Understanding the CPC

I once asked Dr. Henry Kissinger whether he had seen any Marxist classics in late Chairman Mao Zedong’s personal library, since Mao had received him there multiple times. His answer was probably not. Nevertheless, there were all kinds of thread-stitched books, all Chinese classics.

A deeper understanding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is crucial to the reconstruction of China-U.S. mutual political confidence, because many American misconceptions about China home in on how to understand the CPC.

Misapprehensions

• Seeing China as an outsider that can be assimilated

Some people lament the failure of the U.S. policy of engaging China, a strategy which first took shape under former President Richard Nixon. Seeing they had already successfully