US Heading Toward China's Cultural Revolution, Warns Asian-American Coalition for Education President

Cancel Culture: Reformatted image of a Chinese poster in late 1966 showing how to deal with so-called "enemy of the people" during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

The United States is dangerously close to repeating China’s Cultural Revolution, according to the Asian-American Coalition for Education president and author Mike Zhao.

“The communist playbook, unfortunately, … they used to destroy China during the Cultural Revolution ... 50 years ago. Today, the radical left uses the same playbook to destroy America,” Zhao said in a recent interview with NTD News, The Epoch Times' sister media.

Similarities

As a survivor of Communist China's Cultural Revolution, Zhao pointed out the similarities in tactics used in American society today to those used in China back then, which are also laid out in his book  “Critical Race Theory and Woke Culture: America's Dangerous Repeat of China's Cultural Revolution.”

“Both the radical left and the Chinese Communist Party use Marxist lies to establish moral authority,” he said.

The author further pointed to the deployment of divisive Marxist ideologies, in which citizens are divided into oppressors and the oppressed.

Another commonality, he said, is strict censorship and a “cancel culture” to suppress opposition.

The tactics also include “changing cultural values, rewriting history, and indoctrinating citizens,” Zhao said.

Both stage social unrest and transform government processes, he added.

China's Cultural Revolution took place from 1966 to 1976, when Mao Zedong declared class war, bringing chaos and violence to the country. During that 10-year period, schools were closed, historical relics and artifacts were destroyed, and cultural and religious sites were ransacked. The economy stagnated, millions were persecuted for their political beliefs, and an estimated 1.5 million people died.

Countermeasures

To prevent history from repeating itself, Zhao said that America needs to stick to its founding principles, like protecting freedom of speech.

The expert also called for defending equal opportunity, not racial equity, when “there is a fight against the so-called misinformation board or any censorship.”

“We should unite all Americans, and ... not divide our citizens. We should treat every individual ... equally, and it provides equal protection of law,” Zhao said.

Zhao urged Americans to read his new book, which he said would alter America's dangerous path toward repeating China's Cultural Revolution.

“By learning history, we can prevent a real dangerous repeat of that disastrous history 50 years ago,” which, Zhao said, destroyed the Chinese economy, undermined its cultural heritage, and brought death to millions of people.

“We should not allow that to happen in America,” Zhao said.