¶ China
Index Entry
China:
"Of all the complex forces operating, one of the most powerful of all is the fact that China, in order to pull 750 million people together, separated over thousands of years-- nothing would possibly do but to get out of the agricultural economy. That is the essence of what Russia took on with its 25-year plans. Russia had 80 million people die of starvation during the first two five-year plans. How do you hold people together over a long time? The only way you can do it is to exclude subversives. You have to go on the offensive and become a subversive outside: all the rest of the world is your enemy. Russia had only 125 million to do it when she started it; and China had 750 million and she saw that Russia had made a great mistake by pouring its energies into armaments. So China has been very determined not to do that. So they’ve gone in for psychological warfare in the very, very biggest way. The idea is to go out and keep everybody so preoccupied with their own mess as to leave them alone.
“The psycho-guerrilla warfare is fantastic and it takes many, many forms. And all the kids get involved in it because it’s so brilliantly done psychologically that they don’t know what they’re doing.”
¶ Citations
- transcript of RBF tape to Barry Farrel, Tape #1, Side A, p.2; Bear Island, 10 Aug’70
