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Bring Down the CCP with a Death of a Thousand Cuts
Anticommunism Action Team
May 2025

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Introduction
  • The CCP Is an Existential Threat to the West
  • Regime Change Is Possible
Break the CCP’s Information Dominance Inside China
Create a Tougher Environment for the CCP All Around
In Closing
Additional Resources
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Introduction

The CCP Is an Existential Threat to the West.  “We must control the earth,” Mao Zedong declared in 1956.  Other Chinese officials have made similar pronouncements over the years.  The CCP is becoming increasingly brazen.  The United States must confront the situation head-on or commit slow suicide by ignoring the threat.  This paper contains suggestions for bringing down the CCP without firing a shot, much as Ronald Reagan did in bringing about the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  Listing suggestions for bringing down the CCP is not difficult.  The hard part is summoning the political will to undertake the project.

Biden Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell stated in June 2024 that the U.S. does not support regime change in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) but should accept the communist system as it is.  This is a mistake for a number of reasons.  Chinese communist declarations it seeks, world domination,  CCP elite capture and aggressive influence operations in the U.S. (amounting to the pursuit of a policy of regime change against us), the death of 60+ million Chinese as a result of CCP policies starting with the Great Leap Forward, the countless numbers of political prisoners the CCP holds in labor camps, and the denial of spiritual nourishment to 70 million Falun Gong practitioners are but a few examples of why the toxic CCP regime should be brought down.  While regime change can only be accomplished by the Chinese people themselves, there are a number of ways we can assist, as detailed below.

Regime Change Is Possible.  Ending the CCP is not a pipedream, and the writers of this report are not the only ones thinking along these lines:
  • ‘In Party and government documents, and social media, there is strong evidence that many members of the educated and powerful elite understand these problems and recognise that they cannot be resolved without a change of political system, and that paradoxically their best hope of defending their own wealth and power, and those of the nation, lies in that systemic change.’ 

    ‘For example, in 2011-12, Li Keqiang, then Vice-Premier, ... played a decisive role in the biggest-ever collaborative project between the Chinese government and the World Bank.’  ‘This resulted in     China 2030, a wide-ranging, far-reaching report that indicated, in suitably veiled language, that the regime would have to embrace pluralism and relax its suffocating grip on society if China was to avoid the “middle-income trap” that had ensnared Latin America and North Africa.’  Read more here

Break the CCP’s Information Dominance Inside China

The first set of suggestions has to do with ending the CCP’s near-monopoly on what Chinese citizens see and hear.  Undermine CCP thought control by strengthening the following means:

Media
  • Sound of Hope - unjammable digital-enabled shortwave radio service already broadcasting news and analysis aligned with traditional values into China from multiple countries
  • Radio Free Asia - a private but USG-funded radio program that broadcasts into China in multiple languages, but is routinely jammed.  Even so, it is claimed some Chinese are able to hear it. In addition, RFA offers circumvention tools for accessing its websites and mobile app where they are censored. 
  • Ask Elon Musk to activate Starlink Internet service in China
  • Have the U.S. government develop or work with a vendor to develop an encrypted messaging app like Signal or Telegram and offer it free of charge to Chinese citizens who manage to get around the Great Firewall

Elite Dissenters
  • It is said highly placed dissenters inside China can’t network.  Trust is in short supply and phones and Internet services are monitored.  After recruitment, facilitate networking by studying the methods of Osama Bin Laden who remained hidden for years using only couriers to communicate.  Also worth studying is the informal Muslim system of global money transfers through word of mouth (hawala).

Visitors to China
  • Business people, students, missionaries, and tourists are potential carriers of information into China.  They could be recruited and trained to impart information without arousing suspicion.  They could be deployed to start and amplify rumors.  Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. 

Effective Messaging

Exploit every grain of discontent, as Lenin preached:
  • The CCP has staked its legitimacy on making the Chinese people prosperous.  This renders the CCP vulnerable to criticism with existential implications when times are tough.  Making such a campaign continuous (‘it’s the worst economy in 50 years’) would be more difficult to sustain, but worth the effort
    • emphasize the incompetence of the leadership, e.g., the construction of ‘ghost cities’
  • There is still a democracy movement inside China (the Tiananmen Square Massacre still reverberates)
    • aggravate resentment against authoritarian rule
    • inspire with messages of freedom
  • CCP corruption
    • corruption is a powerful theme that brings down governments (e.g., Marcos fell to ‘People Power’ in the Philippines)
    • highlight inequalities - how the high and mighty live, e.g., the revelations in the Panama Papers of Chinese leaders amassing hundred-million dollar fortunes abroad
  • There is a centuries-long tradition in China of protesting against local officials (who are all CCP at this time) for abuses.  Recent abuses have included land seizures without compensation and tofu dreg (shoddy) construction.  The 2022 protests over COVID lockdown policies show the Chinese tradition of protest can be a strong force when mobilized against the central government, as well. 
    • in May 2025, unpaid and laid-off workers took to the streets to protest as factories close under pressure from Trump’s tariffs
    • another mass protest against the CCP took place in July 2024 when disaffected military veterans organized and protested in Beijing over cuts in their retirement benefits.  Potentially, the issue affects millions of people when families are included.  More here
    • a recurring theme that could be sounded is that the CCP is not China - the CCP pursues its own interests
  • Reinvigorate traditional values, Confucianism, and the notion the CCP has lost the Mandate of Heaven through ineffective rule
  • Publicize the fact that over 400 million people have left the CCP.  Global.Tuidang.org.  As Tokyo Rose knew, nothing demoralizes people more than constant messages they are on the losing side (‘Give Up, GI Joe’)
  • Increase awareness of CCP and PLA-sponsored forced organ harvesting
  • personalize Falun Gong persecution
    • ‘With 70 million adherents, chances are someone you know and like is Falun Gong’
  • Environmental destruction from polluting factories and large construction projects is another sore point
  • Disseminate facts the CCP does not disclose to the Chinese population
    • Improve access to open-source information on China. It is abundantly clear that the Chinese Communist Party is not transparent and provides little if any reliable data on its activities. Congress should therefore establish and fund a publicly accessible database, such as the proposed Open Translation and Analysis Center, that tracks and analyzes CCP activities.  More here

Create a Tougher Environment for the CCP All Around

Bring pressure to bear on the CCP economically, militarily, and through every other available means.  Every pressure point helps until, one day, it’s a perfect storm.

Toughen U.S. Policy
  • Reinstate the Trump administration’s Justice Department China Initiative which confronted China on economic espionage, IP theft, and influence operations.  More here
  • Prevent the diversion of U.S. government resources to China
    • restrict U.S. government-funded research in science and early-stage technological innovation
    • Prohibit American companies that benefit from U.S. government subsidies and other incentives from making investments in China.  More here
  • Stop public retirement fund investment in China
  • Stop Chinese companies from raising capital in the U.S.   It is not well-understood, but it is factually true that the ultimate parent of most sizeable Chinese companies is either the CCP or the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).  There is no earthly reason to give them access to U.S. capital markets.
  • Ban CCP Surveillance and Security Equipment: Chinese drone makers are giving drones for free to local police departments – which send the data back to China. There are cargo, baggage, and human scanners that are used extensively across the globe, from border checkpoints to consequential ports of entry made by Nuctech, a CCP-controlled company. This means the CCP could access internal customs systems and shipment data. At least one hundred U.S. towns, cities, and counties have awarded contracts to HikVision, a Chinese video surveillance firm. America should stop paying the CCP to spy on us.  More here
  • Create “liaison officers” to interface between intelligence agencies and universities in order to protect sensitive research in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, biotech, and microchips.  More here
  • Ban CCP lobbyists altogether.  The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)  is not enough.
  • Sanction Chinese individuals and entities involved in fentanyl trafficking and supplying precursor chemicals
    • the U.S. has indicted Chinese chemical companies, but more can be done because congressional investigators have found “the CCP subsidizes PRC companies producing fentanyl precursor chemicals for export”
  • Ban or restrict U.S. clinical drug trials in China
    • “A bipartisan group of lawmakers ... called on the Biden administration to ramp up scrutiny of U.S. clinical trials conducted in China, citing the risk of intellectual property theft and the possibility of forced participation of Uyghurs.” 
  • Tighten restrictions on Chinese ownership of U.S. agricultural land

Insist on Reciprocity

Start making reciprocity an issue.  If the CCP does not assent, then pursue U.S. legislation to bring CCP activity in the U.S. to a stop with respect to:
  • NGO’s - The U.S. should insist that American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) be granted the same level of access to China that Confucius Institutes and their successor programs enjoy in accessing the United States.  More here
  • Journalists - reciprocity in the access afforded Chinese journalists  More here
  • Land Ownership - especially near Chinese military bases
  • Company Ownership - that U.S. and foreign investors be allowed to buy Chinese companies and operate in China, just as the Chinese acquired Smithfield Foods

Boost Military Preparedness

Think tanks have written long reports containing dozens of recommendations for boosting America’s defenses, which would make it tougher for the communist Chinese to defeat or intimidate the United States.  To highlight just a few:
  • Strengthen nuclear deterrence (many articles have commented on the deterioration of America’s nuclear deterrent and the rapid build-up of Chinese nuclear forces)
  • Rebuild our Navy
  • Ramp up missile defense
  • Stop military cooperation with China
  • Reverse America’s decline in the Pacific and compete more vigorously in the region
  • Encourage U.S. STEM education

More here:
Winning the New Cold War: A Plan for Countering China (Heritage Foundation)
Responding to the China Challenge: Blueprint 2.0 (Heritage Foundation)

Tighten U.S. National Security
  • Protect U.S. hi-technology -   prohibit joint ventures and R&D partnerships with Chinese entities, especially in AI and quantum computing.  Do not allow the sale of U.S. AI and quantum computing companies to China.  Other areas of concern include viral gain of function research, pharmaceutical know-how, and chip design software.
  • Expand U.S. mining of strategic minerals (currently dominated by China).  This would require reversing restrictive ill-conceived climate change-driven land use decisions in the American West

Bring Economic Pressure to Bear

A number of the following recommendations are drawn from a long and detailed Heritage Foundation report:
  • Use “punitive tariffs to combat unfair trade practices and protect U.S. national security”
    • it seems this is underway by the Trump administration as this is being published
    • this has the added benefit of reducing the funding for China’s military
  • Raise penalties on IP theft
  • Investigate/delist Chinese companies on U.S. stock exchanges if shown to have ties to the CCP or People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
  • Stop enabling China’s green energy dominance - starve the beast
    • return real oil & gas leasing to U.S. federal lands (the Biden administration sells leases but won’t issue drilling permits) [The Trump administration has taken several steps to unlock America’s energy resources, e.g. new oil & gas leases.]
    • reverse lockups of rare earth minerals in U.S. federal lands
  • “[C]ontinuously review the activities of all Chinese mobile app companies and recommend specific apps to be banned on national security grounds.”
  • Promote “Reshoring,” “Nearshoring,” and “Friendshoring”
    • provide tax incentives to get U.S. companies to leave China
  • Tighten export controls on goods and services to malign PRC entities
  • Ban Chinese drones to prevent data capture
  • Continue tightening CFIUS reviews of Chinese direct investment in U.S. national security-related companies
  • Review and restrict national security-related U.S. investments in Chinese entities
  • Reduce data flows to China to thwart China’s Big Data ambitions
  • Build the case for suspending China’s permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status with the U.S. on grounds China violates World Trade Organizations (WTO) provisions by conditioning foreign investments in China on technology transfers
  • Revitalize the Blue Dot Network to compete against China’s Belt & Road Initiative on infrastructure projects
  • Get China out of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication - international payments structure) (despite building an alternative, China “continues to use SWIFT”)
  • “Address Illegal Fishing and Maritime Militia Activities”
  • Stop knowledge transfers
    • between Chinese personnel and U.S. academics, institutions, universities, etc.
    • stop the Thousand Talents program (where U.S. academics get Chinese cash, then share their research with China)
    • limit student visas for Chinese students wishing to study in the U.S. and make national security-related fields off-limits

Impose Sanctions for Human Rights Violations

There is precedent for imposing sanctions on China in human rights matters:
  • Organ Harvesting - The Falun Gong Protection Act (H.R. 1540), which passed the House, was introduced to impose visa- and property-blocking sanctions on foreign persons that have knowingly and directly engaged in or facilitated the involuntary harvesting of organs in China.
  • Forced Labor - The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) generally prohibits the importation of goods produced in Xinjiang province.  The earlier Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 imposed asset blocking and visa revocation on Chinese officials shown to be involved in the torture, arbitrary detention, etc. of the Uyghurs.

But more could be done:
  • Magnitsky Act Enforcement - “The original Magnitsky Act of 2012 was expanded in 2016 into a more general law authorizing the US government to sanction those found to be human rights offenders or those involved in significant corruption, to freeze their assets, and to ban them from entering the US.”   Sanctions have been imposed on Chinese officials for human rights violations in Xinjiang province and Hong Kong. 
    • Religious persecution is ripe for Magnitsky Act sanctions.  The U.S. State Department has listed China as a ‘country of particular concern’ for “having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” 

Exploit Vulnerabilities
  • China remains at least somewhat dependent on foreign soybeans, crude oil imports, and the U.S. dollar. 
  • Another dependency is semiconductor equipment where the U.S. and its partners could tighten export restrictions. 
  • Leadership succession is the Achilles’ Heel of the communist Chinese political system.  Take action to tarnish and discredit likely successors inside China and abroad. 

Work with Allies
  • To document and publicize China’s human rights abuses detailed herein
  • To resist Chinese dominance of the U.N. and other international organizations.  More here
  • To “Expand Economic and Security Cooperation with India” and other regional partners
  • To create a Standing Joint Task Force and otherwise strengthen military cooperation with aligned East Asian countries

Use the Bully Pulpit
The list of legitimate criticisms of CCP transgressions of international norms is long.  The U.S. and its partners should issue condemnations loudly and frequently in sustained messaging campaigns to shape U.S. and world opinion:
In Closing

The Trump administration seems to have embarked on great power competition with China.  All friends of the Chinese people should capitalize on these initiatives to bring about regime change in China and free the people from the yoke of their CCP oppressors.
 
Additional Resources

Commission on the National Defense Strategy - July 2024 Report

Deterring China: Imposing Nonmilitary Costs to Preserve Peace in the Taiwan Strait (Hudson Institute)

‘Win Without Fighting’: The Chinese Communist Party’s Political and Institutional Warfare Against the West (with Policy Recommendations) (Hudson Institute)

The CCP’s 7 Pressure Points and How the US Can Leverage Them: Michael Sobolik (Epoch Times)

Counter the Threat of Communist China (Heritage Foundation)
CECC Chairman Chris Smith -
'The Chinese people deserve better than the CCP'