The Devil and Communist China: From Mao Down to Xi

Description

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, “Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions.” This is certainly true of the leaders of the Communist “dynasty” that currently rules China. Chairman Mao, the founder of the Red Dynasty, proudly referred to himself as wu fa wu tian —a Chinese phrase meaning that he was both Godless and lawless. His hatred of God was matched only his rejection of all authority other than his own.

The current occupant of the Dragon Throne, Xi Jinping has a thriving personality cult, including a Xi Jinping app that everyone must have on their phones which downloads daily readings from Xi’s speeches and writings. Churches are being turned into “Civilization Practice Stations for the New Era”, their Bibles confiscated and replaced with Xi’s collected works, sermons replaced with political indoctrination of the “Thou shalt have no other gods before you than the CCP” kind. Pictures of Jesus Christ are taken down and replaced with pictures of Chairman Mao and Secretary Xi.

In The Devil and Communist China , [LSN columnist] Steven Mosher lays out in great detail the diabolical self-aggrandizement with deep roots in Chinese ancient political theory, called Legalism, which established the prototype for the totalitarian rule that the Chinese people suffer under today. It is perhaps no accident that the red dragon has been, since the founding of China as a unified country in 220 BC, as the archetypal symbol of that country. The Devil’s false promise has always been “You shall be as Gods,” and China’s leaders down to the present day continue to make this Faustian bargain, to the detriment of the Chinese people and—ultimately—their own souls.

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Foreword

08/05/26Foreword : 12

Communist China has produced more deaths than any nation in the history of humanity.

Introduction: The Chinese Communist Killing Machine

08/05/26Introduction: The Chinese Communist Killing Machine : 19

The first major addition to this figure is the correct number of Chinese who were starved to death by the communists from 1960 to 1962 in the worst famine in human history: up to 45 million

08/05/26Introduction: The Chinese Communist Killing Machine : 19

The second and even greater addition to this number is the 400 million tiny victims, both born and unborn, of the CCP’s long-running one-child policy, of which Mao was the godfather

08/05/26Introduction: The Chinese Communist Killing Machine : 19

Only God knows the exact number of those killed by Chinese Communism, but by my calculations, the number is close to 500 million,

Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China

08/06/26Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China : 44

Following the collapse of the Qing, most provinces in China were ruled by local warlords. The southern province of Guangdong—the most Westernized of China’s provinces—was the sole exception. It was under the control of the Nationalist Party of China, also called the Kuomintang, or KMT, which was headed by a charismatic leader by the name of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Almost alone among his contemporaries, Dr. Sun had studied in America and developed a clear understanding of our country’s republican form of government. This understanding was immeasurably aided by his conversion to Christianity while he was there.2 Dr. Sun was instrumental in establishing the Republic of China—he modeled its constitution on the US Constitution—and was elected its first president.3 Dr. Sun had thought deeply about how to reunite and restore China to its proper place among nations, and he devised a program called the Three Principles of the People to accomplish this end.4 The three principles in question were democracy, nationalism, and the people’s welfare, or well-being.

08/09/26Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China : 44

Nationalist Party of China, also called the Kuomintang, or KMT, which was headed by a charismatic leader by the name of Dr. Sun Yat-sen

08/06/26Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China : 44

Dr. Sun had studied in America and developed a clear understanding of our country’s republican form of government. This understanding was immeasurably aided by his conversion to Christianity while he was there.

08/06/26Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China : 46

Dr. Sun died. The KMT’s senior military commander, General Chiang Kai-shek, was elected as his successor,

08/06/26Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China : 46

Chiang, who would soon become, like Dr. Sun himself, a committed Christian, decided that the time had come to break with the Communists.

08/06/26Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China : 49

On October 1, 1949, Mao stood on top of the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooking Tiananmen Square and proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.15

08/06/26Chapter 2: The Rise of Revolution: A Brief History of Modern China : 53

By late 1959, the country was in the grip of the worst famine in all human history. During the following three years, forty-five million or more people starved to death.

Chapter 3: Legalism and Communism: A Marriage Made in Hell

08/09/26Chapter 3: Legalism and Communism: A Marriage Made in Hell : 64

Qin Shi Huang is a household name throughout the Orient, yet few in the West, outside of a handful of Asian experts, have heard of this despotic son of the dragon. But his policies, crafted in conjunction with his Legalist advisers, stunningly anticipated those of Vladimir Lenin, who created the Soviet bureaucratic totalitarian empire more than two thousand years later, and those of Mao Zedong.

08/09/26Chapter 3: Legalism and Communism: A Marriage Made in Hell : 67

Your servant suggests that all books in the imperial archives, save the memoirs of the Qin Dynasty, be burned.16

08/09/26Chapter 3: Legalism and Communism: A Marriage Made in Hell : 67

Emperor Qin Shi Huang agreed, and he issued an imperial edict:
• Anyone owning classical books or treatises on philosophy must hand them in within thirty days. After thirty days, anyone found in possession of such writings will be branded on the cheek and sent to work as a laborer on the northern wall or some other government project. The only exceptions are books on medicine, drugs, astrology, and agronomy.

Chapter 5: Third Son of the Monolith

08/12/26Chapter 5: Third Son of the Monolith : 99

Buddhist teachings

08/12/26Chapter 5: Third Son of the Monolith : 99

This would have included very specific admonitions against killing, stealing, sexual contact, lying, deception, and pride, all elaborations of the more general moral guidance known as the Three Pure Precepts: “Avoid all evil, cultivate goodness, and act for the good of others.”

á la Decalogue, natural law

Chapter 6: Unfilial Son, Faithless Husband, Absentee Father

08/18/26Chapter 6: Unfilial Son, Faithless Husband, Absentee Father : 124

Confucianism, for its part, identified five key relationships, with the first four being strictly hierarchical: Fathers were above sons, husbands above wives, older brothers above younger brothers, and rulers above their subjects. The fifth relationship—between friends—was the only one where the two sides were equal. In all the others, power was wielded by the superior—morally, Confucius insisted—while the inferior was duty bound to obey.

08/18/26Chapter 6: Unfilial Son, Faithless Husband, Absentee Father : 125

Mao rejected it all. He even publicly denounced China’s ancient sage, with typical vitriol, in one of his poems: “Confucius, though renowned, was really rubbish.”

08/18/26Chapter 6: Unfilial Son, Faithless Husband, Absentee Father : 126

Other stories are the stuff of nightmares. If you thought that the wicked witch trying to put Hansel and Gretel in the oven might give children bad dreams, consider the story of Guo Ju of the Eastern Han dynasty, who decided to bury his son alive so that he would have enough food to feed his mother. Or consider the filial piety of Wu Meng of the Jin dynasty, who used to sit naked near his parents’ bed at night so the mosquitos would suck his blood and not that of his parents.

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People’s Liberation Army dancing troupe. In fact, the troupe was organized for the sole enjoyment of the chairman, who would watch the girls dance

Wojtyła...

08/18/26Chapter 6: Unfilial Son, Faithless Husband, Absentee Father : 145

fifty-five-year age difference

!!!

08/18/26Chapter 6: Unfilial Son, Faithless Husband, Absentee Father : 146

While the Qianlong Emperor, for example, had forty concubines, each and every one, like the empress herself, enjoyed a recognized legal status in the eyes of the law and the public. Many were there simply to forge alliances and rarely, if ever, enjoyed the emperor’s attention.

were Solomon’s initially polotical, too?

Chapter 7: The Killingest Man in History

08/18/26Chapter 7: The Killingest Man in History : 151

Human nature loves sudden swift changes.”

pleasure does result from change

08/18/26Chapter 7: The Killingest Man in History : 152

It was kill or be killed or, as the Chinese say, “You die, I live.”

principle of double-effect?

Chapter 10: Mao Saves Kim Il Sung’s Half Kingdom

09/04/26Chapter 10: Mao Saves Kim Il Sung’s Half Kingdom : 223

Even selling their own garden produce to others was soon declared a crime.

09/15/26Chapter 10: Mao Saves Kim Il Sung’s Half Kingdom : 231

it is a crime punishable by death to listen to South Korean radio broadcasts

!

Chapter 11: Vietnam Falls to Communism

09/20/26Chapter 11: Vietnam Falls to Communism : 248

Children are the supreme gift of marriage

No. The sacrament is.

09/20/26Chapter 11: Vietnam Falls to Communism : 248

Gaudium et Spes

Part 4: Scions of a Lesser God: Mao’s Successors Continue His Campaigns

09/24/26Part 4: Scions of a Lesser God: Mao’s Successors Continue His Campaigns : 277

Maoist-style campaign against a peaceful, nonpolitical Buddhist sect called the Falun Gong in 1999

∄ peaceful Buddists.

Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016)

09/24/26Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016) : 279

it is legitimate for it to intervene to orient the demography of the population. This can be done by means of objective and respectful information, but certainly not by authoritarian, coercive measures.”
—Catechism of the Catholic Church2

09/24/26Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016) : 281

young people were not allowed to marry until their mid-twenties, not allowed to have a second child within four years of the birth of the first, and not allowed to have more than two children. The slogan of the time summarized these rules: “Later, longer, fewer.”

09/25/26Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016) : 284

13

09/25/26Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016) : 298

From the beginning of the Planned Birth program in the PRC until its end, some 400 million preborn and newborn children perished.

!

09/25/26Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016) : 301

if persuasion doesn’t work, I can easily imagine that the CCP leaders might resort to compulsion. In fact, local party officials are already suggesting that people need to be strong-armed into the baby-making business

What would St. Alphonsus say? Can the state coerce births?

09/25/26Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016) : 301

The Party Central Committee should establish strict control over the sale of condoms and contraceptives and forbid hospitals from performing abortions.

09/25/26Chapter 13: Children of a Lesser God: The One-Child Policy (1981–2016) : 301

Those party members of childbearing age who use contraceptives when having sex should be punished.

Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions)

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 307

When a State sets itself up as absolute as God, when it claims sovereignty over the soul, when it destroys freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, then the State has ceased to be political and has begun to be a counter-Church.”
—Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

freedom of conscience? Pius IX, Greg XVI condemned this.

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 309

the Vatican, he regarded it as a hostile foreign power

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 309

it was anything but a recent import, having been first brought to China by Nestorian Christians over one thousand years ago.

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 309

Nationalist head Chiang Kai-shek himself converted to Christianity in 1930

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 309

The only use that Mao had for churches was as local military or party headquarters during the Chinese civil war, since they were invariably the best-constructed building in the village or town his troops were occupying.

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 312

By 1957, it was apparent to Mao that his decade-long effort to crush the Catholic Church in China had failed and that it was time to deploy his second magic weapon, united front tactics. He set up a front organization called the Catholic Patriotic Association and coerced some (but far from all) bishops and priests into joining it.

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 317

“Religion must support the party, the state, and its leaders. . . . Sinicization means that all religious communities should be led by the Party, controlled by the Party, and support the Party.”
—Xi Jinping7

!

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 317

The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority with the limits of the common good and public order.”
—Catechism of the Catholic Church

Dignitatis Humanæ

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 318

Cardinal Joseph Zen, who had been teaching in both patriotic and underground seminaries

09/25/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 319

The CCP continued to illegally “ordain” bishops in the years following, eventually bringing the total number of illicit bishops in China to eight.

09/27/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 341

the agreement has been kept so secret by its authors, such as Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, that they did not allow him, one of only two Chinese cardinals, to review it.

09/27/26Chapter 14: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on Catholics (and All Religions) : 343

Xi Jinping already has more power than the late Chairman Mao Zedong and aspires for more. He is not only the head of the Communist Party, as Mao was, but also the head of the government and the military, which Mao wasn’t

Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter

09/28/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 353

While Mao called religion “poison” and Marx considered Christians to be “cowards” because they refused to face life without the crutch of religion, the true cowards are Xi Jinping and his ilk because they refuse to face the people without the crutch of Maoist myths and Communist fables.

10/03/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 367

“Property . . . is the economic guarantee of human liberty, the external manifestation of inner responsibility. Deprive man of the right to fashion things according to his own will, and you deprive him, at one stroke, of the social basis of his freedom.”
—Archbishop Fulton Sheen23

10/03/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 372

“In contrast to this Christian philosophy of forgiveness, there exists for the first time in the history of the world a philosophy and a political and social system based not on love, but on hate, and that is Communism.”
—Archbishop Fulton Sheen35

10/03/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 373

first book, entitled The Cross and the Beatitudes

10/03/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 373

Sheen continued,

10/03/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 373

its regime is characterized by a hatred of those who believe the family is the basic unit of society

10/04/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 374

He may not have made a conscious pact with the devil, as Marx seems to have come close to doing,

Did Slaves of Satan mention Marx?

10/04/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 374

The only person that we can be certain is in hell is Judas Iscariot,

What theological note would this be? #10 Probable?

10/04/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 377

We are blessed to enjoy freedom of speech and to live in a democracy.

09/27/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 377

“Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere,” General Office, Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, (Document 9, April 2013). Translation by the author. The document is available in translation at https://www.chinafile.com/document-9-chinafile-translation.

10/03/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 379

Marlin, The Quotable Fulton Sheen, 250.

10/03/26Chapter 15: Mao’s Enduring Specter : 379

Sheen, The Cross and the Beatitudes, 11.

Bibliography

09/25/26Bibliography : 380

Aird, John. Slaughter of the Innocents. Washington: AEI Press, 1990.

08/06/26Bibliography : 381

Bergere, Marie-Claire. Sun Yat-sen. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 1998.

08/06/26Bibliography : 386

Holcomb, Charles. A History of East Asia: From the origins of Civilization to the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

p. 263: Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s conversion to Christianity