Zhang Weiwei on Color Revolutions

Zhang Weiwei, “Creating Chaos and Turmoil, the Myth of American Democracy is Shattered—The United States Incites 'Color Revolutions' and Endangers World Peace and Stability”[1] 
 
Introduction and Translation by David Ownby 
 
Introduction
 
Zhang Weiwei (b. 1958), head of Fudan University’s China Institute, is surely among the Chinese Communist Party’s favorite public intellectuals.  Although he began his academic career in a conventional way, publishing monographs on ideological trends during the reform era and on cross-straits relations between China and Taiwan, over the course of the 2000s Zhang transformed himself into a major cheerleader for the regime, and has never looked back. 

For the past decade and more, his full-time job has been promoting China through his writings, speeches, and debates, targeting both his fellow countrymen, whom Zhang sees as lacking confidence in themselves and in China, and the world at large, which Zhang addresses in fluent English (he was an English-language interpreter for the Chinese Foreign Ministry between 1983 and 1988).  For those interested in sampling Zhang’s message, many of his talks and debates are available on YouTube. 
 
Zhang’s basic message is that China has succeeded in becoming a great power, and that both China and the West need to grasp this basic, world-shattering fact.  China’s rise means that Western hegemony is over, whether understood in economic or ideological terms.  Zhang’s argument is a mixture of statistics (“80% of poverty elimination in the world over the past few years occurred in China”), anecdotal observations (“in terms of both urban ‘hardware’ and ‘software,’ Shanghai is ahead of New York”), and grand historical claims (“China has succeeded because it is a ‘civilizational state’”). 

I doubt that he has persuaded many people not already convinced of China’s superiority, because he cherry picks his data and refuses to discuss China’s problems (even while admitting that such problems exist), but he holds his own in exchanges with foreign China-watchers.  I suspect “debates” like these do not occur in China; most Chinese public intellectuals I know despise Zhang, viewing him as the Chinese equivalent of Tucker Carlson or Bill O’Reilly, media-savvy ideologues who sometimes pretend to be intellectuals (or at least write books), but there is no upside for anyone in publicly attacking a regime cheerleader like Zhang.
 
The text translated here appeared in the People’s Daily on September 20, not quite two weeks ago.  Zhang’s theme is the condemnation of America’s support of  “color revolutions” throughout the world, particularly in the post-Cold War period.  This is of course an oft-repeated argument in China, and I assume that Zhang returns to it here in the context of Ukraine, although he is not altogether clear on this point.  Then again, as we approach the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, perhaps all America-bashing is welcome (just as China-bashing picks up during electoral campaigns in the US). 
 
Translation
 
Under the guise of "democracy, freedom, and human rights,” the United States has long been supporting pro-U.S. forces throughout the world, instigating "color revolutions" and creating divisions and antagonisms, leading certain countries to experience regime changes, which then plunges them into a quagmire of political turmoil, economic decline, and popular suffering. Such American actions seriously jeopardize world peace, stability, and development.
 
Looking back on history, the United States and the West have repeatedly instigated or been involved in color revolutions.  This began in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, and include the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia in 2003, the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine in 2004, the "Tulip Revolution" in Kyrgyzstan in 2005, the "Arab Spring" in 2011, and the “Maidan Revolution” in Ukraine in 2014, to which we might add the "Snowflake Revolution" in Belarus in 2005, the "Orange Storm" in Azerbaijan in 2005, the "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon in 2005, and the "Green Revolution" in Iran in 2009, etc. If we include cases from the Cold War period, these “color revolutions” resulted in even more regime changes. Statistics show that the CIA has overthrown or attempted to overthrow at least 50 foreign governments over the decades, although the CIA has publicly acknowledged only seven. Other statistics show that the U.S. attempted to influence elections in 45 countries 81 times between 1946 and 2000. 
 
Many of the color revolutions instigated by the U.S. have been "successful," and the U.S. is even proud of having "won the Cold War.”  However, since the beginning of the 21st century, and especially since the international financial crisis in 2008, its color revolutions have been frequently frustrated. In some countries and regions, governments acted quickly to maintain stability and stop the violence, thwarting the intervention of external forces; in other countries and regions, Western-style democracy has brought great chaos and even war due to its "unsuitability to local conditions," provoking strong condemnations from the people of the countries concerned and from the international community. 
 
“Spreading false hopes 画饼充饥 (lit., “drawing cakes to relieve hunger”)” is a major tactic employed by the United States to incite color revolutions. The U.S. and its Western partners carry out large-scale ideological and cultural infiltration of the target countries, and cultivate a large number of so-called elites who blindly follow the lead of the U.S. and the West.  This creates the myth of Western-style democracy, according to which the various difficulties faced by the target countries, such as poverty, unemployment, and corruption, can all be solved by adopting a Western-style democratic system. 
 
The "Arab Spring" that erupted around 2011 is a good illustration of this. According to what is revealed in the book La Face cachée des « révolutions » arabes (2012), edited by the French scholar Éric Denécé, so-called NGOs like the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Open Society Institute spent more than 10 years training a large number of native Arabic-speaking Internet writers to form the "Cyber Arab League.”  They created a lot of buzz through online discussions, arguing that economic, social, and political developments and problems in the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa were all attributable to the “authoritarian” systems in the region, and stressed that these so-called problems could only be resolved through the adoption of a "Western-style democracy." 
 
These organizations systematically trained those destined to be the backbone of street politics, giving specialized courses on everything from how demonstrators should dress and what signs they should carry, to the gestures and movements employed by commanders at all levels, and even the use of social media to spread viral disinformation. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once openly admitted, "I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."[2] When "opportunities" arose in the target countries, these organizations immediately used the Internet and other means to engage in political agitation, greatly encouraging mass politics and street violence. 
 
Even if color revolutions succeed momentarily in some countries and regions, the good times often do not last, because these countries and regions began to run up against more frequent and more prominent conflicts. Confrontations multiply between Westernizers and nativists, between different religions and sects, and between different national cultures and even languages, resulting in social disorder, business closures, capital outflows, and economic recessions. Ultimately, the process of adopting so-called Western "confrontational democracy" without attention to a country's unique history and culture, political system, religious beliefs, ethnic balance, and social environment is often a process in which various conflicts are constantly magnified.
 
Today, the Arab Spring has become the "Arab Winter:" Libya is divided and in a state of civil war.  Yemen is experiencing multiple wars simultaneously—between different tribes, between different sects, between government forces and al-Qaeda, and wars in the south. Yemen is experiencing multiple wars at the same time: inter-tribal wars, inter-sectarian wars, wars between government forces and al-Qaeda, and ongoing separatist activities in the south.  Worse, Syria is suffering "hellish destruction." Some international assessments show that the Arab Spring has caused $900 billion in infrastructure damage in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, and that these events have resulted in more than 1.4 million deaths and more than 15 million refugees. 
 
Ukraine has maintained relatively smooth relations with the West and Russia since its independence in 1991.  But in 2004 and 2014, the Orange Revolution and the Maidan Revolution occurred. The Associated Press has disclosed a number of documents proving that the U.S. intervened in Ukraine's 2004 elections, including funding several political organizations and paying for opposition leaders' visits to the United States. During the riots in Kiev's Independence Square, then Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Newland and then Senator John McCain went directly to the square to support Ukraine's pro-Western faction and distribute food to protesters. In a phone call with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the recording of which was leaked at the time, Newland was even more direct about indicating who should be chosen as prime minister of Ukraine. 
 
The US spreads color revolutions throughout the world,  but has failed to realize that its own democratic halo has long since lost its luster.  On January 6, 2021, the world was shocked by the riots on Capitol Hill. A New York Times article wrote that the riots were "a blow to the image of America as the beacon of democracy.” According to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the violent chaos at the U.S. Capitol was the unfortunate consequence of the lies, contempt for democracy, hatred, and division spread by American politicians. Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also wrote an article lamenting that, "Going forward, no one in the world will ever see, respect, fear, or depend on us in the same way ever again. If there is a date for the post-American era to begin, it will almost certainly be today."
  
The U.S. is fomenting color revolutions everywhere solely to maximize American interests. As for the American practice of seeking hegemony under the guise of democracy, the French media has pointedly noted that "democracy" has become a "weapon of mass destruction" for the United States.  Promoting color revolutions, intervening in the internal politics of other countries, overturning other countries’ regimes, egregiously betraying the basic principles of international relations, turning its back on the great trends of historical development—all of this will only accelerate the decline of the national credibility of the United States and further tarnish its international image.
 
Notes

[1]张维为, “制造混乱动荡，美式民主神话破灭—美国煽动“颜色革命”危害世界和平稳定,” published in the People’s Daily, on Sept. 20, 2022. 

[2]Translator’s note:  See this tweet for a recording of Pompeo’s remarks and see here for more context.  Pompeo appears to be saying some version of “it is a tough world out there and sometimes you have to play hardball,” but Chinese media had a field day with the comments.