The Dragon Dances on Quicksand
- ACAT Speaker Jennifer Zeng on How the Evils of Chinese Communism
Carry the Seeds of Their Own Demise
By Michael V. Clinton
March 2025
Jennifer Zeng is a renowned writer, speaker, and communism survivor. She was born in China in 1966. She had an eye-opening experience regarding the nature of communism when the government forced her to have an abortion, which, in addition to the grave psychological toll it took, almost killed her due to medical complications and negligence. She found spiritual healing and hope in the teachings of Falun Gong. When the government discovered her involvement, she suffered brutal repression, including multiple arrests and torture during her labor camp internment. She testifies to the cruelty and viciousness of the horrendous communist regime.
In 2001, she managed to escape to Australia and was later followed by her daughter. She published her best-selling book Witnessing History in 2005. She currently lives in the USA, hosts her channel “Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng”, and is a contributor to Japan Forward.
At ACAT, we are truly honored to have her as one of our speakers. I had the privilege of interviewing her regarding her life experience and the current situation in China. In her answers, she shared her wisdom and advice in great detail and offered a clear, thoughtful, and sincere message to young people, many of whom have been severely misled about socialism, communism, socialism, and the Chinese government (Chinese Communist Party - CCP).
ACAT: From your knowledge, how does Communist China compare with other communist countries? What are the similarities? Are there any significant differences? What does this say about the nature of communism?
Jennifer Zeng (“JZ”): Yes, there are both similarities and significant differences between Communist China and other communist countries. The similarities include: the Ideological Foundation; the Highly Centralized Party Control; the State Ownership and Planning; the Repression of Dissent; and the Cult of Personality.
Significant Differences include:
Economic Evolution: Unlike the Soviet Union, which clung to a rigid planned economy until its collapse in 1991, Communist China pivoted under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s toward “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” This hybrid system blends state control with limited market reforms, allowing private enterprise and foreign investment to fuel growth. Today, Communist China’s economy is the world’s second largest, a stark contrast to Cuba’s stagnation or North Korea’s isolation. Vietnam has followed a similar path with its Doi Moi reforms, but China’s scale and global integration are unmatched.
Leveraging globalization, the WTO, and the West’s appeasement policy toward the CCP, as well as the West’s lack of understanding of the CCP’s evil nature, China has stolen Western intellectual property and technology while using state power, market dumping, and low-cost, abnormal competition to rapidly expand its strength. It has deeply integrated with Western countries, infiltrating them from within and weakening the free world. By exploiting loopholes in the laws, systems, humanity, and morality of various nations, it erodes freedom to a degree and poses a substantive threat to the free world far greater than all other communist countries, including all those that have ever existed.
More adept at deception. Starting with Deng Xiaoping’s slogan of “reform and opening up,” the Chinese Communist Party convinced the world that it could gradually become part of the free world. When it reclaimed Hong Kong, its “one country, two systems” rhetoric led the world to widely believe that the CCP could tolerate a free Hong Kong. “Panda hugging” was once a mainstream trend and practice in Washington. No other communist country has ever gained such widespread recognition and support in the Western world as China has.
Global influence. As mentioned earlier, the CCP has utilized the Western world to achieve a level of global influence that other communist countries have never attained. In key global organizations like the United Nations and the World Health Organization, the CCP can even play a leading and manipulative role.
Degree of moral corruption. In terms of moral decay, Communist China has far surpassed other communist countries. Especially after the CCP’s suppression of Falun Gong, in order to attack the principles of “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance” advocated by Falun Gong, the CCP has deliberately indulged and even encouraged evil acts among its citizens, including the systematic live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. Under the corruption of massive commercial profits, China has become a vast crime scene. Ordinary Chinese people, especially children and young adults, are no longer safe, as anyone could become a victim of forced organ harvesting or other criminal acts at any moment. Forced organ harvesting refers to killing people on demand in order to sell their organs.
Digital authoritarianism. Another difference between Communist China and other communist regimes is that, having emerged in the digital technology era, the CCP has harnessed all high-tech tools to monitor and suppress its people. During the three-year pandemic lockdowns, a single health code was enough to tightly control the entire population. Thus, in terms of surveillance and repression methods, Communist China has surpassed all previous communist regimes.
Regarding the nature of Communism, the similarities and differences between the CCP regime and other communist regimes all demonstrate that the ultimate goal of communism is indeed, as stated in The Communist Manifesto, to destroy all existing systems and civilizations. I believe that the ultimate aim of communism is to annihilate humanity. Beyond this, it has no unchangeable principles, which is why it sometimes exhibits great flexibility and deceitfulness—especially in the case of the CCP regime. Therefore, recognizing this is extremely important because if we cannot defeat communism, it will destroy us. It is a matter of such gravity and seriousness.
2. ACAT: Many often claim that China is no longer a communist country. How do you respond to this? What about the so-called economic reforms in recent times?
JZ: The claim that China is no longer communist often stems from its economic reforms and apparent departure from Marxist orthodoxy—like state-run collectives or total rejection of markets. Since Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up” in the late 1970s, China has embraced capitalism in practice: [nominally] private companies thrive, billionaires exist, and it’s a global trade titan. This looks far removed from Mao’s communes or the Soviet Union’s stagnation. But calling it “not communist” misses the forest for the trees.
The CCP still holds a monopoly on power, a core tenet of communism. It controls the economy’s commanding heights—banks, energy, tech giants like Huawei—while allowing market mechanisms to boost efficiency. The reforms weren’t about abandoning communism; they were about survival and strength. Hong Kong’s fate proves this: “One country, two systems” and “50 years unchanged” were promises the CCP ditched when convenient, crushing freedom there by 2020 with the National Security Law. Economic openness was a tool to extend the regime’s life and amplify its ability to pursue its goals, not a sign of ideological surrender. The party’s grip, censorship, and digital control (e.g., health codes, social credit) show communism’s essence—absolute authority—never left. It just got a modern makeover.
3. ACAT: Do you think we can see the demise of the Communist Chinese regime (as in the Soviet Union) in our lifetime? If so or if not, why or why not?
JZ: Yes, I think it’s plausible we’ll see the CCP’s collapse in our lifetime. Two forces point to this. First, internally, the CCP’s own actions have pushed China’s economy and morality to a breaking point. Decades of corruption, environmental ruin, and repression—like the organ harvesting—have hollowed out trust. People suffer, and while fear keeps them in line, awareness is growing: without the CCP’s fall, China has no future. The regime’s sins-as expressed in ancient Chinese sayings, “when things reach an extreme, they must reverse”, could ignite its own pyre.
Second, externally, the CCP’s aggressive expansion—Belt and Road, South China Sea—has woken up the world. Trump’s election and shifting global tides (e.g., decoupling, tariffs) are squeezing China’s economy, which relies on dirty tricks like IP theft and dumping. Its rapid rise lacks a solid foundation—built on sand, not stone. If the free world unites against it, the CCP, lacking genuine popular support, might crumble faster than the USSR did.
Although the CCP’s digital authoritarianism and wealth give it tools the Soviets never had, and resistance is brutally hard under such surveillance, still, history shows no regime lasts forever when it bets against human nature and global pushback. I’d wager we’ll see it falter—maybe not tomorrow, but within years—if the West stays resolute.
In other words, as long as the free world can recognize the evil of communism and start to fight back, the CCP may in fact be utterly vulnerable, because it has no support from the hearts of the people.
4. ACAT: How should Westerners respond to Chinese government agents in schools, universities, and the government?
JZ: I believe that the U.S. government and all governments of the free world should vigorously clean up the CCP agents in Western society, making it impossible for them to continue doing evil. Ordinary people should also distinguish the CCP and its agents from China and the Chinese people, not giving the CCP agents a market to do evil, while calling for and supporting the government to actively purge CCP agents.
5. ACAT: How did you escape to the West (feel free not to answer if confidential)?
JZ: I escaped from China in 2001. There were two key reasons for this. On the one hand, at that time, the CCP’s digital authoritarianism was not as advanced as it is today, and the data from labor camps had not yet been linked to customs, which made it possible for me to leave the country without being stopped.
On the other hand, I met two Australians who came to China to teach English. I told them about my ordeal, and they were very sympathetic to me, helping me obtain a visa to Australia, which allowed me to escape from China.
In fact, there was also an American professor willing to help me at that time. She had already secured an opportunity for me to work for a year at the university where she taught, the University of Arizona.
However, this invitation arrived one day after I reached Australia. I didn’t dare stay in China for even one more day at that time, so by the time this invitation arrived, I had already left China.
Nevertheless, I am still deeply grateful to this American professor and the two Australians who helped me. To them, I was almost a complete stranger, but the admirable Christian civilization of the West shaped them into such kind and brave people, who extended a helping hand to me at a critical moment and rescued me to the Western world.
6. ACAT: If there is one piece of advice you could share with young people across the world, what would it be?
JZ: I want to say to young people that the doctrines of communism contain many beautiful terms, such as equality, freedom, fairness, distribution according to need, and so on. In the 1940s, before the CCP came to power, these terms once attracted countless young people, including many officials of the legitimate Nationalist government of China at that time and their children, to serve the Communist Party. In their view, this was a dedication to the liberation of all humanity and the happiness of all mankind.
But after the Communist Party took power, in just one country, China, it caused up to 80 million unnatural deaths of Chinese people. After the suppression of Falun Gong, millions of Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents, even ordinary citizens, became victims of forced organ harvesting.
In this world, there is no other “ism” or regime that has killed more people or brought greater disasters to humanity than communism.
So, never be deceived and blinded by communism, which appears beautiful on the surface but has been proven by history to be the greatest evil and catastrophe. Return to tradition, protect true human civilization, listen to the real stories of communism’s victims like me, learn lessons from history, and do not be like the young people who chose communism back then, only waking up after paying a huge and painful price—but for many, it was already too late.
Source: http://www.spider-and-the-fly.com/dragon-dances-on-quicksand.html
3/12/2025
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