.

However, these two correct points seem not be the conclusions of the article; the conclusions are hidden elsewhere in its narrative. The biggest mistake in these other discussions is that they believe the leadership of the CCP is not monolithic, that there are some who support reform and democracy and freedom, as well as fair trade. Trump's hostile behavior supported the hardliners and struck at these clear-headed people, which does not help solve the problem.

This is another typical sophistry. Will the pressure on Xi Jinping's tough confrontation lead to the suppression of the reformists? This premise is wrong. The widespread view in the Chinese intellectual community is that all major reforms during the Communist Party's rule are the last choice under pressure from both inside and outside. They have never had the desire to take the initiative to reform.

This conclusion is so simple and consistent with common sense. The power and quality of life of dictators are so superior, why would they get rid of these advantages? The incentives for reform will only emerge in circumstances where there is a huge threat. And in all cases, the threat is the main reason why the reformists can persuade others. This is true even in a democratic society.

There is also another obvious error in logic. That is to say that it is Trump's policy to turn the CCP into an enemy. This is the trick of disguised replacement of concept in the course of sophistry. The CCP not only promotes the United States as their enemy every day, but also takes hostile acts in all political, economic, cultural, and diplomatic situations. Only when they are clearly at a disadvantage will they adopt the strategy of keeping a low profile and biding their time.

The meaning of keeping a low profile and biding their time is that if they can't overcome you now, they will wait until they increase their strength or you make a mistake, then they will fight again and defeat you. This is a strategy even for small animals, hiding oneself and waiting for the right opportunity to eat you in the next round.

I think most people, including Americans and Chinese, all know that the Communists' dictatorial regime is the enemy of mankind. This open letter publicly acknowledges that the Communist Party not only does evil in China, but also penetrates into Western countries to pilfer and brainwash. Then the writers use sophistry arguments to prove that these thieves and bullies are not our enemies. Judging by common sense, aren't these clever scholars punching their own mouths?

Is the Trump government using tough measures to suppress these thieves and rogues just to turn the thieves and hooligans into our enemies? This is equivalent to saying that thieves and rogues become our enemies because there are police. I'm afraid such strange logic is probably not the logic of normal people.

I am very supportive of the only correct conclusion in this article: Since we know that this is a trade war, we should not attack all sides and push our allies into the enemy camp. As a businessman, you can be an enemy of all businessmen, because there are laws that protect your inalienable rights. In war and international politics, you don't have enough legal protection. You can only rely on defeating your enemy to protect yourself and your allies.

Original link of this commentary:

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-07102019140909.html

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2019/WeiJS190708onEnemyChina.mp3

(Written and recorded on July 8, 2019. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia.)

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1225-W845

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1225-W845

Release Date: July 9, 2019

发布日：2019年7月9日

Topic: Is Communist Regime Not an Enemy? -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：中共不是敌人吗？ -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问：

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2019/report2019-07/WeiJS190709onEnemyChinaA1225-W845.htm

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中共不是敌人吗？

-- 魏京生

前几天，有近百位美国学者专家发表了一篇公开信，标题叫做“中国不是敌人”。他们的中国是指中共政权。中国人民听见后都笑起来了：中国共产党每天都在宣传美国是我们的敌人，美国人却在说什么我们不是敌人，傻呀？成为朋友需要双方的态度，成为敌人只需要一方。美国人没常识吗？

当然不是。他们中一些人是我熟悉的人，我知道他们不仅不傻，而且都是聪明绝顶的人。正如一般人一眼就能看出来的，他们在替共产党说话，标题就是在替共产党打掩护。是诡辩论的常用手法，把错误藏在前提里。

不过文章里至少有两点是正确的。一是承认中共越来越成为美国和自由世界的威胁，这有点违反标题的含义。二是指出了川普总统的一大失策，不应该四面出击打击盟友。既然是战争，哪怕是贸易战，也要遵守古人从失败中总结出来的兵法：集中优势力量打击主要的敌人。四面出击与全世界为敌，这是所有失败者犯过的错误。

不过这正确的两点并不是文章的结论，结论隐藏在其它的论述中。这些其它的论述中最大的错误，就是认为中共的领导层并不是铁板一块，其中也有拥护改革和民主自由，以及公平贸易的人。川普的敌对行为支持了强硬派，打击了这些头脑清醒的人，无助于问题的解决。

这又是一个典型的诡辩论。对习近平强硬对抗的压力，一定会导致对改革派的压制吗？这个前提就是错误的。中国知识界的普遍说法，是共产党执政时期的所有重大改革，都是在内外压力下不得已的选择。他们从来没有主动改革的愿望。

这个结论如此简单，符合常识。独裁者们的权利和生活质量那么优越，他们为什么要改掉这些优越性呢？只有在受到巨大威胁的情况下，才会产生改革的动机。而且在所有的情况下，威胁是改革派说服别人的主要理由。即使在民主社会里也是这样。

还有一个明显的逻辑错误，就是说川普的政策在把中共变成敌人，这就是诡辩论手法里的偷换概念。中共不但每天在宣传美国是他们的敌人，而且在政治、经济、文化和外交的所有场合，都采取敌对的行为。只有在他们明显处于劣势的时候，他们才会采取韬光养晦的策略。

韬光养晦的意思就是：我现在打不过你就不和你打，等到我增强了实力或者你犯了错误的时候，再把你打败。这是连小动物都会的计策，把自己隐藏起来等待合适的机会，再一举吃掉你。

我想大部分人，包括美国人和中国人都知道，共产党的专制政权是人类的敌人。这封公开信也承认共产党不仅在中国作恶，而且渗透到西方国家来偷窃和洗脑。然后他们用诡辩的手法来论证这些贼和恶霸不是我们的敌人。按照常识来判断，这些聪明的学者不是在打自己的嘴巴吗？

难道川普政府用强硬的手段压制这些小偷和流氓，就是把小偷和流氓变成我们的敌人了吗？这等于在说因为有了警察，小偷和流氓才变成我们的敌人。这样奇怪的逻辑，恐怕不是正常人的逻辑。

我很支持他们这篇文章里唯一正确的结论：既然知道这是一场贸易战，就不应该四面出击，把自己的盟友推到敌人的阵营中去。作为商人你可以和所有的商人为敌，因为有法律保障了你不可剥夺的权利。在战争和国际政治中，你没有足够的法律保障。只能靠打败敌人来保障自己和盟友。

本篇评论在自由亚洲电台的原始链接：

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-07102019140909.html