Where Is China Heading?

By Liu Meixun, Professor at Tsinghua University

The ancient saying goes, "Women are no less capable than men." I wish to pay tribute to the three female professors from South China University of Technology and Peking University for their extraordinary courage in addressing national affairs and dissecting current ills under their real names. As a senior professor of Marxist theory at Tsinghua University, and once the supervisor of a certain national leader's doctoral dissertation, I feel deeply ashamed. Recalling the time I supervised the dissertation, I suspected that the work might not have been their own, but academia is always interfered with by power, and I was helpless. This kind of dishonesty has long spread from academia to politics, eroding the foundation of national governance and betraying the scientific spirit of Marxism. Upholding my scholarly conscience and through painful reflection in recent years, I have solemnly written this essay to frankly express my views, hoping to advocate for justice with my colleagues and seek the right path for the rejuvenation of our nation.

China Studies vs. Western Studies: An Asymmetric Landscape

Over the past two decades, discussions and research on China's issues have been quite extensive. For developed countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, "China Studies" has become an important topic in various disciplines such as sociology, political science, and even economic management. However, Western research on China is far less comprehensive than China's research on the West. Within the broad context of Chinese humanities and social sciences, American Studies, British Studies, German Studies, and Japanese Studies have all become important research branches, with dedicated qualified projects funded by the National Social Science Fund and the Ministry of Education's Humanities and Social Science Fund each year. Domestic Chinese institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and Nankai University, all have research institutions and teams of varying sizes.

This signifies that Chinese academia's research on major developed Western countries falls within the mainstream research area of humanities and social sciences. In contrast, in developed Western countries, with the exception of Japan and South Korea, there are few teams and scholars truly studying China's political and economic systems and the operation of its mechanisms; it remains a niche research area. This is partly due to the difficulty of learning and understanding Chinese, and partly due to China's domestic information censorship and regulatory systems. While Chinese scholars often need to bypass the Great Firewall to retrieve some information, Western academia is virtually "blind" when it comes to so-called sensitive information and important news events on China's domestic internet. They can only obtain some "valuable information" that has been repeatedly vetted and deliberately released by the Chinese government through their own "China Study Centers" in Western universities.

This high degree of asymmetry in research strategy and information leads to Chinese intellectuals, especially those engaged in humanities and social sciences research, being largely "experts on America," "experts on Britain," and "experts on Germany." Meanwhile, there are very few non-Chinese scholars in Western academia who truly understand China's political and economic system. This results in the governments of major developed Western countries having a largely one-sided, even distorted, understanding of China. Ostensibly, this is due to Western countries' self-superiority causing a blind spot, or their inability to obtain effective intelligence, leading the entire Western bloc to be at an absolute disadvantage in this "unrestricted warfare." Mainstream Western forces still cannot correctly assess and understand the role played by the CCP regime in the 2020 U.S. election, nor can they comprehend the extent and depth of the CCP's infiltration into various Western countries. However, much of this common knowledge is understood by most Chinese scholars with a certain social status or within the system. During the 2020 U.S. election, my students learned in advance from some small printing shop owners in Yiwu Small Commodity Market in Zhejiang that Biden would inevitably achieve his so-called "victory" through mail-in ballots.

Reflections on Communism and Western Politics

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 essentially demonstrated that human society is still far from establishing a true "utopia" at its current stage of development, and that a planned economy under an autocratic and authoritarian government will inevitably fall into the abyss of official corruption and collective inefficiency. Since the end of World War II, the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev was one of the most respected political parties. They unilaterally announced democratic reforms, ended the "Cold War," and indefinitely postponed World War III. This courage and responsibility for self-revolution deserve the gratitude of people worldwide.

In contrast, the American Democratic Party may be one of the most disappointing parties since the end of World War II. Under the influence of various extreme left-wing ideologies, they gradually lost their original intention of defending American interests and advancing the global democratization process. Some elected Democratic leaders colluded and traded interests with various domestic and international forces, even betraying basic values and moral bottom lines to win the U.S. election, and coldly watched the world fall back into chaos and darkness. Even when President Trump was elected with an overwhelming victory, the Democratic Party still incited various anti-government information and rhetoric in states like California and New York, exacerbating internal divisions in the United States. Leaders of the American Democratic Party, intentionally or unintentionally, secretly colluded and compromised with left-wing and communist forces at home and abroad, going further and further down the path of dividing America. During Obama's presidency, he steadfastly rejected dialogue on Russia joining NATO and insisted on treating Russia as an enemy country, even though Russia, from religious, cultural, value, and geopolitical perspectives, is a standard Western country.

The Persistent Shadow of the "Communist International"

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the so-called "Communist International" seemed to disappear, but did it truly vanish? In the 2020 U.S. election, how did those extreme left-wing forces suddenly appear on American streets? Who is behind the manipulation of these global extreme left-wing forces? How many powerful figures in American politics or their families have received unexplained financial benefits? Who are these so-called "big crocodiles" lurking in American politics truly representing? These are generally common knowledge among the Chinese intellectual class. In China, Obama is often jokingly referred to as "Comrade Ao Shenhai" (from the famous Chinese spy drama "Lurk," where "Shenhai" represents the highest-level mole), while Biden is directly nicknamed "Secretary Bai" by Chinese intellectuals, meaning the First Secretary of the CCP's North American Branch. Sometimes, during party cell meetings in domestic universities, people jokingly say they will go to North America to learn advanced experience from "Secretary Biden." This common knowledge is essentially an open secret for many Chinese scholars engaged in humanities and social sciences research.

During President Obama's second term, the CCP began promoting the "Belt and Road" strategy globally. This might be a coincidence, but does the Western world truly understand what the "Belt and Road" strategy is? As the CCP authorities say, does "Belt and Road" neither export revolution nor poverty? However, what it exports is extreme autocratic corruption and powerism, as well as extreme hedonism and sophisticated egoism. This is like a mild chronic poison, gradually corroding global traditional values and culture, while also spreading a large amount of false investment and consumption information globally, greatly undermining the information transparency and authenticity upon which a free market economy depends. Although the classic Western economic analysis framework also has many flaws, the high reliance of a free market economy on information transparency and authenticity is one of its core pillars. This is why market-economy-dominated countries like the United States and Japan severely punish commercial information fraud. Information asymmetry or the influx of a large amount of false information will ultimately lead to distorted commodity prices, and even extreme "lemon market" phenomena, which means market regulation may completely fail, thereby greatly harming regional and global economies.

Aspiration for Grandeur and the Burden of History

Some officials within the CCP system also hope to recreate the "prosperous China" of the Tang Dynasty, where all nations came to pay tribute. However, what truly earns the recognition, and even the allegiance, of other countries is not just powerful economic and military strength, but also an advanced political system. During the Han and Tang dynasties of China, many countries in the world were still in the slave or even primitive tribal periods, and the feudal system clearly had significant institutional advantages. After the Ming Dynasty missed the excellent window to enter the Industrial Revolution and capitalist system, Nurhaci and his people, carrying the remnants and flavors of the slave era, forced their way through Shanhai Pass to rule the Central Plains. This hybrid system, combining feudalism with remnants of slavery, completely left the Chinese land behind in the world's civilizing process and thoroughly solidified the pathological pursuit and dream of "emperor" among the Chinese elite for two thousand years. The pursuit of power has been deeply imprinted in the genes of ordinary Chinese people. This is something that Western scholars, who have experienced 500 years of liberal democratic thought since the Renaissance, fundamentally cannot understand. This also leads to a general inability of so-called political elites in Western society to comprehend China's current political ecology, its underlying logic, and the political ecology derived therefrom.

The Xinhai Revolution, which broke out in 1911, was perhaps the greatest event in modern Chinese history, because both the Kuomintang regime that ruled China during World War II and the CCP that defeated the Kuomintang through civil war in 1949 were offshoots of the Xinhai Revolution. Therefore, the CCP's mainland regime still reveres Dr. Sun Yat-sen as the "Father of the Nation," and Madame Soong Ching-ling, Dr. Sun's wife, has consistently enjoyed the treatment of a national-level leader in mainland China, with her actual salary and allowances even exceeding those of Mao Zedong during the same period. She was also one of the few domestic politicians personally welcomed at the train station by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

Taiwan's Path to Constitutionalism and the Mainland's Struggles

The people of Taiwan under the rule of Chiang Kai-shek and his son were generally fortunate. Both Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling, as well as Mr. Chiang Ching-kuo, were deeply influenced by Western religious, political, and educational systems, ultimately prompting Taiwan to transition from military rule and tutelage to constitutionalism. I also know some scholars in mainland China who did not fare well in Taiwan; they mostly spoke of nepotism in hiring in Taiwanese universities. But is the mainland academic community any different? In fact, it is even more egregious. A few Taiwanese scholars can find seemingly decent teaching positions in mainland China, essentially because of the vast scale of mainland higher education. Many ordinary undergraduate colleges want to be upgraded to key universities, and some private and vocational colleges also want to upgrade to undergraduate institutions, and some international assessment indicators can attract foreign scholars.

Compared to Taiwan, which ultimately achieved constitutionalism, the people of the mainland have been tragic and bewildered. With the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977 and the "setting things right," the Chinese people, led by reform-minded comrades like Deng Xiaoping, experienced 30 relatively stable years of rapid material wealth growth. Deng Xiaoping studied in France for five years and had deep personal experience and unique perceptions of the Industrial Revolution and Western democratic politics, making him one of the important political figures of New China who once "opened his eyes to the world." Lu You, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote in "Reading at Night in Winter, Showing My Son Ziyu": "What is learned from paper always feels shallow; to truly understand, one must practice it." As an elder generation who had "drunk foreign ink," Deng Xiaoping was a firsthand witness of the French "Third Republic" and had his own understanding of capitalism and parliamentary republicanism. However, with the outbreak of the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, Marxism-Leninism achieved its first victory in a semi-feudal, semi-capitalist great power and established the Soviet regime, attracting the attention of a large number of Chinese elite intellectuals. It was soon considered by some intellectual groups to be a panacea for solving the problems of old China.

Re-examining Marxism: A Flawed Foundation

Anyone familiar with the biographies of Marx and Engels and the history of global communism knows that Marx's "Communist Manifesto" was essentially derived from a field investigation report. However, this investigation was a report with an incomplete sample, insufficient representativeness, and a short statistical period, leading to the classic "survivor bias" problem in statistics. Marx, when investigating landless peasants who migrated to cities for work during the early Industrial Revolution, found that some migrant workers had extremely poor working and living conditions and their health was concerning, while capitalists who controlled the means of production lived affluent, even luxurious lives. Marx believed that there was a significant inequality in the distribution of interests between capitalists and workers, and that capitalists' endless pursuit of "surplus value" would further worsen workers' production and living conditions. He then put forward famous assertions such as the irreconcilable contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the inevitability of class struggle, and that violent revolution was the necessary path to resolve conflicts. He believed that the proletarians of the world should unite to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie and ultimately establish a communist society where distribution is based on need and the world is one. Another powerful aspect of the Marxist political theory system is its proposed path for the evolution of human political systems, which further perfected the internal logical consistency of the theory.

However, this seemingly logically self-consistent political system theory originated from a field investigation with significant statistical bias. First, Marx only saw asset owners (capitalists), i.e., business owners, taking away most of the operating profits, but did not observe more entrepreneurs investing this part of the profits into expanding reproduction and improving workers' working and living conditions. The early Industrial Revolution was a state where old systems still exerted influence, and new systems and orders had not yet been fully established. Even under such circumstances, Engels, after more detailed field investigations and interviews, concluded that the income of landless farmers had significantly increased, and with technological progress and improvements in production conditions and efficiency, workers gained more growth opportunities and healthier physical conditions. Many workers, after factory skills training, began to set up their own small workshops and cooperatives, and even gradually became new small and medium-sized enterprise owners, thereby further promoting the Industrial Revolution and social development.

Engels repeatedly invited Marx to conduct further field investigations in the industrial areas of Britain and Germany to enrich and perfect insights into the capitalist system. These contents can be found in their frequent correspondence. From Schumpeter's perspective of innovation economics, entrepreneurs are one of the most important assets in society, a valuable treasure that transcends traditional tangible and intangible assets, although they are often themselves included in a company's intangible assets. Regarding the distribution of operating income, anyone with basic modern financial knowledge knows that investment returns are highly correlated with risk. Entrepreneurs bear huge investment risks, so they should naturally enjoy greater operating returns; otherwise, entrepreneurial activities themselves would be irrational and not conform to basic human assumptions, and no one would be willing to innovate and start businesses. "Doing nothing and waiting to die" would be the optimal personal decision. The "big pot rice" system implemented for many years before China's reform and opening up is a good negative example. Disregarding individual quality differences and contributions, the so-called egalitarian distribution will inevitably lead to passive work and low output, as well as collective idleness and depletion of resources, and no form of innovation or entrepreneurship will emerge.

We can boldly assume that if Marx had accepted Engels' suggestion and conducted multiple in-depth investigations in the industrial areas of Britain at that time, he might have partially corrected the conclusions of "class antagonism" and "class struggle." Anyone with basic modern enterprise system and financial knowledge knows that enterprises are the carriers of innovation, and entrepreneurs, managers, and ordinary employees merely have different divisions of labor; from the perspective of value creation, they are all collaborators. If the so-called bourgeoisie's appropriation of workers' "surplus value" had some basis in labor-intensive industries during the early Industrial Revolution, in the current digital and intelligent era, when a large number of intelligent green "lighthouse factories" appear, the general public essentially becomes the beneficiary of overall social welfare. Even those young people who have never worked a day and stay at home all day are beneficiaries of the current technological revolution and innovation. This is particularly evident in some developed economies with generous social welfare in the West.

Rebuilding Society on Trust and Goodness

After abandoning "class antagonism" and "class struggle," the underlying business logic followed by modern society is very simple: credit/integrity + humanity (bright side). The reason for specifically adding "bright side of humanity" here is to avoid falling into the debate of whether human nature is inherently good or inherently evil. Human nature has both a bright side and a dark side, which conforms to simple dialectical thinking. However, the quality of a political system determines whether it suppresses the bright side of human nature or encourages the dark side. This is actually the only criterion for measuring the quality of a country's system; other so-called criteria are essentially flowery sophistry. All current religions believe that humans have three attributes: divinity, humanity, and demon-nature. This is what the famous Buddhist proverb says: "One thought creates a Buddha, one thought creates a demon." The most fundamental logic of a country's existence is to encourage people to do good, to restrict the expansion of power and corruption, and on this basis, to protect ordinary people and vulnerable groups. This is also the most basic human nature.

A modern commercial society's credit system is the premise for establishing basic trust between people and the premise for civilization's sustainable development. If basic trust cannot be established between people, leading to "everyone is an enemy, others are hell" becoming the norm, and lacking necessary information transparency and public oversight mechanisms, the overall moral decay of human nature in this society will become inevitable, leading to a complete collapse of the political and economic system. A society that lacks basic trust between people will also have extremely high governance costs, which the government is simply unable to bear. If a regime's control over public opinion relies entirely on suppression by the state's violent machinery, it will inevitably lead to deeper corruption and collapse: on the one hand, violent agencies themselves do not create value, and on the other hand, in a society lacking democracy and power supervision, violent agencies will naturally evolve into the largest institutions of corruption and abuse of power.

The Perils of Materialism and Corruption

Marxist materialism, under the blessing of atheism, has thoroughly evolved into "materialism" in modern China, and after entering the 21st century, it further evolved into "money worship," where any means are justified for profit, even the extinction of humanity and the sacrifice of everything. This also indirectly proves that in a country lacking a belief for good, power and money naturally become the only remaining indicators of life's value and achievement. Under CCP rule, being an official and getting rich are highly unified, leading to a nationwide worship of power, and thus, the abuse of power, corruption, and the pursuit of higher power after obtaining power become inevitable phenomena. This also explains why, under high-pressure anti-corruption efforts, CCP officialdom sees arrests almost daily, but it clearly cannot achieve public transparency of information, return power to the people, or decentralize power to the people. Instead, it only leads to more corruption and more arrests; this is a systemic problem of the political system itself. Another side effect of long-term high-pressure anti-corruption is that official promotions are basically based on connections and interests. Many connections are essentially based on blood (or reproductive) relationships, and the reason why secretarial cliques sweep through CCP officialdom is that the relationship between officials and their secretaries is basically equivalent to father and son, or even better than ordinary father-son relationships. Many secretaries may even be distant relatives of the official, or even become the official's son-in-law or similar crony relationships.

Therefore, in a highly opaque and autocratic system, the promotion of current high-ranking CCP officials (deputy department level and above) basically relies on birth, bloodline, and political alignment. The common rumor about the clearly marked prices for official promotions means that for most outsiders, even ten times the price would not bring hope. Selling official positions and titles is a small-circle game, and ordinary people and outsiders do not even have the right to watch the show. Those so-called marked prices are only for eligible candidates and the forces behind them. So even today, the best way to get promoted in CCP officialdom is still to serve as a secretary, or even a driver, for a high-ranking official. This is determined by the current political system. This is why a proverb is popular in CCP officialdom: "Absolute loyalty is not absolutely loyal." The school leaders of Tsinghua told me that in early 2024, a sensational scandal broke out in Fujian Province, where nearly a hundred officials at the county level and above held a naked party, including high-ranking provincial and ministerial officials. This is a true portrayal of so-called "our own people" needing to be "sincere with each other." After the scandal was reported to the central government in an internal reference, it was ultimately dismissed by dealing with one deputy provincial official under the guise of anti-corruption.

Loss of Trust and Social Decay

Because information is highly opaque, and even distorted, the internet public opinion is only dealt with through high-pressure stability maintenance and suppression. This has led to the government's credibility being almost completely lost in the past decade. The "Tacitus Trap" has further led to escalating distrust between the public and the government, and between the public and other citizens, ultimately pushing the entire society to the brink of internal strife and collapse. This is one of the fundamental reasons for the frequent phenomenon in recent years where some ordinary people madly retaliate against society and vent their dissatisfaction on the general public.

Furthermore, under the CCP regime, the disappearance and trafficking of people have gradually spread from being primarily women and children to all young and middle-aged adults. For the disappearance of young and middle-aged adults, it is almost impossible for the public security system under the CCP to open a case, because once a case is opened, it faces the annual assessment problem of "case clearance rate," which directly affects the year-end performance of these agencies. This also shows that the extreme or sophisticated egoism derived from the system itself permeates every corner of society, and precisely no one truly cares about the lives of every ordinary citizen, especially the grassroots people. Currently, the disappearance and trafficking of people under the CCP system have become an important part of global human trafficking and underground organ trade. This is a new type of crime against humanity, more heinous in nature than ordinary murder and robbery. However, the current CCP criminal law has not seen any form of response or targeted revision. Even if some related criminal gangs are caught, the sentencing is basically for human trafficking, and serious cases are released after about 10 years to continue harming society.

The Plight of the Missing and the Power of Action

On the issue of a large number of young and middle-aged adults disappearing, the public's dissatisfaction with public security organs has reached its limit. Wang Xiaohong, the Party Committee Secretary and Minister of Public Security, may also feel wronged, as the National People's Congress, as the legislature, has remained silent, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court have not proposed targeted judicial motions. As one of the law enforcement agencies, the public security itself has limited police force, and its key task is still stability maintenance. However, has Comrade Wang Xiaohong ever thought that he also has grandchildren? Doesn't he hope that future generations can go to school easily and safely, instead of white-haired elderly people surrounding kindergartens and even middle school gates to pick up children every day after school? As one of the most powerful national leaders in China, even if Wang Xiaohong only emphasizes the seriousness of the missing persons problem at a national public security department (bureau) directors' meeting, even if he cannot mobilize the entire national public security system, at least a few provincial and municipal public security departments and bureaus will take action. In fact, there are no technical barriers to tracing missing persons, especially adults who have been abducted and trafficked in a short period of time. It only requires adding human vital signs, morphological, and biometric scanning equipment at major nodes such as highways, cargo terminals, ports, and national roads. This investment is not large at all, and with the support of AI technology, its accuracy and efficiency can be fully guaranteed. For Minister Wang Xiaohong and other senior cadres of the public security system, simply expressing their willingness verbally could save countless lives of ordinary people and promote justice, and even legislation, through public security law enforcement. This would be a great merit, and it is not an exaggeration to say it would go down in history. However, under CCP rule, how many of those in high positions in the public security and state security systems truly have the people in their hearts?

Internet Control and Political Reform: A Call to Action

Currently, the CCP's control over the internet and news media has largely become an international joke. There are only two countries in the world with a so-called firewall: North Korea and mainland China. North Korea directly implements physical isolation, while mainland China surprisingly adopts so-called "firewall" technology for targeted filtering and isolation, which is essentially burying one's head in the sand to cover up the fragile hearts of some high-ranking CCP officials. This leads to one of the important conditions for attracting investment in some regions being the provision of VPNs for foreign personnel to directly access Facebook and Google. For the vast majority of university students and elite intellectuals in mainland China, "bypassing the firewall" is just an extra step in daily internet access. Therefore, if the CCP authorities lift the current so-called internet isolation, it is estimated that there will not even be a decent news ripple in mainland China, because those who can "bypass the firewall" don't care, and the general public who never bypass it cares even less, as very few young people care about so-called politics. Currently, perhaps one in ten thousand university students in mainland China can accurately name the seven members of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, let alone the retired old members. To put it bluntly, high-ranking CCP leaders, especially national leaders, are a bit "self-important"; 99.999% of young people don't even know your names, and probably have no interest in knowing your past anecdotes. However, my so-called student, who holds the highest power, clearly does not have an open mind and is still worried about ordinary people digging up his so-called "worldly affairs" on Google. How much social welfare could this money generate if invested in improving people's livelihoods? The stability maintenance expenses under CCP rule are basically the internal consumption costs caused by mutual distrust within society. The people don't trust the government, and the government doesn't trust the people even more, so huge stability maintenance expenses appear. But besides wasting precious public finances, there is no social value added, and instead, it greatly increases the fiscal deficit and debt scale of governments at all levels, which is both ridiculous and tragic.

We can boldly assume that after achieving public disclosure of assets for all public officials and transparency of government budget and expenditure information, lifting internet and news media controls could gradually achieve freedom of the press and speech. Currently, most city-level, and even provincial-level, news media and television stations are in a state of loss and debt. After the privatization of news media and local radio stations, with the support of press freedom and information transparency policies, especially the popularization of local (county, district, and city) elections, it is highly likely that these regional assets will be revitalized, thereby creating new jobs and tax revenue.

Economic and Political Reforms: A Vision for a New China

I also call for a new round of state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform to unleash internal vitality. The phenomenon of "the state advancing, the private sector retreating" caused by the so-called "mixed ownership" reform in the past decade has severely hampered the development space of the private economy and seriously stifled the enthusiasm of ordinary people for innovation and entrepreneurship. This is one of the major damages caused by the CCP's ultra-leftist line in the economic sphere. Therefore, a new round of SOE reform is needed, meaning that in industries and areas suitable for market mechanisms, SOEs and their subordinate companies should gradually adopt shareholding reforms and transformations, or be sold to private enterprises in the same industry. The expansion of accountability for so-called "loss of state-owned assets" should be abolished. After state-owned assets invest in private enterprises, they should only enjoy ordinary rights and interests and should not directly or indirectly affect the personnel, financial, and marketing operational decision-making power of private enterprises. Further relax restrictions on foreign capital entering the domestic market, and further expand the scope of industries where foreign capital can be wholly owned or controlled, especially in traditional monopoly markets such as finance, energy, telecommunications, and public services. The regulation and market access rules of the domestic financial market should respect international customary practices, keep pace with international norms, allow foreign-owned or controlled enterprises to enter China's stock market, further urge listed companies to establish honest information disclosure mechanisms, establish mechanisms for protecting the rights and interests of small shareholders, and support small shareholders in jointly initiating class actions against dishonest listed companies.

I earnestly suggest vigorously implementing political system reform, the essence of which lies in truly implementing universal suffrage. Establish a universal suffrage system in each province and prefecture-level city, partially mimicking the "winner-take-all" final vote counting rule. Mainland China currently includes 31 provincial-level administrative divisions (including 4 municipalities directly under the central government and 5 autonomous regions), as well as Hong Kong and Macau, two special administrative regions. The U.S. vote counting method can be moderately referenced. Assuming the total number of votes for the 31 provincial-level administrative divisions (including provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions) in mainland China is 2001, the specific number of votes for each provincial-level administrative division can be comprehensively measured by GDP and population, with population weighting no less than 80%. For example: Guangdong Province's GDP in 2024 accounts for 10.5% of the national total, and its population accounts for 9.1%. The electoral votes allocated are: (2001 * 0.091) * 0.8 + (2001 * 0.105) * 0.2 = 188 (votes). By analogy, Shandong has 144 votes, Jiangsu 137 votes, Henan 129 votes, Sichuan 110 votes, and Zhejiang 96 votes, etc. Given the special nature of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, Taiwan is directly given 190 votes (if Taiwan merges), Hong Kong 50 votes, and Macau 5 votes. These three special administrative regions combined have 245 votes, totaling 2246 votes after combining with mainland China's 2001 votes. A presidential election is held every 4-5 years, and the political party that wins more than 1124 votes wins and can govern for 4-5 years. The elected President of the People's Republic of China is both the head of state and the supreme commander of the armed forces, and the presidential term cannot exceed 2 terms. If the President makes major policy errors during their term, or commits serious criminal offenses such as major corruption, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference can initiate a recall proposal and submit it to the National People's Congress for deliberation. After the National People's Congress passes the recall motion, the President's term is immediately terminated, and the Vice President assumes the duties of interim President and prepares for a new presidential election.

During its term in office, the ruling party can appoint ministers of various cabinet departments, but officials below the vice-minister level should not be held by principal party members. The proportion of non-party personnel in government civil servants should not be less than 80%, further stimulating the mechanism of checks and balances, thereby truly achieving the separation of state and party, thoroughly strengthening the state's main consciousness, and the political party will only be a subordinate institution serving the development of the state, completely breaking away from being a special power group above the state constitution, or at least greatly compressing the space for this power group to use power for personal gain, which is the cornerstone of implementing constitutionalism.

Another important pillar for implementing constitutionalism is for the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to truly stand up and play the role of a bicameral legislature granted by the constitution, truly becoming the highest organs of state legislation and popular participation in government and political affairs. The National People's Congress, as a legislative body, should earnestly fulfill its sacred duty of establishing a protective system for the national constitution and continuously improve the country's legal and regulatory system. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference should fully exercise its functions of participating in government and political affairs, and be granted the right to make suggestions and proposals on major matters and major personnel appointments. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, including provincial-level political consultative conferences, should establish active and effective think tanks and professional teams for research and visits, adhere to a pragmatic style of seeking truth from facts and conducting on-site investigations, earnestly listen to the voices of ordinary people at the grassroots level, and provide the government with real and reliable first-hand information for decision-making.

The opposition party should actively play the important role of supervising and advocating for people's livelihoods, actively participate in grassroots community activities of governments at all levels, dare to speak out, especially dare to speak out for the well-being of grassroots people, and make positive contributions to building an honest, orderly, and safe grassroots society. On this basis, accumulate political capital and governance resources, and make full preparations and strategic plans for the upcoming presidential election and governance at any time.

Party Reform and a New Chinese Republic

Regarding party reform and coalition government. The Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang can engage in a historic third KMT-CPC cooperation, forming the Republic Party of China, or RPC. The current ruling party in Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party, can combine with other parties in mainland China to form the Democratic Progressive Coalition of China, or DPCC. This would essentially fulfill Dr. Sun Yat-sen's founding vision of achieving democracy, civil rights, and people's livelihoods through a democratic republic. Taiwan is suggested to be incorporated into a greater China in a federal system, maintaining relative independence, with various provinces in mainland China also adopting a similar federal system, independently carrying out their own public governance and internal democratic elections. Based on Taiwan's current constitutional system as the blueprint, and referencing Singapore's "authoritarian government" system, a new constitution for New China and the cornerstone of political system reform can be built.

Amnesty for Corruption and a New Governance Model

Due to systemic corruption under CCP rule, while undertaking political system reform and implementing democratic elections, it is permissible for officials suspected of corruption to voluntarily hand over their illicit gains. A transitional amnesty clause should be adopted for public officials who voluntarily confess and hand over accounts and fines, without criminal prosecution, provided the amount of corruption and bribery does not exceed 50 million RMB, in which case they may be demoted but retained. For corruption amounts exceeding 50 million RMB but less than 100 million RMB, their official rank should be revoked, demoted to an ordinary clerk or equivalent public official, and if no other criminal offenses are involved, they may retain public office without criminal prosecution. For corruption and bribery amounts greater than 100 million RMB, if they voluntarily return the illicit gains and no other crimes are involved, they will no longer be criminally prosecuted, but only dismissed from public office, and provided with basic living expenses for themselves and their immediate family, encouraging them to seek self-employment. Public officials who do not voluntarily confess and return illicit gains within the specified period will no longer enjoy the amnesty clauses of the transitional government and will be handled strictly and severely according to the new government's relevant laws, with the highest penalty being the death penalty, and without a statute of limitations.

After the establishment of New China and the new government, all public officials whose salaries and allowances are paid from public finances, in addition to disclosing personal assets, income, and tax matters, will also need to regularly disclose the business activities of their immediate family members to the government's internal audit department. The salary standards for government civil servants will refer to the average salary level of enterprises in the same city, and the annual salary of grassroots civil servants generally cannot be higher than 90% of the average income of enterprise employees. The government encourages outstanding young people to innovate and start businesses. For the election of town, district, and county heads, young entrepreneurial talents with successful business experience will be given priority. The election of city and provincial-level administrative heads also welcomes middle-aged and young entrepreneurs with rich enterprise operation and management experience, as well as successful business creation experience, to participate in the election.

Restoring Trust and Ensuring Safety

The entire society will vigorously promote a credit system, gradually reshaping a trust-based social mutual assistance system, strengthening neighborhood love and mutual assistance ties, and focusing on combating major heinous incidents and forces that affect people's sense of security, such as human trafficking, kidnapping, and organ theft, as well as traditional triad and evil forces. A high-pressure and zero-tolerance stance will continue to be adopted against drug and gun crimes, effectively ensuring the safety of people's lives and property. For cross-border criminal forces roaming in various places with the goal of kidnapping people, a national and local government emergency linkage model will be adopted, with one-click activation and rapid response, striving to completely eliminate these crimes against humanity and the gangs and forces behind them within half a year of the new government's establishment, so that every child in New China can go to and from school safely, and every ordinary person returning home late at night has a new government they can rely on and trust.

From a global perspective, China, as the world's second-largest economy, should fulfill its basic commitments made when it joined the WTO in 2001, which is to simultaneously promote political system reform while enjoying the dividends of economic reform, protecting economic reform by returning power to the people and establishing a system with checks and balances. From the perspective of infrastructure and the overall educational level of society, current China is the country in the world most qualified to undergo democratic constitutional reform.

A Final Call for Action

Act now, my compatriots! Whether you hold a high position in government or are an ordinary citizen; whether you are a highly educated intellectual with a professor title or an ordinary laborer who may not have finished middle school; no matter what industry you are currently in China, whether you are healthy or lying in a sickbed, shout loudly! This is not only China's last chance, but perhaps also the last chance for human civilization. Rise up, Chinese people! For our descendants to walk safely on their way to school, for our descendants to breathe the air of freedom and democracy, and to enjoy true human dignity, shout out, my compatriots!