It wasn t just about fighting Contra wars. Those of the realist school who focus on the U.S. right to pursue peace through strength and to expand the frontiers of freedom urge that the battle of ideas be exported to mainland China, supported by U.S. diplomatic, economic and other levers of statecraft needed to encourage peaceful change. An end to Communist rule in China does not necessarily mean Beijing will drop its great-power aspirations and become an ally of the West. Chinese nationalism is on the rise on the mainland, say Western intelligence specialists, as the regime finds Communist ideology losing its mass appeal. Even on the authorized Internet sites, much of the rhetoric concerning the downed U.S. Navy EP-3E intelligence airplane and its crew members held captive for 11 days was as hostile to the Communist Party as it was to the United States.
Chinese nationalists see the rot in the regime as well.
According to one account, it was compared to the Qing Dynasty, which fell in 1911 because of its own weakness, internal decay and surrender to foreign domination. The incompetent government, is just like the Qing-dynasty government, said one disgusted Chinese citizen after Beijing released the Americans. You ve just sold out the Chinese in this way again. Senior-party officials may sense their days are numbered. At the Communist Party s annual National People s Congress in March, Chairman Li Peng warned rubber-stamp lawmakers the huge bureaucratic system is so corrupt that it easily could collapse.