They make a desert and call it ‘peace’. -Tacitus, Agricola1 Weaponizing History: The CCP’s War of Words against Memory Tony Serna September 2019 Academic Disclaimer: The views expressed in this research are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy of United States Indo-Pacific Command, the Department of Defense, of the United States Government. 1 “It is no use trying to escape their arrogance by submission or good behavior. They have pillaged the world: when the land has nothing left for men who ravage everything, they scour the sea. If an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if he is poor, they crave glory. Neither East nor West can sate their appetite. They are the only people to covet both wealth and poverty with equal craving. They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of ’empire’. They make a desert and call it ‘peace’” 1 *** “This is a huge mistake, probably one of the biggest in my career,” lamented Craig Smith, president of Marriott’s Asia Pacific Office. He was pleading to the (state-run) paper China Daily for forgiveness for his company’s actions, which had “appeared to undermine Marriott’s long held respect for China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.2” The problem? A third party contractor for Marriott had sent a promotional email to members of Marriott’s loyalty program that included a drop-down menu question; “What is your country of residence?” The menu unfortunately included separate options for China, Tibet, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. To compound the misfortune, a suddenly overwhelmed and confused customer service employee for Marriott’s Twitter feed in Nebraska accidentally liked a received tweet instead of dismissing it. The tweet was from Friends of Tibet, a pro-independence lobby group, congratulating Marriott for recognizing Tibet as a country along with Hong Kong and Taiwan. That accidental like on twitter was what caused the Marriott executive to grovel for mercy from the state-owned Chinese press, prompted the international hotel giant to issue an “eight point rectification plan” to appease the offended Chinese nation, and resulted in the bewildered Nebraska call center employee being fired, all having learned a very costly lesson in the Chinese Communist Party’s interpretation of history. Invigorated by this glorious victory, Chinese netizens prowled the part of the internet that they could access over the weeks that followed, searching for other national offences in drop down menus. Delta Airlines was found guilty of the “grave mistake” of listing Taiwan as a separate county, and publicly apologized for the “emotional damage caused to the Chinese people.3” The Civil Aviation Administration of China then issued a directive to 44 other international airlines, demanding that they list Taiwan as a part of China on their websites. In 2018 every major airline kowtowed to Beijing. This is the conquest of Taiwan- with weaponized history. Beijing authorities have progressively eroded the international perception and recognition that Taiwan has been an empirically independent country for seven decades. Despite its continued existence as a free democracy with a professional military and a powerful economy, Taiwan is being obliterated by the People’s Republic of China in a psychological war on memory- like Tibet of yesterday and Hong Kong of today. The tools of this war are words. Political reality can be bent by twisting historical narratives around specifically chosen vocabulary. When professionals in the arts of influence spend effort in choosing words and terms there is usually a good reason. It should also be remembered that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is an organization whose whole root, core, and brain is constructed around and intensely focused on influence; and it has a very special concern with certain words, phrases, and terms. 2 Griffiths, James. The Great Firewall of China. London: Zed. 2019. 309. 3 Kinetz, Erika. “Airlines obey Beijing’s demand to call Taiwan part of China”. Shanghai: Associated Press. May 22, 2018. https://www.apnews.com/6f55419ce6a9449687b91f3fdfb3417d 2 This paper will examine a few of the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party-state to bend reality to its ideology through a fanatical adherence to and promotion of its historical propaganda; first through a brief overview of how history works as a tool of the Chinese state inside China, and then though a few examples of how Beijing is now waging historical warfare against the world. Most people don’t instinctively know Chinese history, and can only unwittingly acquiesce to the version forcefully peddled by Beijing. So here follows some outlawed Chinese history. Controlling History in China It is becoming more widely known that the People’s Republic of China features an amazing and dystopic party-state controlled information environment. The CCP system and structure which controls all information in the country is an unprecedented achievement in human history. The party has long perfected its supremacy over print, radio, television, and film; but the internet behind the Great Firewall of the PRC is its own new universe in so many ways. It is an echo chamber of epic proportions, and only the Party gets to decide which sounds resonate. YouTube is censored. Wikipedia is blocked. Google is banned. There is instead a Chinese version of everything that outsiders are familiar with, and so much more! Super apps like WeChat can do everything- Facebook, Venmo, LinkedIn, and banking, all-in-one. The successful apps and digital enterprises are owned and operated by billion-dollar, nominally private, but state-supervised companies, and all employ their own teams of censors. Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, and Sina are just a few well known examples. The rules of censorship in mainland China are intentionally vague and ambiguous.4 The specific limits of what is and is not allowed are often left undefined to encourage self-censorship and carefulness of expression so that nothing said should get too close to the sensitive limits of Party-approved thought. This method is effective at an individual level as users self-censor to prevent having their online access slowed, restricted, or blocked altogether. Proactive censorship also makes business sense, as the big social media companies will employ teams of censors to cleanse their platforms of disruptive thoughts and ensure that lucrative Party favor is sustained. CCP style censorship ensures that information is harmonized with Party guidance to ensure what the New York Times has described as “ideological security.”5 This style of thought coercion is a traditional element of CCP media governance, but in the cyber realm the struggle between the CCP and the Chinese people is more dynamic. 4 Link, Perry. “China: The Anaconda in the Chandelier”. April 11, 2002. China File. http://www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb-china-archive/china-anaconda-chandelier 5 Wong, Edward. “Chinese Security Laws Elevate the Party and Stifle Dissent. Mao Would Approve.” The New York Times. May 29, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/asia/chinese-national-security-law-aims-to-defend- party-grip-on-power.html 3 The results can often seem humorous; Winnie the Pooh is censored. So are political posts about River Crabs and Bolivian Alpacas.6 But May 35th is also a term that is forbidden, because it, like many other creative but banned mathematical combinations, are evasive ways of saying June the 4th - the most sensitive date on the Chinese internet; the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square and Beijing Massacre in 1989- also known as “Chinese Internet Maintenance Day.”7 The memory of that historical event has been effectively purged from the consciousness of mainland China as part of a monumental effort to build a harmonious future society where events like that never occur again. It isn’t mentioned in books or film, or featured in museums. Many writers cite anecdotes of mainland students studying abroad who are surprised to learn of the events for the first time, but end up rationalizing the correct actions of the party-state. Eric Fish, author of a book on Chinese millennials, quoted two Beijing graduate students who told him: “’I really feel bad for those students, but politically speaking, maybe it was necessary,’ one of them said, pointing to the incoherence of the protestors’ demands and the authoritarian traits some of the more radical student leaders displayed. ‘Things look different once it becomes history,’ the other student added, claiming that the massacre facilitated necessary economic reforms by ending unrest and establishing order. ‘Tiananmen looks bad, but maybe there were some good things. Chinese really want stability above all else.’”8 The erasure of the past in order to impose a better future is a common feature of Marxist societies, because Marx’s Historical Materialism philosophy is grounded in a radically different perspective of history and concepts of historical memory. Investigative journalist Joshua Phillip spoke of this in an interview on Marxist philosophy; “I’ve heard it described before as a war against memory. The people who live under these systems (say) that there’s a constant war against memory. That they (the party) don’t want you to remember what life was before.”9 In August 1966 Mao launched his infamous campaign against the “Four Olds” – Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, Old Ideas. Legacies of pre-Communist China: temples, books, and old emperors’ bones, were dug up, denounced, and burned to ash during the throes of the Cultural Revolution. Similar events accompanied other Marxist revolutions in the twentieth century, overturning the former bourgeois dialectics, structures, and traditions. 6 The Alpaca, a ‘Grass Mud Horse’, is a near homonym for a Mandarin profanity about mothers. River Crab is a near homonym for harmony; both are symbols of creative digital resistance against Chinese censorship.