KPC RESEARCH AND VIEWS ON CHINESE COMMUNISM

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, John King Fairbank encouraged his colleagues and students to conduct a systematic study of the CCP at Harvard University. He advanced important views on the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Communism, and actively advocated recognition of the “new” China. The research on the CCP by Fairbaneck and others had a major academic and political impact. In 1955 Fairbank and others formally established “The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies” at Harvard University,[19] marking the formal formation of Chinese studies in American academic circles with the study of Chinese communism and the Chinese Communist Party. Harvard University became an academic center for “international studies of the CCP” and comparative communism. Since then, CPC research at Harvard University has continued to evolve, and generations of scholars have passed on research that has had a greater impact on the international academic community.

The main objects of Harvard University Chinese studies, represented by Fairbank, are the Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party. Fairbank believes that a lack of understanding of the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Communism is an important reason for the consistent failures of United States Chinese policy and the root cause of a “lost China. Fairbank hoped that American politicians, academics, and the public would truly understand the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Communist movement. Fairbank positioned his work as follows: “Describe the development of the Communist Party and defend its strength and future. This is a problem I face every day.” In October 1949 he attended the U.S. State Department’s China Policy Conference. Emphasizing that the Communist Party of China and Chinese Communism, and the relationship between the United States and China is not so much a relationship with the country as a relationship with the revolution. Fairbank did not view the Sino-American relationship as a relationship between countries in general, but rather as a relationship between the United States and the Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party. He recognized the peculiarity of the relationship between the United States and China, and acknowledged the great influence of the Chinese Revolution, led by the Communist Party, on Sino-American relations.

Fairbank opposed the U.S. government’s hostile attitude toward the Chinese Revolution and Chinese Communism. Because of the various reports on Soviet Communism in the Western media, some Americans have a poor understanding of the Communist movement and the Communist Party and believe that Communism is a totalitarian dictatorship. Many Americans have transferred their knowledge of Soviet Communism and the Communist Party to Chinese Communism and the Communist Party of China, taking for granted that they are hostile to the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Communist movement. Fairbank believes that such hostility is very harmful to the United States. Because of its misunderstanding of Chinese Communism, the United States made similar mistakes with North Korea and Vietnam after it made the mistake of “losing China. Because of its hostility to Chinese communism, China mistakenly sent troops to invade North Korea and Vietnam, inflicting huge losses on the United States. He tried to make the U.S. government and the public understand the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Communism.

The concept of soft power was first proposed by Joseph Nye, now professor emeritus at Harvard University, in his book Doomed Leadership: The Essence of Changing American Power, published in 1990. It talks about the appeal of the country’s culture and ideology. A power that influences the behavior of others through attraction rather than coercion, and leads to desired results. He believes that the Chinese Communist Party already has a strong “soft power” at home and abroad. The soft power of the Chinese Communist Party is the attractiveness and cohesion of the party itself, and the ability to attract party members and the masses to follow voluntarily. A good combination of “soft power” and “hard power” is “smart power.

One of the foundations of the study is the scholarly writings of John Fairbank, who prompted his colleagues and students to conduct a systematic study of the CCP at Harvard University. He put forward important insights into the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese communism, the phenomenon of “soft power” in China. The research on the CCP by Fairbaneck and others has had a major academic and political impact.