Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army are seen before a giant screen as Chinese leader Xi Jinping speaks at the military parade marking the 70th founding anniversary of the regime in Beijing, on Oct. 1, 2019. (Jason Lee/Reuters)
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is steeped in numerology as it seeks to convey legitimacy by merging traditional Chinese lucky numbers with crackpot communist policies imposed on the unsuspecting Chinese people.
The communists seek to capitalize on the Chinese belief that lucky numbers are associated with good fortune, thus emphasizing certain numbers in promulgating policies.
The CCP is particularly partial to the number three for cultural and superstitious reasons. For example, the number three represents Buddha and stands for Heaven, Earth, and human being, and great respect and reverence are given to three historical Chinese kingdoms. The CCP’s reverence for the number three—and the multiples it represents—is reflected in Mao Zedong’s Three Rules of the People’s Liberation Army discipline, the development and use of the Three Warfares in confronting the United States, and the three U.S.-China communiqués that have been slowly strangling Taiwan since the first of those communiqués was agreed to in Shanghai in 1972 (the so-called Shanghai Communiqué).
Since even numbers are more auspicious than odd numbers, the number four has also featured prominently by various Chinese leaders over the years: the Four Olds of Mao (to crush the old bourgeois ideas, culture, customs, and habits), the Four Pests Campaign of Mao (to eradicate rats, flies, mosquitos, and sparrows), the Four Modernizations of Zhou Enlai (to modernize agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology), the Four Cardinal Principles of Deng Xiaoping (the principles of keeping to the socialist road, upholding the dictatorship of the proletariat, upholding the leadership of the CCP, and upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought).
Even paramount leader wannabe Xi Jinping got into the act in 2015 with his Four Comprehensives (to comprehensively develop a moderately prosperous society, deepen reform, govern the nation according to law, and be strict in governing the Party). I haven’t heard much from Xi on his “comprehensives” lately, as his focus has become ever more grandiose as he enters his 11th year as China’s dictator.
The luckiest number in Chinese culture is the number eight. As noted by China Travel, the number eight “has the meaning of making a fortune because its pronunciation is close to that of the phrase meaning “making money.” Thus, former Chinese leader Hu Jintao promulgated his Eight Honors (or Virtues) and Eight Shames (Disgraces) in 2006 as a set of communist morals (an oxymoron) for Chinese to live by: honor patriotism, shame that which harms the country; honor the service of the people, shame that which departs from the people; honor science, shame ignorance and superstition; honor diligence, shame the indolent; honor unity, shame those who seek to gain at the expense of others; honor honesty and trustworthiness, shame those who sacrifice ethics for personal gain; honor the law and discipline, shame those who do not follow them; honor hard work, shame luxuries and pleasures.
One of Xi’s first major policy announcements was the Eight Point Regulation of the Center. Aimed at curtailing corruption (deceptively termed “extravagance”), the regulation was approved by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CCP in December 2012 and has been used ever since in Xi’s never-ending anti-corruption campaigns to prosecute and discipline Party members guilty of “extravagance.” In fact, he used the regulation to rid himself of political rivals in the run-up to the 15th Party Congress last October. The casualties included Sun Lijun (former vice minister for public security), Fu Zhenghua (former minister of justice), Wang Like (former head of the political and legal affairs in eastern Jiangsu Province, Liu Yanping (former chief of the disciplinary inspection commission), and other senior officials, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Sun Lijun, then a vice minister of public security, attends a meeting in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, on April 7, 2020. (Chinatopix via AP)
Thus, as enamored—and perhaps as superstitious—as any of his predecessor communist leaders—Xi may be blazing a new path in numerology with the number 87,000.
On April 20, China watcher and Twitter personality “Songpinganq,” who has reported credibly in the past about CCP persecution and COVID-related riots in China, posted on Twitter: “Xi Jinping is hiring 87,000 agriculture police officers, and they’re coming for Chinese farmers. Farmers can only plant the crops the government approves, and the planting of climbing vegetables like beans or melons and squashes in front and backyards is strictly forbidden.” The post was shared across various independent blog sites and social media.
Songpinganq also speculated on the likely reason for this new policy: “It’s part of a nationwide and comprehensive food security policy, which comes as Beijing revamps a Mao-era system of food distribution that could provide a network of emergency logistics in the event of war.”
What war? The most likely possibility would be a cross-strait invasion of Taiwan that would likely broaden to a regional war involving embargoes of foodstuffs from foreign countries. Food security is of great concern to the communists in their long-term struggle to pacify the Chinese population sufficiently for the CCP to retain political power.
Why the Number 87,000?
Perhaps because that number has been used by the Democrats in the United States. After all, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service stated in a May 2021 report, titled “The American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda,” that 87,000 new IRS agents were to be funded by the Biden administration and Democrat-run Congress. That number subsequently went viral throughout social media. With the accompanying denials from Democrat-friendly legacy media like Vox, it has become widely known by many Americans over the past two years.
Perhaps Xi is emulating his ideological soulmates in the Democratic Party with his 87,000 new agricultural police. Eighty-seven thousand IRS agents meet 87,000 Chinese agricultural police. What could possibly go wrong? After all, the number 87,000 is both an even number and includes the lucky number eight. This would be a numerological twofer for the communists.
Or perhaps Songpinganq pulled that number out of thin air as a psychological warfare ploy to capitalize on a number that has become synonymous with the hated IRS to many Americans and to gain their instant sympathy in condemning Xi’s new agricultural police (no matter what the correct number of them turn out to be).
We will have to keep a close eye on China’s new agricultural police. Will the number 87,000 become enshrined in CCP numerology? Is the future expansion of the policy itself as relates to Chinese food security the canary in the coal mine regarding the CCP’s intentions toward Taiwan? Time will tell.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Stu Cvrk retired as a captain after serving 30 years in the U.S. Navy in a variety of active and reserve capacities, with considerable operational experience in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. Through education and experience as an oceanographer and systems analyst, Cvrk is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received a classical liberal education that serves as the key foundation for his political commentary.
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